You don’t have to travel halfway around the world and spend thousands of dollars in order to have a good time. You can be a local tourist in your own city, especially if you’re willing to venture an hour or two outside of town. Here in Vancouver, you can visit the zoo or go horseback riding in Squamish. Or, if you’re interested in a little more adventure, you might go on an ATV tour with the fine folks at X-Motor Rentals.
A few weekends ago, we were out celebrating the final days of my friend’s bachelorhood and part of this send-off included riding some quads along back trails and through the mud. While the X-Motor Rentals office is located in Langley, our actual ATV tour took place by Stave Lake in Mission, just a little over an hour’s drive outside of Vancouver.
We opted for the Backcountry Adventure Advanced Tour. It was listed as three hours of riding time, but we ended up staying out there for closer to four hours. The X-Motor Rentals website describes the “advanced” tour thusly:
“Challenge yourself by riding over obstacles, through tight pathways, and across shallow rivers. Exploit your skills by conquering advanced trails on a variety of terrain, while enjoying the spectacular panoramic sceneries.”
I will say that this ATV tour was decidedly more “advanced” than the ATV tours I enjoyed in Mexico and in the Caribbean. To be fair, both of those were booked through very tourist-oriented cruise ship companies, while X-Motor can accommodate guys who want to have a little more fun.
And more fun we certainly did have. We rode through a very rocky beach with stones the size of basketballs, for example, splashing our way through shallow rivers and muddy shores. The trails offered a variety of terrain, including several hilly portions with tighter passages.
The ATVs themselves had plenty of power–I topped out at over 70 km/h at one point–and our guide was professional and friendly. It was more like hanging out with a buddy, especially when we stopped to enjoy some incredible vistas.
Click on the images to see their respective larger versions.
Being able to test our (novice) skills against more challenging terrain was a lot of fun. The ATV tour from X-Motor Rentals comes highly recommended. Total cost was just over $160 per person, including tax.
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