The Dirt Chix have grown from just four friends on the trail to well over a hundred as more women get on mountain bikes in Kamloops.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Dirt Chix Kamloops

Take a ride on Kamloops mountain bike trails and you'll see all different age groups and men and women alike. The city has been a mountain biking hub for years, producing pro riders and hundreds of amateurs, but the sport is generally a male-dominated activity.

While that's generally true for BC, it's not so in Kamloops. 

"I'd say in Kamloops it's almost a female-dominated sport. I see more women than men now," Cheryl Beattie, who organizes the local ride group Dirt Chix.

The Dirt Chix started with just four friends and some jerseys nearly 20 years ago. It's changed drastically in that time and there would likely be far fewer women on local trails without it.

Beattie took over the group this year, but it started with founder Dana Heynan and three other friends simply looking to hold each other accountable to get out and pedal.

"It wasn't 'a thing' per se, it was just four of us ladies that wanted to ride together. So we decided we'd commit to Thursday nights," she said. "Pretty soon the family all bought in and Thursday was mom's ride night."

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It wasn't long before others on the trail asked them about the jerseys and women wanted to join their group. Heynan also owned a bike shop and when women bought a bike, they'd be looking for someone to ride with. Steadily, the Dirt Chix grew to the organized group it is today.

"During that time it was just natural to grow," Heynan said.

Kamloops is often dubbed the "Mecca of Mountain Biking," rooted in the beginnings of freeride back in the late 90s and early 2000s. There are trails more than 20 years old still used regularly today and newly built trails each year.

Riders travel from across the country and even internationally in search of its famous trails and networks, some of which have been featured in iconic mountain bike films, starting in 1998 with "Kranked."

The city even boasts the Kamloops Bike Ranch, a 26-hectare park between Valleyview and Juniper Ridge, which the City of Kamloops says is the largest municipal mountain bike park in the country.

The sport, however, has been historically male-dominated.

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BC marketing surveys show more than half of mountain bike riders tend to be men, sometimes up to 75 per cent.

Beattie suggested there are just as many women on the trail as men if not more in Kamloops, attributing it to the influence of the Dirt Chix.

She took over the organization as Heynan stepped back from running the group after nearly 20 years. It's grown to hundreds of riders, with an equally long list of people on the waitlist. It's a far cry from its beginnings as just a small group of friends.

Demand for mountain bikes blew up during the COVID-19 pandemic, but people weren't allowed to gather in large groups during the height of the pandemic. Once those restrictions began to wane in 2021, Heynan said demand for group rides and for the Dirt Chix also blew up.

"Once that happened, there was super high demand for the Dirt Chix. We had to cap it and put people on a waitlist, which had never happened before," she said. "We had just as many members during COVID, but it's been the years after we've really noticed it."

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Cheryl Beattie (left) took over the Dirt Chix from Dana Heynan (right) earlier this year.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Dirt Chix Kamloops

The Dirt Chix hosts rides for beginners up to experts with experienced group members leading as coaches. They'll rotate among several riding areas around Kamloops, including Pineview, Harper Mountain and Kenna Cartwright Park, giving options for riders of different abilities.

Although they charge membership fees, Heynan said the hope is that women eventually move on from the group and form their own riding crew, making way for the next woman on the list.

Membership fees go back to the trails, Beattie said. With 930 sanctioned mountain bike trails in the region, that helps the organizations that maintain the 1,605 kilometres of rideable terrain.

Beattie, who owns the Bicycle Cafe and serves as a director for the Kamloops Performance Cycling Centre, hopes to keep the Dirt Chix running for as long as she can. It's a program she believes keeps women feeling welcome in the sport, whether they're new to the trails or simply new to Kamloops.

"I think programs like the Dirt Chix have really given women a good foothold in biking," Beattie said. "When you were looking at it years ago, when there wasn't any kind of clubs, it was so male-dominated because there was such an aggressive barrier to entry... It makes people feel like they can try and fail. It gives a sense of community to these women."

For more information on the Dirt Chix, go to the Facebook page here.

Check out the 2019 documentary on the Dirt Chix here.

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