Biking in a kilt? It must be the Maritimes

OK, I’ll admit it: off-road biking has always scared me a little. A few too many falls as a kid, combined with my natural clumsiness, made it seem like a sport I’d be tempting the fates to tackle.

But then I heard about Off Kilter Bike in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, New Brunswick. Riders wear short kilts as they tackle roads and trails around the picture-perfect Maritime village. Kilts! How arduous could it be?

Don’t let the tartan gimmick fool you. Remember Mel Gibson in Braveheart? Kilts aren’t for sissies, and neither are these rides. Off Kilter Bike owner Kurt Gumushel is a personal trainer and a biking nut, and he can make the route as challenging as you dare. Fortunately, I was part of a group of mainly city slickers, so he went easy on us during the two-hour ride.

The first part of the ride was easy. Photo by Laura Byrne Paquet.

We started off with a gentle pedal through St. Andrews and on a quiet road along Passamaquoddy Bay.

Then Gumushel asked us if we were ready to try something a bit more exciting, and when we agreed, he veered off onto a jolting trail through a pine and birch forest. While it was probably pretty tame for any off-road rider worth her salt, I was gripping the handlebars like a five-year-old on her first roller coaster. I quickly learned the number-one rule of off-road biking: stay off the seat if you don’t want to be walking like a bow-legged John Wayne for the next week.

Honestly, though, I quickly got the hang of it and began regretting I’d been avoiding it all these years. Not only do you get to see wilder places than you can from the road, but you get a good workout, too.

A relatively smooth section of the forest trail. Photo by Laura Byrne Paquet.

Gumushel is a genial host who loves to talk about the Bay of Fundy area. At low tide, when the shallow channel between the mainland and Ministers Island become a gravelly path, he often takes riders out to the island to see the former grand summer home of the first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Movers and shakers have long come to this region to cool off: not far from St. Andrews as the crow flies—but 90 minutes by car—is Campobello Island, where FDR liked to get away from the pressures of being POTUS.

Kurt Gumushel in his company’s trademark kilt. Photo by Laura Byrne Paquet.

The kilts are custom-made for Off Kilter by Gumushel’s dad, a master tailor. They’re fun but they don’t provide a lot of, um, privacy. Or warmth. We biked on a crisp spring day, when leggings came in awfully handy. In summer, you’ll probably want to wear cycling shorts. And unless you bribe your fellow riders to put away their cameras, you’ll probably end up with a fetching portrait of yourself looking like this. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Glamorous, no?

I travelled as a guest of Off Kilter Bike and Tourism New Brunswick, which neither reviewed nor approved this article.

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If you go

Distance from Ottawa to St. Andrews by-the-Sea: 865km

Rates: From $60 for two hours; six-hour and overnight trips also available

More information: Off Kilter Bike