Riding Fool Hostel

The Riding Fool occupies the old Tarbells building at 2705 Dunsmuir Avenue, a heritage pile from the late 1800s polished into a 30 bed hostel with dorms and private rooms upstairs. Coal barons once ran this town; the ruling class now wears padded shorts. The building has adapted to the change with remarkable grace, and frankly better manners.

Inside you get a kitchen so thoroughly equipped that guests review it the way other people review restaurants, a common room with a wood stove and a pool table, and a sun deck for post ride gloating. Booking.com guests score the cleanliness 9.1 out of 10, which for a mountain bike hostel is somewhere between impressive and suspicious.

Downstairs sits Dodge City Cycles, so you can stumble out of bed and into a bike rental without crossing a street, plus Tarbells cafe for the coffee portion of the ritual. Cumberland's pubs and restaurants are steps away, and the trail network begins roughly where the sidewalk loses interest.