Like many places this summer, the interior rainforest of BC is way too hot to ride or push bikes up sharp slopes even with the promise of icy creeks and clear rivers in which to cool off. But, a couple of weeks ago, a friend and I climbed through a window of fresh, rainy weather to explore the Valkyr and Monashee ranges on our way across three valleys.
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I love a tour that begins in my front yard. No cars, no hassle, and because I live on the mountain, the first 5 km is all downhill. Of course, at the end of the adventure that last 5 km can be a tough one.
Craig and I met at the trailhead of Slocan Valley Rail Trail which follows the Slocan River for about 50km (You've seen photos of my favorite swimming holes many times before) and, fully loaded for a self-supported adventure in the mountains, set off on a 6-day trip of pedaling, pushing, swimming and fly-fishing. Spotting grizzlies was also a top priority.
Craig is a great guy to cycle with because our rides are never about distances covered but about the experiences and enjoyment within each kilometer. He's super-mellow, a fine camp cook, and knows well where the trout like to spend their days. We enjoy a lot of time off the bikes checking out the forests, the rocks (Craig's a geologist), and the rivers- all part of the scenery through which we like to travel.
Much of our riding took us over remote forest roads where we scarcely encountered another vehicle. We spent time on old rail trails, the longest being the historic Columbia-Western from Grand Forks to Castlegar. This 100+ km section includes some very dramatic trestles high above the Arrow Lakes and several tunnels. The longest of these curves through the mountain for about a kilometer and leaves one riding in cold, eerie darkness for a spell. We rode through the remnants of the Octopus Creek fire from 2021 which burned more than 18,000 hectares of BC forest. It's both a sobering reminder of how tenuous our place in the forest here is, and also how resilient life adapted to this environment can be. Everywhere there was new growth, wildflowers, and even many live, healthy trees standing just meters away from the burnt-out shells of fir and ponderosa pine.
There was, of course, the slog up Canyon Creek road which took us out of the Slocan Valley and into the Columbia River valley. At an average grade of 12% up a track cut for powerline maintenance, this surface was mostly loose, rounded rock the size of bowling balls, baby heads, and baseballs and required great effort not only to keep our bikes upright but also our feet firmly planted on the ground. Even when the slope exceeded 20%, any patch of packed dirt to roll over seemed a respite from the rocks that fought back against our efforts to roll our loaded bikes uphill. Thankfully, the sun stayed hidden behind thick cloud cover and the higher we pushed the more we found ourselves surrounded in cool mist. Cresting the Valkyre after five hours, we were met with an increasingly rideable forest road that shot us down toward the lower Arrow Lakes.
The absolute best thing about biking around the mountains of BC is that cool, fresh water is never far away with snow still melting off the peaks in mid-July. And so even when the clouds abated revealing a fierce sun, a refreshing dip in a creek, river or lake was often just around the next bend or at the bottom of the next hill. When we rode over the Monashees and into the Granby River Valley, we followed Burrell Creek until it joined the Granby, ever vigilant for swimming holes and eddies of trout.
This ride is about a 350km circuit and 6 days was a very comfortable pace in which to complete it. The big push over Canyon Creek ups the challenge level, but mostly it was super pleasant riding- climbing and descending at comfortable grades. We spent a lot of time in or near the various creeks and rivers along which we traveled. It was, in fact, probably as much a swimming tour as it was a bikepacking tour. Had we hit every swimming hole or fished every riffle we spied along the way, we could easily have turned this into a longer, lazier ride through the beautiful Selkirk mountains.
