My Trans Canada Bike Journey

  Kootenay Lake June 27:  Boswell to Sirdar In my travels today,  Rhapsody in Blue were my thoughts as I took more photos of Lake Kootenay.  Blue were the skies, blue was the lake water, mountains in the distance were  a darker shade of blue.  Sorry my photos don't capture the beauty of the scenery today.   Parking my car  at Boswell, todays travel was 22 miles to Sirdar, and of course 22 miles back to Boswell.  I noticed the hills were longer today, compared to yesterday.  When cycling along a long lake, one hopes for flat and level riding.  But with Lake Kootenay hemmed in by both  the Purcells (easterly) and the Selkirks (westerly), the Kootenay valley is narrow.  Whenever Highway 3A strayed away from the lakeshore a bit, you could bet there was going to be an uphill involved.  There were hills along yesterday's ride too, but today the hills were longer and steeper.  But I was feeling strong after a succe...

  Awesome Lake Kootenay Oliver Rd - ending point 3 years ago Thursday:  June 26, 2025 - Gray Creek, BC Three years ago Audrey and I finished our travel for 2022 on the TransCanada Trail at Gray Creek, BC. For the past couple years, it just wasn't in the cards for me to get back to my trek through beautiful British Columbia.  We stopped in Gray Creek on the shore of Kootenay Lake faced with an important decision.  At Gray Creek, the TCT continues by climbing the very steep backroad up to Gray Creek Pass.  The road is a wash-boarded  4 by 4 road which climbs 4500 feet in 10 miles.   Then  the road descends steeply and arrives at Kimberley, BC 40 miles further.  Since this is a very difficult section of the TCT, there is a detour route using regular BC highways to also arrive at Kimberley, but the detour is 120 miles longer. I took my F150 out to the back road, to check how steep and rough the road was.  Would it be possible for me to ...

  Kootenay Lake 9/22   The Castlegar area posed a quandary.  How do we go to get to Nelson?  Audrey had spent some time looking at our maps of the area, and was concerned because the route adopted by the trail, did not seem to go through but just ended in a dead end.  At the same time I took a bike ride, just to try to find the  Trail.  I found a trail, and followed it for quite awhile.  But it was very rough and I found myself walking the bike much of the way.  I continued, expecting that eventually I would get to a well-defined path, with a good surface.  When the trail deteriorated to not even being a good hiking trail, I knew I had to turn back.   Our guidebook was not helpful, as the original trail in this area went to the south,  but according to the website, there was a connection to Nelson which lies to the northeast. Finally the decision was made that I would travel along the main  highway toward Nelson,...

  Lake Christina Area Lake Christina Tuesday, 9/20: Today we finished the rest of the ride from the Paulson Bridge to Castlegar.  While I continued on the  Columbia & Western  rail trail, Audrey traveled along  Highway 3, and we had to hope that both of us would safely arrive in Castlegar.  The first part of the day was a climb for me, until I got to Fife, which was nothing more than  a place on the trail.  I continued through the Bulldog Tunnel, and shortly after that I came upon a sight I had been anticipating - the Columbia River.  Beautifully blue, and at first quite a distance away, I was able to see the river from quite a great elevation.  The rest of the ride today was downhill all the way to Castlegar, which is the location of a dam on the Columbia, which creates the Arrow Lakes Reservoir. Today illustrates one of the differences between the TransCanada Trail and a highway, like the TransCanada 1.  The TransCanada 1 is g...

  Early Fall Color near Christina Lake Monday:  Sept. 19 Today we leave the Kettle River area, and turn northward on the Columbia & Western Rail Trail.  Dominating the scenery today is Lake Christina.  This is a lake I knew nothing about, and it was another scenic highlight.  After my ride today, I followed my tradition of a lake swim.  Very late in the Canadian swimming season, but fortunately the lake had a shallow beach area, and was warmer than I expected.  Our guidebook cautions cyclists that this section of trail is 87 kilometers with no amenities.  Normally that would be an issue, since it meant that Audrey and I might not  be able to connect today.  At the end of 87 kilometers was the city of Castlegar.  However we were  saved by the Paulson Bridge.  This is a relatively new bridge on Highway 3, which Audrey would be traveling upon.  At the bridge Highway 3 crossed the old railroad route. It was our hope, ...

  TCT along a tractor path in farmer's field Saturday, 9/17/2022 We were greeted with more nice weather today.  Sunny and fair, autumn-like temps.  Today we traveled from Grand Forks to the Christina Lake area.  The nature of the trail changes as we migrate away from the rail trail for awhile today.  The TCT travels through farming fields;  I always enjoy areas where the trail becomes just a dirt path, reflecting that what looks like an innocuous tractor path actually is part of a network which becomes the longest trail in the world.  It is impressive to think about the undertaking that the TCT is.  It is a combination of rail trails, other trails, backroads, and in some areas, major highways, that span the nation. In this area it is just a path through various farms along BC Highway 3. Sometimes, possibly to mark off the end of one farm from the next one, there are gates which need to be negotiated.  They are locked, but able to be opened, b...

  Provincial Park with forest fire damage Friday, Sep. 16 Leaving Beaverdell behind, we continue on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail.  We now enter an area called Boundary Country.  Parts of the TCT get very close to the USA border here.  We stopped at the park area shown in the above photo.  It was sad to see all the blackened acres from recent forest fires.  Fortunately, some of the campground area escaped the fire so there were still some nice camping spots.  We were in the area at the very end of the camping season, and I believe the campground was scheduled to close for the winter at the end of the weekend.  The next place we visited was Midway.  Midway is the zero point of the KVR;  we have been on or near the KVR trail for over 450 kilometers, since we left Hope back in 2018.  But not to worry, because this is also the zero point of another rail trail, The Columbia & Western Rail Trail, which continues east from here.  W...

 McCulloch Lake Sep. 13/14 After leaving the Myra Canyon, I found the trail to going through deeply forested area.  In most places the trail is in very good condition, although in some cases there would be rocks or water puddles.   Nothing stood out to me in this area;  the trail here could be going through the Chequamegon Forest in Wisconsin.  Views of the mountains were more distant in this area.   Eventually, the trail emerged from the wilderness, and joined Highway BC 33 as it headed southerly.  In the Arlington Lakes area, we also joined the western branch of the Kettle River, finally getting to the namesake stream that the Railroad was named after. We camped at Zach's Campground in Beaverdell and got food and supplies at the General Store, and relaxed for the rest of the evening in the quiet little hamlet of Beaverdell. TCT Trail TCT Trail

A trestle at Myra Canyon Tuesday,  9/13/22 Today we traveled through one of the highlight areas for the entire TCT across Canada:  the Myra Canyon.  The canyon is steep sided, and was a tough challenge for the railroad.  To navigate the canyon the KVR built 18 trestles, in a span of 11 kilometers of track.  Of varying sizes, the photos capture some of the larger trestles.  50,000 cyclists would travel from around the world each year to make this bike ride.  In 2003, a wildfire threatened the Kelowna area, and while it spared the residents of the city it ravaged  Myra Canyon, damaging or destroying 14 of the 18 trestles.  Residents in the area had restored all of the original trestles during the 1990's, and now they faced a full new restoration.  The federal and provincial governments provided $17 million in aid.  The rest of the money was raised by lotteries, raffles, telethons , and other fund raisers.  All of the damaged tres...

  Kelowna Area Monday,  9/12 In this area, the TCT continues to follow the KVR  (Kettle Valley Railroad) rail trail, a very popular Canadian bicycle trail, from before the TCT was planned.  The trail is situated high above the Kelowna city limits, affording nice views when the scenery opened up.  But wile I was riding on the trail up high, every evening we had to descend by backroads down to Kelowna to find campgrounds.  We had some crazy experiences driving the RV up and own these steep roads.  I'm sure CruiseAmerica would not have condoned travel on these roads, but of course one does not know the condition of a road before  he travels it for the first time.   We were navigating using a map which showed the backroads, but the roads themselves were not always identified by signs.  I recall taking a road that appeared to be one on the map, but we were mistaken as it became apparent we were on a one-way logging road that was not going any...