2025: Return to the TransCanada Trail

 

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 try the official route?  There was another factor in play.  Through lack of  planning, I was on my own this year.  Nobody to accompany me and move the truck.  So how should I proceed?  I could just ride the bike, hoping to find motels each day, and then at the end of the vacation, find some way to travel back to the starting point to retrieve the truck. Or I could ride the bike a certain designated distance, then turn around and go back to get the truck.  Since I was on my own, this latter option seemed to be the safest way to proceed, and that was my choice.  However, 15 miles of progress on the trail required 30 miles on the bike, for example.  Every hill that I had to climb, now I had to climb it twice.  Once on the way out, and then again on the way back.  This final factor made the decision for me.  No way was I ready to climb 4500 feet twice.  Also I wasn't excited about taking my truck up that backroad. 

So, the detour route continues south on BC 3A, following the east shoreline of Lake Kootenay for 50 miles to arrive at Creston. Awesome scenery along the lake with the Selkirks (mountains) on the western shore and the Purcells on the eastern shore. While the scenery was first class, route 3A was not a great road for cycling.  Pavement was fine, but no shoulder at all for bicycles. In addition it was curvy and narrow.  So every car that would overtake me would have to move over to pass.  This is not what a cyclist is looking for!  I would find that Yellow No Passing zones are merely a suggestion for many Canadian drivers

This first day on the bike was a break-in  day for my legs, so I chose to travel 15 miles along 3A from Gray Creek, and then returned.  Lake Kootenay dominated the views all day.  I did stop at a road side information sign which told the story of Burden's Cut.  This was a stretch of the road that was cut through the solid rock, and was the last link to completion of route 3/3A, across the province.  I believe in the 1920's.  It was an important geographic link to  connect Vancouver and the coastal areas to the rest of Canada.  

30 miles today.

Burden's Cut

This cliff was the final link to complete Highway 3A



Kootenay Lake

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