Wed/Thur 9/22-23: Castlegar to Gray Creek

July 08, 2025

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, and about halfway there, I would go back to the trail whose route was well-defined the rest of the way. That turned out to be a good decision as the highway had a nice paved shoulder. At the point when I returned to the trail, I started a long climb, and the rest of the way, the trail was elevated, providing nice views of the area. Finally, the last couple miles were a headrush, as it was fast downhill to the city limits.

Nelson, is tourist oriented; the movie "Roxanne" starring Steve Martin and Daryl Hannah (a modern retelling of the story of Cyrano de Bergerac) was filmed mostly on location in Nelson. The movie put the town of Nelson on the map, and they've taken advantage to develop a strong tourism industry.

Nelson is a rough city to live in for a bicyclist! Very steep hills, as it is situated on the side of one of the Selkirks, and along the shore of Lake Kootenay. Lake Kootenay is one of BC's largest lakes: it is a true lake, and not a reservoir formed by a dam. The photo above, of the sailboat on the lake is one of my favorites taken over the years along the TCT, and I use it as a background for my phone. We parked the RV here at the local golf course, for a couple nights. It was common to see golf courses combined with RV campgrounds, probably because the golf and camping seasons combine well.

One interesting feature of the TransCanada Trail is that it is not only a hiking/biking trail across the country, but in places where lakes reside, the trail becomes a canoe or kayaking trail. Usually in places where there is no existing path, or the only land route is a major highway, the TCT will utilize a water route to connect between land route segments. So in my multi-year travels, this is the first place where the TCT takes the water route, in this case along Lake Kootenay. I can't tell for sure, buy I speculate that the great majority of cross country TCT users will resort to the highway, and so I took Highway 3A to travel to Balfour, and then the free (!) ferry across Lake Kootenay to Kootenay Bay and Gray Creek.

At Gray Creek, TCT travelers have a big decision to make: Take a very rough and very steep 4 wheel drive backroad up to the top of Gray Creek Pass, 4500 feet above, followed by another steep backroad to get to Kimberley, 50 miles later, OR take a detour on highways (all busy routes) that also gets to Kimberly but is 120 kilometers further. Taking the rental RV up to the pass on the backroad was out of the question. Most years, it seems there is a definite happenstance which seems to be a strategic place to stop for this year. Last time it was seeing the bear at Naramata, this year Gray Creek was a natural place to stop for 2022. Audrey took a picture of me at Oliver Rd. This is where I must return!