Author: Jason F

As the fella behind Bike Portage Club and the organizer of Burnabop XL Day, I’ve been wanting to do a Port Moody version for a few years now. I’ve done a few rides in the Bert Flinn trail network as well as the assortment of neighbourhood trails nearby – but there were trails around Buntzen Lake which I have not personally tried. There was also a route over Sugar Mountain that connected nicely with the Buntzen loop. Today I explored a portion of these.

Riding from my place in East Van and knowing I had a lot of hard miles ahead of me, I took the path of least resistance on the way to Port Moody via Barnet Highway. This took me right past the recently re-opened and massively upgraded Barnet Skills Park, so I stopped by to check it out. It was absolutely packed, unsurprisingly.

Once in Port Moody proper, I decided to get a driveside photo of the Rambler out of the way when I saw a good backdrop. I feel like I’ve finally built the appropriate bike for my preferred rides, though I’ve happily ridden these routes on the “wrong” bike until now.

I rode past Rocky Point park on the way out to the trails at low tide, but returned at high tide. Goes to show how long I spent in the woods, I guess! This spot is about 18km from my place too, so a fair bit of riding either side of this spot.

The next hour was spent doing some trial-and-error climbing from sea level up into the Heritage Mountain community in Port Moody. I haven’t quite figured out how to best connect things, but there’s a lot of fun cheeky paths and trails to get up the hill. Only one deep ravine has no currently passable route and does require a short road detour around.

I got into the Bert Flinn trail network, which is made up of green and blue MTB trails that can largely be ridden on a gravel bike (with some MTB skills). I was having so much fun that I forgot I was not supposed to descend nearly as far as I did, and I had to backtrack back up…

But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the trail I took back up the hill turned out to be one of my favourites of the day. Here are two photos showcasing its beauty:

Getting to Buntzen / Sugar Mountain required a bit of a traverse with some rolling hills; I was very pleased to find that the dotted line with little heatmap activity was in fact, an awesome cut-through (below, right). Some sections of trail were nearly overgrown but no bushwhacking was required for the day.

The ascent of Sugar Mountain was going to be tough, I knew this already from a friend Nathan. It reminded me a lot of the Brother Creek “FSR” on Cypress, basically hiking up a steep riverbed in terms of rock size. It would be dangerous to impossible to ride down this on anything short of an enduro bike, so I’m convinced this needs to be a climb for the route.

For quite a while, the climb looked like below. Expectedly, I did not see another human the whole time. Very few people go up this way as far as I know!

I had accepted my fate that I’d be hiking my bike all the way to the descent, but I was overjoyed when the trail surface changed suddenly to smooth dirt. At this point I was nearing the north end of the route and the descent was not far off.

One final push and I was on the Buntzen side of the hill, where a rather steep and loose set of switchbacks dumped elevation quickly.

My plan was to save the loop around the lake for next time (with a friend or two, since it’s quite remote) but I did ride the first stretch of Lakeview trail to get a feel for it. I was pleasantly surprised by its condition – rooty enough that it was partly hike-a-bike, but also a fair bit of it’s rideable as well.

I turned around shortly after passing a hiker (the only person I had seen in the past two hours) who warned me that the next section was “bear central”. I figure that was as good a sign as any that I’d explored far enough for today. I headed back and stopped at the lake:

As I started heading back south, I noticed the distance to elevation ratio was over 200m per 10 km, which is what I would define as “pretty damn hilly”.

The earlier sunsets are evident these days, but at least this was a good one.

In the end, it was about 73km with over 1300m elevation, and much of the elevation was concentrated in a tough few kilometres. It was a very successful outing and I’m certainly planning to include a fair bit of this in the final route – it’s going to be a real doozy, though!

Photos in this post are across three rides – the first was a fairly short outing on the newest bike, my Beachcomber, up to a viewpoint for an after-work beer. Then, it was Parkbagging, also on the Beachcomber, and finally, today’s short ride to watch the Trout Lake cyclocross races. Oh, that too was on the Beachcomber – the bike has a grand total of 95km on it now, and most of that was from these three rides!

I’m very happy with the bike – I should have the custom frame bag in about two weeks which will finish off the build and make it a lot more usable. I refer to it as my play bike, but it’s more than just for wheelies – it will be my go-to for mixed terrain rides that include some technical stuff and / or hike-a-bike, which is a lot of my favourite rides.

While Parkbagging has now technically concluded in terms of its original mission, a regular has created the ‘Parkbagging reloaded’ IG handle as well as website, which will keep the essence alive for the foreseeable future. We met up at one of the small park sites in Kitsilano before riding back east to Habitat Island for a pretty epic sunset. It was also nice to see Erik (truemarmalade) for the first time since his return to Vancouver for a bit,

And today was Trout Cross, a new location for the local cyclocross race circuit that happens to be a 10 minute ride from home for me. The event was a great success, racers enjoyed the course and I enjoyed watching them!

Last year, a friend group of mine all went camping at Shingle Bay on Pender Island together, taking over the bulk of the small and bare bones campground, on the weekend of their Fall Fair. We had a great time and the fair itself, while quaint by city standards, was a wholesome experience seeing everyone from all over the island and neighbouring islands there to celebrate. We did the same trip again this year, and hopefully we’ll do it again next year too.

All photos will be from my Lumix ZS300 in this post. I took a total of 223 photos, but many had soft focus – something I need to sort out with my settings, I guess.

I rode to the ferry, a 51km route I’ve done a bunch of times now. Not very exciting, no photos from that. Once aboard the ferry, before it left dock I saw some surf scoters – a bird I was familiar with but hadn’t seen before.

The southern gulf islands often require a multi-stop ferry ride; in this case it was a stop at Saltspring Island before continuing on to Pender. I was on the Salish Raven, which looked just like the boat ahead of us here (Salish Eagle).

Below is an example of one of the soft-focus photos, but it demonstrates the setup for this trip: my new Stooge Rambler (just over 300km on it at the start of the trip, almost 500km by the end) set up with the same part of Fab’s Chests I’ve used for a few years now on the Bombadil but with the added capacity of the Randi Jo Big MUT’s on the fork. This is just the right volume for my current kit for a two-night trip. I had installed fenders immediately before this trip based on the forecast, but we only received light sprinkles while I was in my tent – optimal!

Shingle Bay is a small orchard, and in late August you can count on deer visiting every evening for the day’s fallen apples.

I arrived to camp along with Charmaine and Trevor, and Stephanie and her two kids were there upon our arrival. The rest of the group arriving by bike were on later ferries, but even I only got an about an hour before the sun started to set, thankfully providing a good sky in the process:

The posts sticking out of the water in the second image above are relics from a fish processing setup that once existed here; now there are bird boxes mounted to these posts that support a rebounding purple martin population. We enjoyed watching them (and their phaser-like calls) at various points on the weekend. Below, Charmaine and Stephanie hang out on the concrete portion of the old fishery:

The next morning I was out of the tent by 7am, enjoying a slow coffee and breakfast and some time around camp before we headed out to the Fall Fair. When I arrived, around 10:45, there was a speech by the minister of agriculture in progress about women in agriculture; the theme of this year’s event:

There. were performances by a few local groups, including this talented bunch of young violinists:

There was also a little petting zoo area with sheep and horses both big and small. Last year there were chicks you could cuddle, but I didn’t see any this year.

Inside the hall there was a variety of flowers and veggies that were entered into the annual competition, as well as baked goods. By this time, the judging was complete and we could survey the winners.

Once I had felt like I’d seen everything, and had a burger which supported the event, I headed off to explore – going to a part of the island I hadn’t biked before. I took no photos along the way because I was too busy struggling up intense climbs, but once in the forest on a somewhat rideable hiking trail I snapped the image below:

I followed this trail for about a kilometre before it plopped me out near Magic Lake, which I then visited from all possible angles. I made my way from there to Twin Island cidery to connect with the rest of the group, eventually working our way back to camp. Hours later and lots of fun time, I snapped this photo of the day’s setting sun over the bay:

Using only the photos from my dedicated camera means some lapses in photographic evidence that could be filled in with my phone photos, but I’m trying to be intentional about this. Saturday evening was top notch socializing on the beach until the sun had well set; many laughs and bonding time.

We were all catching the same ferry on Sunday at 3:05pm, but I was packed up before 10am just because I like to get it over with. Note the quantity of apples on the tree by my tent pad!

I snuck off to get some peace and quiet (loved spending time with three kids, but it’s also pretty tiring) and observed this red-breasted nuthatch for a bit. They are constantly flitting about, making getting a photo quite difficult.

Speaking of birds, the belted Kingfisher is one of my favourites and a bird that commonly cruised the shoreline by camp. I was able to get a decent photo as well:

I could go through the trouble of cropping and editing these photos to be sharper and more vibrant, but I haven’t – these are all straight out of the camera. It’s a future goal, perhaps, to go through that trouble.

We did, however, go through the trouble of collecting everyone up for a group photo at this concrete block, same as last year:

We had a couple hours to burn before it was time to be at the ferry terminal, so we rode over to Hope Bay where there was a literal cheesecake fridge, as well as a couple shops and a pier to wander:

Back to birds for a moment, I saw short-billed gulls on the pier as we left Pender – new one for me, though gulls are not very exciting.

Back on the mainland, everyone else in the group either had their car parked in Tsawwassen or were transiting towards home. Me, the stubborn fella I am, rode the whole way. I rode across town to Boundary Bay, where the tide was in – something I don’t think I’ve seen before. Usually it’s just mud as far as the eye can see.

The barn swallows were super active the whole way along, regularly playing chicken with me or darting right in front of my wheel.

The stretch of gravel dyke was lovely, but it was dimishing returns after that: a northbound stretch of farmland, then a river-side industrial section, then a huge bridge (the Alex Fraser), and as it got dark I reached New Westminster, where 15 km of parkway under the skytrain brought me the rest of the way home. With the various stops it took me 3h40m.

Back in January I purchased a titanium Beachcomber frame kit on pre-order from my friend Matias after about six months of humming and hawing. So this bike was a fairly long time coming, not unlike the Rambler I just built up – but the timing just happened to nearly overlap and both were built up this month.

I finished running cables on my lunch break this day and got out for its first ride after work. I met up with Mara who brought her titanium Beachcomber as well, and fittingly we met at the skate bowl.

Why so many new bikes when I already have such nice bikes, you may ask. Rest assured I ask myself this question repeatedly, but I believe the logic is sound: The recently built Stooge Rambler is my all-surface adventure bike, built for long rides with a bit of everything as well as camping. This Beachcomber is now my play bike and ATB, built for my Bike Portage Club type rides where there’s everything from road to technical trail, along with hike-a-bike: hence going titanium to minimize weight to carry.

Where do I fit all these bikes, you ask? Rest assured that I’m on a ‘one in, one out’ basis as I’ve long since maxed out my storage capacity, and the Crust Evasion has already moved out to make room for one of these two new bikes. The other one to go, that’s still being debated. I’ll be storing one bike disassembled in the meantime. It’s worth noting that I haven’t ridden the Stooge Scrambler in over nine months now; I just don’t get out to MTB very often anymore.

This was a 27km ride in the end, not too ambitious, but it had a bit of all the things this bike was intended for, including hike-a-bike:

We had come down a steep slope only to hike up the opposing one, but the pay-off was this lovely trail with some pretty impressive hemlocks.

We finished the ride where we started, with a few more loops of the bowl. Here are the two bikes together where the similarities and differences can be seen.

This day I was riding up to Capilano park to meet up with Roberta from the Rivendell google group, afterwards continuing up to the dam. After this I just planned to work my way down the hill without a route in mind, and stumbled upon a bit of a trail along upper McKay creek. It kept going so I kept following it – and was surprised (and happy) to find I could follow it a considerable distance down to the section I was familiar with.

Since I was meeting a Riv-lister, I obviously had to ride the Bombadil:

I brought my Lumix for general photo-taking purposes, but when I heard the familiar and unmistakeable sound of a kingfisher, I had to watch for a bit – it dove several times, catching fish every time I believe. They are one of my favourite birds.

The usual path is obvious below, but to the left is a much more compelling option – and while it was a little bit hike-a-bike, it was really fun.

Coming back over to the Vancouver side, rain was forecasted for the afternoon but never arrived. However, later in the evening some severe thunderstorms rolled in and we got plenty of rain alongside.

I’ve had this Stooge Rambler built up for just about two weeks now, and this ride put me over 300km on it so far – which is to say, it’s almost all I’ve ridden since building. I’m extremely happy with it, meeting my high expectations which have built up for nearly two years now. One of the primary purposes I had in mind for it is bikepacking, which I haven’t done yet (but will in a week!), but I’m fully confident I’ll be very pleased there too.

It started out 26+, but that only lasted a week, not because it was bad but because those rims and tires are earmarked for the Stridsland Beachcomber which arrives next week. It was supremely capable in 26+ mode, but 27.5 x 2.2 has demonstrated how sporty the bike can feel while still capable of sorting out a blue MTB trail.

This Friday evening I wanted to ride a favourite evening loop of mine – out to Dageraad Brewing, 16 km from home, for a beer and burger then over to Burnaby Lake nearby to do some birding at dusk. Specifically I went hoping to see Common Nighthawks, which I did not, but it is always nice to spend time observing nature anyway.

Being Friday evening, the brewery was quite packed. As you can see, the bike rack was rather full too – which is nice to see. After some food and drink I rolled over to the east end of Burnaby Lake, only about 1km away.

I walked about for an hour or so, camera at the ready. I didn’t capture anything particularly notable, though it was a beautiful evening. By the time I left the lake it was dark. It was a 15km or so ride home from here, putting me at around 40 km for the day.

Each summer, Matias of Stridsland bikes and his family return to BC from Denmark to visit with his parents and other family, and it’s become tradition that a big group ride or two is organized during this time. Through mutual friends I’ve become friends with Matias the past couple years, and thus I’ve been able to get out for some smaller group rides with Matias and the crew as well.

When I got the text about going for one last ride before they head back home the next day, I was enthusiastically in, especially because I was afforded the opportunity to incorporate some of the west van route I’d developed for Bike Portage Club. Mara, a decorated route-master herself, wanted to do Millstream trail and perhaps more from her Cookie route. We ended up combining the two, linked together by a short stretch of light trespassing required to get from one to the other.

There were five of us going on the ride, three of whom would be on Beachcombers. I may not (yet) have my own Beachcomber, but I was at least representing 26+: eight of the ten tires on this ride were WTB Ranger 26×2.8’s.

We collected at Matias’ folk’s place and headed off from there. The two non-26+ tires were a pair of Rene Herse knobbies on a custom WZRD single speed, below left. A righteous bike as well!

The first bit of the ride was a challenging road climb to get to the top of the British Properties, where Millstream trail begins. Millstream is one of Mara and I’s favourite local trails – it starts out as a wide and relatively smooth dog-walker type path, gradually becoming more narrow and rough until you’re on pretty technical singletrack punctuated with wash-outs, before culminating in two deep ravine crossings.

But immediately after the second rather brutal ravine crossing, you pop out at the Cypress lookout – going from scrambling in the woods to being surrounded by tourists within minutes. The lookout gives credit to all that climbing done over the past hour:

There is a little-known trail directly below this lookout that we took next, bringing us to lower elevation and connecting to the Caulfield loop’s western section; namely the lookout the route is built around. The sun was low in the sky at this point and the wildfire smoke to the north and west brought a copper hue to the air. Thankfully the air quality where we were wasn’t too bad.

The route has a series of trails that connect really nice, but the trails themselves are often quite challenging or not rideable at all. Some would find this frustrating while others find it joyous; thankfully this group is unanimously in the latter camp. The route seamlessly takes us to a few old growth firs found in the middle of west van, below left. After this, we were back on ‘normal’ roads and headed home.

It’s hard to believe that there’s not a lot more summer left, although with the recent wildfire smoke, I’m quite eager for autumn to arrive. This post summarizes a few outings that didn’t really warrant a standalone post. Mostly bikes, but not always bikes.

The first image, below left, was actually July 31st – a ride with Matias Stridsland and Simon. I took them to this, one of my favourite local spots, which connects (somewhat awkwardly) down to an unmapped trail. Below right was taken August 1st on my way to the grocery store. This good boi has a genetic condition that makes his hair grow long despite being a short-haired breed. What a cutie! Don’t worry, I provided lots of pets.

Below, left: I rode out to Trout Lake to try to spot the green heron(s) residing there, which was unsuccessful, but I had forgotten the farmer’s market would be on this morning and was able to get a chicken adobo sandwich for breakfast. Yum! At right is an old bridge hidden just off Government St at Stoney Creek.

I wanted to check out some areas of Coquitlam for an idea for Burnabop XL day this year, which also gave me opportunity to ride a couple favourite spots along the way.

Fast-forward a week, and I’ve freshly assembled my new Stooge Rambler mostly from parts on the Evasion previously. I wanted to get out for a short shakedown ride before dusk, and chose Trout Lake because it was easy. I totally forgot Bike Rave was happening, and also that it started at Trout Lake, and I ended up showing up just as people were gathering for it.

Heck with it, I joined, despite not having dinner yet. Quite a memorable shakedown ride! Ran into a few friends in the process, too. That was Saturday night. Sunday I got out for a full Seymour valley loop which I’ve posted about already.

Above, right: I finally saw the green heron at Trout Lake after trying probably around ten times – this time it was just cruising the dog park beach, easy as can be to spot!

On Tuesday, I got word wildfire smoke was on the way so I got myself out for a ride despite not feeling too great. It did the trick, by the time I finished I felt a lot better! Just over the bridge and onto some of my fav little trails:

The smoke never got too bad, thankfully, so I was able to participate in Wednesday’s parkbagging as well as Thursday’s Hotdogz group ride. In the first six days of having the Rambler built up, I’ve ridden it 170 km!

Since spring of 2025 I’ve been convinced that the Stooge Rambler would be my ideal adventure bike, suited perfectly for the sort of mixed terrain all-day ambles I like to ride on any given weekend as well as weekend trips to the Gulf Islands and some bigger bikepacking routes I have ambition to ride. It’s been sold out until now, so I’m finally realizing this dream almost a year and a half later.

I received the frame on Friday afternoon and started building it up straight away. Saturday morning I made a trip to the local bike shop to get the last bits I needed, then took it for a ride in the evening – joining up with Bike Rave with hundreds of illuminated bikes taking over the street. Quite a shake-down ride! On Sunday I took it up Seymour valley on my favourite loop, making sure to stop at all my favourite spots.

I don’t homebrew anymore, but I always make a point to attend the annual summer BBQ put on in one of the founding members’ backyard. In addition to seeing a lot of old friends, the quality of food and beer is better than most restaurants in Vancouver. The main course is pulled pork, which is smoked overnight prior to being prepped immediately before the event.

It starts at 4pm, so in keeping with tradition, I went for a loop around Pacific Spirit park first. Riding through Jericho, some country music festival was going on, so I pressed on to get away from the noise. I could still hear it when I reached the UBC grounds, several kilometres later. While it was busy around there, by the time I was at the west end of Spanish Banks, it was very quiet:

I took my favourite route from the northwest corner to the southeast corner, passing through several different biospheres. While there’s no old growth in Pac Spirit, it does contain some of the oldest second-growth in greater Vancouver.

I arrived at the BBQ around 5pm as intended, and it was already pretty packed. Food was predictably excellent, and I went for a second helping (not pictured). The beers were great, as well as some great ciders from friend LA and vermouth from another friend dave. There were excellent meads going around too, but I mostly steered clear to keep myself out of trouble. It worked!

Despite getting home after 11:30pm, and having who-knows-really-how-much beer, I felt quite good the following morning – and the weather was cool and properly wet. The pups love this weather (and, to be honest, so do I) so we got out for a two hour walk including a stopover at Burrard view: