Category: General

Chemainus is a smaller town on Vancouver Island about 45km south of Nanaimo, known for its murals and artsy vibe. It’s unique for southwestern BC in that regard, as most of our small towns are conservative and rather devoid of culture. It’s also the town that my dad moved to a few years ago.

I’d put together a route last year which I rode in the heat of summer, and while it was overall successful in its goal of avoiding the highway and taking some trails, by the last 20 km I was firmly in ‘type two’ fun category due to the combination of heat and exhaustion combined with unexpectedly challenging climbs and descents both.

This time around I opted to ride through Ladysmith instead of taking the rotary club trail along the powerlines above town, but left the rest as I rode it last July.

I rolled out at 8am, and the photo going over the Lions Gate was taken at 8:30. I had a sunny day ahead of me with mild temperatures, so I couldn’t ask for better in that regard. I had slept well and was feeling good despite being quite ill with a stomach bug a few days prior.

I heard an eagle as I pedaled along West Vancouver and it took no time at all to spot it in a treetop nearby. Otherwise, pretty uneventful ride to the ferry and I arrived with plenty of time. An older Malaysian couple arrived on bikes for the ferry shortly after and we got to talking – they were 3 years retired and had travelled all over the globe doing some bucket list tours in Japan, Taiwan, and elsewhere – very cool! They were off to ride up island and then back down the sunshine coast.

I have honed my favourite way out of Nanaimo – it’s far from direct, but almost exclusively off-street and meanders through three beautiful wooded areas: Bowen Park shown below, Buttertubs Marsh, and Colliery Dam park. Connecting each is exclusively quiet roads and MUPs.

The waterfall below is in Bowen Park while the gradual climb through the forest is Colliery. The path through Colliery places you directly across the street from the pathway that runs parallel the highway which takes you out of town and into the southern suburbs.

Below is said pathway – it also ducks into the forest a bit more, feeling quite secluded. Perhaps too much so for some walkers.

This pathway ends after passing under the highway in a suburb evidently named Starks. It’s pretty rural at this point, and there are three options I’ve identified to get the next few kilometres: the highway, Cedar Rd, or up the disused moto trail network and down some rural roads from there. Cedar Rd is not too bad, but no shoulder combined with the average vehicle size in rural Nanaimo make it less attractive. The moto trails are in a rather lovely natural area so that’s an easy pick, even though it means going directly up and over a ~80m hill. Pictured below are the forested part of the highway trail (left) and the climb into the moto trails (right).

The climb alternates between rideable and not, and there are a couple places where it’s barely walkable due to the steepness and loose surface.

The fact these are primarily dirt bike trails is evident above – the steep bits are deeply rutted out. Below left doesn’t look bad in photos but it’s actually really difficult to get up at all; I had to walk in the shrubs off-trail to get enough traction for the short section steep grade. Last July when I hit this spot it nearly broke me; I took probably 20 minutes to get up it as I kept sliding down with every movement.

Once beyond the climb though it levels off into a pretty lovely trail to ride, even though its surface is very soft from the dirt bikes. Once out, I made sure to appreciate the seasonal flowers in the rural gardens that lined the streets.

After that, it’s a descent on some country roads and a very brief bit of highway just to get over the Nanaimo River.

The next “detour” from the beaten path is to access West Bush Main, a few kilometres of rough gravel typically travelled by dirt bikes and ATVs.

The first bit is an eclectic mix of terrain, as pictured above, but settles into rough gravel as shown below for the majority of this section. It’s entirely doable on a gravel bike but would be most enjoyable on some big MTB tires.

The truck above is located on the first bit of paved road after leaving the bush. At this point I’m just outside Ladysmith, which is a rather cute town with a historic-looking main drag and a brewery that was packed. I opted to grab a single can to-go and drank it along the tracks between Ladysmith and Chemainus. There is about 10km between the two, and almost all of it is along a gravel rail trail (below, right) that is a joy to ride.

At last I reached my dad’s place in Chemainus, which is ocean front. Shortly after arriving we were drinking beers on the rocky coastline at high tide as shown below.

After two nights at pops’ place enjoying family time in Chemainus, it was time to work my way back home. Leaving just after 10am, I planned to skip West Bush Main, which was a stretch of unmaintained gravel road mostly used by dirt bikers, but still take the remaining off-the-beaten-path connections I took on the way in. I was especially looking forward to descending the old moto trails just south of Colvilletown which I had only ever pushed up before – they are so steep in sections that I was barely able to push up them too.

Rolling out of Chemainus is very pleasant – within a couple blocks from my dad’s I was on a gravel rail trail for the next 8 or so km. I can only dream of being able to go anywhere on this kind of surface!

At the 10km mark I had reached the edge of Ladysmith, where Bayview Brewing is located. Since they are a popular lunch spot, they open early; 11am. It was 11:05am as I rolled up; perfect!

It also turned out to be their anniversary party today so my 12oz pour of Czech style dark lager was five bucks. Pretty good, too. They do good food but I hadn’t yet worked up an appetite. As I sipped my beer, I noticed the sky start to darken. It was blue skies before this with no hint of something else coming, but when I left I saw the dark grey looming overhead and that inspired me to keep the pace up as I rolled out of Ladysmith and northward. Thankfully, I outran the cloud system before any precipitation.

Avoiding West Bush Main meant taking about 7km of highway, but a wide shoulder made it not too unpleasant beyond the noise. It was consistently peppered with gravel though. Once an alternative was available I hopped off the highway and onto quiet rural roads where I saw an assortment of farm animals and some lovely trees.

Descending the old moto trails meant climbing the paved side, which was steep enough for one stretch that I opted to walk. The egg stand above was along this push. The huge arbutus tree, above right, is in the first section of trail along the flat plateau. I’d love to know how old it is, since I rarely see Arbutus with such a thick trunk.

Above are two more photos from this stretch of trail, and above right is along the parkway that parallels the highway just outside Nanaimo.

I had some extra time once I’d reached Colliery Dam park on the edge of Nanaimo, so I explored some of the trail network in the woods (above). Below is the beach, which was busy on Sunday but dead quiet in the middle of a Tuesday, unsurprisingly.

From there, I skipped Buttertubs park that I’d taken on the way out but still passed through a section of Bowen park, including the Rhodo garden which was starting to bloom up.

The ferry was uneventful but sunny and warm on the upper deck. I hung out in the dog area, where a total of three dogs passed through. Mid-day Tuesday in April is a quiet time on the ferry.

Once on the mainland again, I opted to take the rail trail to a push up to the upper bike route, rather than take the more popular Marine Drive. While it certainly means more climbing, it’s quiet and pleasant. I also stopped for a second beer at Beva and marvelled at how far from Bayview Brewing I was on the same ride, under my own power.

As mentioned in the last segment of my holiday challenge to ride each of my six* bikes 50km over the holidays, *I bought a seventh mid-challenge so I took it out on New Years Day.

Now, I only bought it on December 30th, and it was built up but never ridden by the previous owner. Not even one ride, and it sat for a couple years since too. So this was a rather ambitious idea to ride it over 50km as a shakedown ride for the previous owner’s build. But I put my trust in him, and off we went. I did, however, choose a route that never strayed too far from the Skytrain.

The route I had in mind basically followed the Central Valley Greenway out, and looped around New West to the PC Parkway back. It’s about a 42km loop, so some extra spurs were in order. I originally meant to do this route with the Twenty on day one of the challenge, but I made an on-the-fly decision to go visit the old hospital grounds in Coquitlam instead on that ride.

To get those extra kilometres in, I detoured a bit south to Deer Lake, and then back up to the Burnaby Lake gravel trails. The Bike Friday as you see it here is almost exactly as-purchased, all I added was the Jones bar, pedals, basket, and bags. It came with Schwalbe Black Jack tires which are quite knobby but surprisingly low resistance on pavement.

Also, unlike the Wombat ride, my fenderlessness was not a problem today! This whole past week was remarkable in weather – rarely rained and stayed really mild. Alarming but also enjoyable.

And I have to say, the bike has been performing flawlessly. The cheap disc brakes were fine, the Deerhead friction-shifted Campy derailleurs shifted great and looked the part too.

The bike generally rides really well, and riding it over 50km was no problem at all. It rides much more like a regular bike than the Brompton, for example. The bottom bracket on this model is particularly high, maybe that helps?

As I write this in late April 2025, this bike has undergone some accessorizing: Velo Orange fenders, a different bar and stem, and a Brompton carrier block welded on the front with the racks removed. Otherwise it’s unchanged from how the previous owner built it, and it has a little over 500km on it so far.

On New Year’s Eve, I got out for an over-50 km ride on the Stooge Scrambler, complete with 700m climb to the snow line. This completes my challenge, right? Well, it should have, but on Dec 30 I impulse bought a Bike Friday that cropped up for a bargain on Marketplace in exactly the spec I was daydreaming about.

So with this ride I completed what I set out to do, but I now had seven bikes. Since the seventh showed up so late in the game, I gave myself the grace that if I rode it for 50km on New Years Day, I’d have still completed my “ride every bike over the holidays” plan. More on that later though – this is about the Stooge ride!

I worked my way over to the north shore and rode some low-traffic trails near the golf course before winding my way up towards Mt Fromme by way of lower Seymour. Easy trail riding, but nice to string together longer stretches of dirt.

Then I met with my friend Taylor and we climbed up a punchy stretch of trail to get to the main service road (Mountain Highway), which switchbacks up Mt Fromme all the way to Grouse Mtn ski area (now gated). My goal for the day was to ride to the snowline, which was quite high at this time, and we reached it around the 700m mark at the 6th switchback.

From there we took the unofficial “Pile of Loam” trail which snakes through the woods just past this switchback. Kind of a boring trail on a big modern mountain bike perhaps, it’s a hoot on a rigid MTB.

We descended some fun easier black trails back down to civilization, and parted ways as I headed west for a bridge loop. The bridge loop ridden in a more direct fashion is about 32km for me, door to door. The detour up the mountain more or less got me those extra 18km, but I did some additional toodling in North Van to seal the deal.

A short stop at the Murdo Frazer cabins along the way, a popular spot for me to stop for a beer, but I hadn’t picked any up yet. However once down the hill I did stop at Beva Brewing for the very last (!) four pack of the chocolate stout I was eager to try. I enjoyed one along the water on the way home.

In the end it was nearly 60km and 1200m of climbing, a good solid ride for the Stooge!

Over the previous days I’d ridden both my Rivendells and both my small wheeled bikes, each over 50 km. Today was time for the fifth bike in the quiver, and I selected the Wombat.

My reason for this selection was the optimistic forecast. Note, it had actually been quite nice for every ride so far – to the extent I was riding without a jacket and just my wool sweater for most rides! The Wombat is my only bike with no fenders at all, so I tried to save it for the day with the lowest risk of rain.

Boy, that did not work out.

The morning was quite nice, but as I rolled out front of my building with the Wombat, a little bit of rain had started to fall from the sky and it was ominously cloudy. What the heck? Well, I probably just needed to ride out from under this cloud, I figured.

I met with friends Rob and Karen at a park central to us where the rain was still relatively light, but the skies were grey in all directions. It was already the wettest day of the challenge so far despite my expectation of the opposite, and it was only going to get worse!

Rob and Karen peeled off in South Vancouver because it was really coming down, and they had no self-inflicted obligation to keep riding. I continued into Richmond, heading for the dyke along the water.

Garry Point (above) has a large sandy area at its center normally, but today it was a lake. A great day to be a duck! I warmed my hands in the bathroom (below) before setting off once again.

However, one very cool thing did happen. I noticed a nice looking backpack and a tripod ditched alongside the Richmond dyke with nobody nearby. I thought it strange, but kept going due to general misery at this point. Over 100m later I saw a photographer laying on his stomach in the bushes alongside the trail and my eye wandered to where his massive lens was pointed: a massive coyote walking along the driftwood. I stopped to get a potato photo once I was well clear of the scene so I wouldn’t interrupt: this is at full zoom on my Pixel 8, just good enough to tell what it is.

I hit about the 30km mark when I was finally pointed towards home, and up until this point I had been soaked through but comfortable. My hands became very cold over the next 10km; I simply didn’t prepare well for this level of wet. The climb into town solved that issue though, no doubt helped by the single speed.

In the end – 55 km so it counted. Sure wish I rode it any other day though.

Today, Febuary 9th 2025, we adopted a dog. The name she comes with is Sunshine, which we’ve been shortening to Sunny. It’s Sunday, fittingly. Aimée found her locally fostered, her photo was most cute, and she sounded like a perfect fit. They didn’t know her age or her lineage for sure, but pegged her at ~3.5 years old and maybe an Aussie / Corgi mix.

Obviously her stature suggests corgi. Or perhaps Dachshund? Aussie was certainly believable, though she did the ‘stalking’ thing that Border Collies do towards a crow on a fence this afternoon, so now we’re calling that into question as well.

Leia has been enjoying being an only dog and we want her golden years to be as comfortable and enjoyable as possible, so her opinion was very important to us. While she is has some reservations, they’ve gotten along great – Sunny doesn’t really engage with Leia but they already seem pretty comfortable in each others’ presence. I suspect they will become bonded with time.

Sunny is from Turkey, rescued during the 2023 flooding in the area we’re told. She had a litter of puppies, as I understand afterwards (sometime in early 2024 maybe?), and less than two weeks ago she had a large bladder stone removed as well as full dental work including a bunch of tooth extractions. Despite all this, she seems carefree. She loves attention, and doesn’t want pets to end.

She’s already met a handful of our dog park friends (both canine and human) and no doubt will become an integral part of the community in no time.

Onto my fourth bike of six, I chose the Brompton today because the weather forecast was iffy at best and the route was going to be reasonably urban. It was Saturday, Dec 28th 2024, and it was also Park Bagging. Park bagging was started by a bike pal and has been running since May 2023, the idea being that participants visit every park in Vancouver in alphabetical order and have a beverage of choice at each one. The most popular choice is beer, but non-alc and other drinks are also common and valid. The parks for this day were Musqueam and Nanaimo parks; we are about mid-way through the alphabet.

Musqueam is a large park in the southwest corner of the city; I live in the north east corner so it was about 20 km just to get to the first park. I took the Arbutus Greenway and poked into Pacific Spirit Park’s trails a little bit before reaching the meet point.

We meandered to Nanaimo Park, and from there I needed another 20+ km in order to meet my goal: so I headed east into Burnaby, bonking at around the right time to get some fast food by way of Wendys. I didn’t take a lot of photos, it was a pretty ordinary ride really. I got home just after dark; thankful for the Brompton’s dynamo lighting.

Day one was the Raleigh Twenty, day two was the Hillborne. Day three, Dec 27 2024, was also Friday: the day of Camp Coffee Club’s morning meeting. This week was at the OG location, Waterfront Park in North Van. I show up quite irregularly on account of the early hour, but I got myself out before sunrise and on site shortly after 8am.

After drinking my coffee and seeing the others off, Morgan, Nathan and I headed for a Seymour valley loop. We grabbed some breakfast at A&W then headed up the path behind Capilano University which includes, as we knew, a long set of stairs near the end.

We stayed off the road as much as possible by taking Diamond trail to Baden Powell off Lillooet Rd. We stopped along the top of a ridge to bask in the forest glow.

We then shed a bunch of elevation we just worked hard for by descending Baden Powell to Riverside Dr – an absolutely glorious stretch of trail that ends with a treacherously steep staircase. We were rewarded with a bit of fog against the sun for perfect light.

We headed up Fishermans, taking in the perfect weather. The sunshine lit up all the lichen hanging from the lower limbs of the tree canopy, which gave a green hue to the air.

My Bombadil was purpose-built for this valley and it continues to deliver four years later.

We looped around the marsh at midvalley, which is an entirely unnecessary yet worthwhile little trail. The bridge over the marsh’s outflow drain was removed a while back and nothing has been put in its place to date – and the water level was such that it was a bold jump over deep water to cross. I placed the Bombadil into the water to help balance me, and I didn’t expect to submerge the bike well past the SON hub and bottom bracket. Whoops!

We pedalled up Spur 4, descending over Bear Island, and onto Hatchery Trail. I was excited to take Morgan and Nathan to my favourite tree on the Rainbow Creek loop.

We spent a little bit of time among these giants before continuing on. This spot has become my favourite of late and I’m glad I’ve been able to get out here so regularly, considering it’s 25km from home and half of that is on trail, out of cell service.

The day ended up being 66km and nearly 1000m of elevation. While it’s relatively challenging, these LSCR loops really rejuvenate my soul.

Quick recap of the challenge: instead of Festive 500 from Dec 24 to 31, I challenged myself to ride each of my six bikes a minimum a 50km over the same period.

Part 1 was my old Twenty on Christmas Eve. I took Christmas day off to spend with my partner and pupper. But as of Boxing Day I was back on it, and rolled out of the house on the Hillborne with only a loose plan in place.

I started by crossing over to North Van and heading westward via Second Narrows, generally on the Spirit Trail. The weather was pretty decent; no threat of rain and temperatures well above freezing. I rode in my sweater without a jacket!

I crossed Lions Gate into Stanley Park and took Rawlings down, stopping to explore a couple side quests.

I made my way over the Burrard Bridge and headed west. Passing through Jericho, the water level was as high as I’ve ever seen it – large sections of the park were fully flooded. Great time to be a duck!

I wanted to take my favourite UBC route – Salish trail starting from the base of the NW Marine climb, which follows the east edge of a rather steep and deep ravine to start. I am happy to push up the first incline.

Salish Trail starts in a rather open, exclusively deciduous wooded area before becoming enclosed in towering Dougas Firs. While there was no rain today, recent rains were very evident – I rode though what must have been thousands of puddles.

I continued south through Musqueam Park, a quieter and beautiful bit of green space south of Marine Drive. Working my way around the golf course, I stopped at Deering Island, a favourite spot of mine and some friends for a beer. I sat and watched the sun set while and chatted with a family with two teen daughters whose dad was jealous of my beer, as well as an older lady and her sweet dog. On the way out of Deering there were three bald eagles having a bit of a domestic dispute at close range and we all watched in awe.

I passed through Southlands and visited the horses along the way, then made my way north via Arbutus Greenway.

Route below – a pleasant and pretty uneventful ride, though quite muddy at times.

I hadn’t considered doing the Festive 500 this year, though I’m quite familiar with the challenge. It wasn’t until a friend proclaimed they would attempt it that I realized I could put some time towards such a challenge since I had the week off work.

I wanted to put my spin on the challenge and ride each of my bikes (six in total) for one big ride. I did the math, planned some routes, and sliced up how I could meet the 500km distance in a manageable way – but then when my partner Aimée asked if we were going to spend time together while we were both off, I realized it was too much and dialed it back: 50+ km per bike for every bike.

The bike I am least likely to ride 50km is my old Raleigh Twenty; it’s around 1971 give or take, heavily upgraded but in a period-correct manner such as the drum brakes. It’s very heavy and four gears are functional. Despite this it is actually very fun to ride, and doesn’t feel heavy when you’re riding it.

I headed east with the intention of a bike route loop that would take me east to the edge of Coquitlam, then south around New Westminster and home.

The day was nice, the sun was shining and I was really enjoying riding this bike. So when I reached the eastward point of my planned route, I just kept going east. I took an especially muddy connector trail to a green space in Port Coquitlam that I really enjoy.

At this point I am questioning whether the Twenty is a great bike or if I just enjoy riding any bike. In either case, it really makes me wonder why I have spent so much money on my bikes when something this modest brings me the same amount of joy!

I cruised through ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park, stopping to take a photo with one of the long-unoccupied houses on the park grounds below. I’m curious of their history.

At this point the driving reason for me to continue eastward was to revisit the Riverside Hospital grounds just to the north.

Previously a psychiatric hospital, the buildings have been long abandoned. The combination of their appearance and their history are truly haunting, and a powerful experience. Going alone added to the effect, there was absolutely nobody around.

I leaned into the discomfort of this experience as I thought about what it must have been like to be kept here.

After the hairs on my neck had been sufficiently raised, I made my way out the west end of the grounds and awkwardly connected down to something remotely bike friendly. This included jumping a couple barriers and riding a decent amount of sidewalk on busy streets… Coquitlam bike infrastructure leaves much to be desired.

The light was failing by the time I was on my last 10 km of the ride, but I was treated to a very pleasant sunset.

Here was the final route, going above and beyond to a total of 58.4km which I’m confident is my longest ride on this bike – I have ridden over 40km on it at least twice, but perhaps never over 50.