Category: General

[This is a favourite loop of mine, and also many of my riding pals. I’ve done it many times, but the loop documented here remains one of the best, as the forest just had something extra magical about it that day.]

 I had this particular route in mind when I bought this frameset from Joe. It’s just outside of town here in Vancouver BC, and its quite unique and special. We have an immense wealth of trails on our north shore, though most are technical mountain bike or hiking trails. I love those trails, but this route features the only extended stretch of gravel that is fully closed to motorized traffic (except service vehicles, which I’ve never come across) as well as the only paved parkway that extends into the wilderness in this region. 

I can ride it from my doorstep; it’s about 11km to get to the ‘good stuff’, taking bike routes and a bridge to get there. The climb in is significant; this is a mountainous area. After pedaling up the access road, the first few kilometers into the forest are along the paved parkway – a special gem that is shared with many cyclists, walkers, rollerbladers etc in the summer. Now that the temperatures are barely above freezing and it’s usually raining, the path is much more empty. 

This path carves through the rainforest for about 5km, leaving cell service behind, until a pretty hard-to-miss singletrack turnoff takes you down a steep embankment to this grand clearing, known as The Spot among friends here. Despite its established looks, it’s both well hidden and hard to access, and therefore goes unknown to many who ride this region. 

From here, my route follows a steep downhill stretch of singletrack to a marsh, where a gravel access road begins and will take me a further 7km into the valley and away from the city. 

Above is a trail that loops around the marsh, the backside of which requires riding through about a 40 foot wide drainage area that is between 6 and 12 inches deep. Tough to get through with dry feet! 

This access road, called Spur 4, used to be charming double-track with grass up the middle but it was graded this year with fresh gravel. Unfortunate, to me. Bears and cougars inhabit this area and humans are few and far between – combine this with the lack of cell service and the fact you’re now over 10km into the woods, it can be pretty humbling to ride alone. 

A connector trail brings you back to the main parkway, where most people are. It was a little wet today, but that’s fine by me. I can’t imagine life without full-coverage fenders! 

Above is the view of the lake, which is as far as you can go. It was only about 2:30 but already the sun was falling behind the tall peaks to the west; I’m far enough north that it’s getting dark shortly after 4pm now. 

Above is just a little more appreciation for this bike. What a capable machine for such multi-surface adventures. 

The first leg of the return route is called the Hatchery Trail, and it’s the highlight of the whole route for me. It’s a non-technical trail that winds through the moss-rich forest, including placards with information on local wildlife. It’s beautifully maintained and quite wonderous, considering the nearest vehicle parking is 10km away! 

There is a beautiful bit of sandy beach along the river here, which is visible on the way up Spur 4 from partway up the hillside on the other side of the river. 

This trail puts you back on the paved parkway, well north of where I had turned off to head down to the ‘back route in’. Just a few hundred meters up I noticed a large mammal immediately beside me; a deer who had no concern of my presence at all. 

I followed this parkway the full 10km, it’s beautiful but I didn’t stop for any more photos. Once I reached the end, where most park their cars, I followed a trail eastward which dropped 120m in elevation in no time at all. It was STEEP!  This is not one of the steep spots, but it gives a good sense of the trail. 

As I dropped in elevation I entered a pre-sunset fog. Combined with the beginnings of a sunset, it really made for a cool effect with the moss and lichen covered trees. 

The rest of the ride out looked similar to below. The trail ends at the end of a long residential street; bombing down that for a kilometer or two brings you to a major road that funnels to the bridge which brings me home. 

The full route from my door falls a bit short of 60km, which is a nice length for me – big enough to be rather epic, but can be done in about 4 hours and leaves me with a bit of gas in the tank so I’m not a wreck for the rest of the evening! 

Thanks for following along with my ride report / coming to my TED Talk!  This bike rules. 

This is the page for my 52cm Bombadil which I bought off fellow Riv-lister Joe in autumn of 2020.

While I don’t know all its details for certain, I do know it’s a fairly early batch – when they still did two top tubes for the 52cm size, and they were using parallel top tubes rather than the diaga-tube which came in mid-production. Here is a photo from my very first ride on it, about 24 hours after it arrived. It lived in Seattle before Joe bought it, and it has returned to the PNW with me.

The wheelset came with the frameset, and the rest were parts I already had laying around from my Clem Smith Jr (or in the case of the tires, from the Hillborne’s alter-ego build).

The very next ride on the Bombadil was over 50km of mixed terrain with quite a lot of technical singletrack, and a lot of elevation as well (including getting past the snowline!). A very ambitious “shakedown ride” in retrospect, but the bike performed great and I had no issues other than the bars rotating a bit in the stem from taking a couple drops.

Not long after this, the Bombadil received some fenders an an upgraded drivetrain. I also ordered up a new wheel set, going all-out with a SON and White Industries hubset and Cliffhanger rims. Thanks to the bike boom, it was six months before all the parts were received though. In that time I had countless adventures on this bike.

A particularly treacherous but exciting ride involved visiting Seymour Lake via my favourite loop, where the weather was snow- and frost-free before the valley but we were surprised with snow and ice, including a solid sheet of ice on the paved parkway back (for over 5 km!) due to a thaw-freeze cycle.

It has undergone some updates, including trying a Nitto Wavie bar in place of the MAP Ahearne bar, upgrade to some old XTR cranks, the addition of a Nitto Campee rear rack, and a small variety of tires.

The bike was disassembled in September 2021 for a fresh paint job by Chris Dekerf, and back on the road as of January 2022 with an assortment of new parts: Nitto Albatross bars, Pass & Stow front rack, and Rene Herse Umtanum Ridge tires wrapped in VO Fluted 63mm fenders.

The new paint was selected from a swatch, a pearlescent green with gold, which worked out beautifully. I didn’t expect the tires to work with fenders, but while the clearance was minimal, it was fine!

The build continued to evolve: the Albatross bars were swapped for Nitto Wavie with Ergon grips, which leaned into the ATB roots of the bike. Later, the Wavie bars were swapped for Crumbworks’ KT bars, which had a similar sweep but played better with a front bag and also had some rise so the stem didn’t need to be so high.

Above is the development ten months later – went back to 48mm tires (Ultradynamico Rosé, but also Cava mixed in sometimes) because the additional fender clearance helps, and the Pass & Stow rack ultimately felt like too much. The Bombadil feels best with only a modest front load, as close to the bars as possible.

Above was June 2022’s bike camping setup – still had the Pass & Stow, which worked great with the rack bag from Outer Shell and the big MUTs from Randi Jo Fab.

Below is an image from the Good Friday ride of 2023, where the Bombadil has taken on commuting duties as well as being the defacto adventure bike. As of mid-April, the Charlie H Gallop returned to my quiver and the Bombadil can be relieved of commuting duties.

Below is an assortment of camping trips I’ve done with the Bombadil between 2022 and 2025. It has had many iterations, and they’ve all been fun.

Drop bars have been off and on the bike from 2023 to 2025, using a Nitto / Crust BJ stem to keep the reach in check. It feels comfortable and not too slow on pavement, while remaining planted and capable on trails.