Columbia Icefield – Rampart Creek Campground, 40km
Mostly downhill for today, and quite steep too! The kids hands’ needed quite a few breaks from braking all the time. So we enjoyed the spectacular views along the way 🙂
Jonas Campground – Columbia Icefield
Jonas Campground – Columbia Icefield, 26km
First serious climb of the trip up to Sunwapta Pass (2035m).
Kerkeslin Campground – Jonas Campground, 43km
Kerkeslin Campground – Jonas Campground, 43km
Wabasso Campground – Kerkeslin Campground, 20km
Wabasso Campground – Kerkeslin Campground, 20km
Jasper – Wabasso Campground, 15km
Jasper – Wabasso Campground, 15km
A rather short but hilly ride, including a 4km uphill at 4-5%, on route 93A (the old Icefields Parkway). Beautiful scenery. Rather quiet road but with NO shoulder, however each car passed us on the other lane. Very polite drivers and some even asked us for a lift, but we politely declined 😊
Kamloops – Jasper
Kamloops – Jasper, by train
Again, because of the wildfire situation in BC, we decided to not expose ourselves (and especially our son who is asthmatic) to the omnipresent smoke. This section would have been wonderful to bike. “Health and well being before bragging rights”, as a wise man once said.
Detour: Kelowna and Myra Canyon
Detour: Kelowna and Myra Canyon, 24km
We drove to Kelowna to escape the smoke in Merritt and we rode on the KVR section of the Myra Canyon. Very scenic ride, easy and not to be missed!
Detour: Okanagan Lake and Penticton, 15km
Detour: Okanagan Lake and Penticton, 15km
We drove to Penticton and cycled around beautiful Lake Okanagan and on the Kettle Valley Railway Trail around Penticton.
Hope – Kamloops
Hope – Kamloops, by car
As much as we would have loved to cycle this section, the difficulty was that for 140km (Hope to Merritt) there would have been no campgrounds, no towns, no civilization… Add to that a steep uphill (Coquihalla Summit) and wildfires around the area, and so we judged it would be prudent to skip this section altogether :-/
Othello Road – Hope (and back)
Othello Road – Hope (and back), 16km
We rode the Kettle Valley Railway trail section through the Othello tunnels, down to Hope and back. It’s worth mentioning that we had to walk our bikes through the actual tunnels, due to the very loose gravel on the surface and due to the many visitors present on site. However, after the last tunnel, the trail was beautiful all the way to Hope (on gravel, a bit rocky).