BC: Shuswap to South Vancouver Island

Aug 2024 |

The goal of this ride was to complete the Vancouver Island Grand Loop south section, and secondarily, to ride alternate routes including the Douglas Ranch road, Nicola Valley, and the Highline road between Seton Portage and D'Arcy.

1801 km / 4 rides / 31 hrs

Ride 1: Salmon Arm to Seton Portage via Douglas Ranch and Nicola Valley

416 km / 7 hrs

Stayed: Seton Portage camping area(?) / Free / ***

So many wow dimensions to this ride. Coming out of Salmon Arm, I rode through the Salmon River Valley, which never gets old, even though I've done it 100s of times. From Falkland - home to the recently discovered largest Fentanyl lab in North America - you continue to Westwold. From there, I took a mostly dirt back road past the legendary Douglas Lake Ranch, one of the biggest in the world. Then on to Quilchena and Merrit, where I took the Nicola Valley road for the first time in my life. Here things got really interesting. First up were the multiple groups of Bighorn Sheep, mostly adult females and juveniles, but I also came across a group of males, the ones with loopy horns - a sight worth its weight in gold. This valley and nearby Merritt were devastated by a "Pineapple Express" in recent years, and the outcome is incredible - this road was completely washed away, and a new one was built on the other side of the river. Riding along, you see things like 100m stretches of newish-looking paved road, with highway signs - up the gravel bank on the other side of the river. Further on, there's a huge tree standing tall - in the middle of the river. This wasn't making sense to me, but someone explained it all later, about the flood and how it completely altered the valley.

The Nicola Valley road ends at Spences Bridge, on the Fraser River, on Highway 1. From there, I rode south to Lytton, where the Fraser and Thompson rivers meet (I once saw this scene from a Lufthansa flight, YVR to FRA - a world-class view). Lytton had the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada (in 2021 - but much like on this day in 2024). Day later it burned to the ground. From Lytton, I headed north on Highway 12, for perhaps the first time in my life. This route follows the Fraser, a prior stagecoach trail where gold miners worked their way up the river, many heading to Lilloett, which at one point in the 1800s was the largest settlement east of Chicago and north of San Francisco. Bonus: I saw many more Big Horn sheep along the way.

From Lilloett, I headed further northwest, into territory I didn't even know existed until some recent research. This is Sasquatch country, straight up. After a ride of stuning views on a road to seemingly no where. I came to a dam, and then rode across it into a tunnel. This is the start of Mission Mountain Road, a dirt track up a steep mountain, then down the other side to Seton Lake, where you cross one of the oddest hydro power facilities in BC, in which water flows down massive pipes from one lake above, down a mountain-side to another lake below. This stretch of road formally ends at Seton Portage (informally, it continues, along the legendary Highline - read on, below), a place woith unque geological, indigenous and pioneer history. It's a speck of a town, with little accommodation, filled with hydro company workers. Luckily, I was tipped off on the no-frills free campsite near town and set up there for the night.

R3: Seton Portage > Highline > Horseshoe Bay (> Bamfield)

See my South Vancouver Grand Loop Update

After a rustic stay at the free campsite, I packed up and rode outside of town to the base of the Highline road, which starts at the lake and winds up the side of the mountain to power lines it is named after. You get amazing views of the lake below up here, a highlight being a huge rockslide into the lake - good no people live over there. The Highline is often referred to as a road from hell. But, to me, that seemed a bit dramatic. It's mostly "normal" quality BC FDR, though there are a couple of steep sections - where I slowly priceeded, feet down (like the rookie rider I am). I can say one thing for sure: I have ridden worse stretches of road in BC!. The Highline ends outside D'Arcy, and from there it's clear sailing on a paved road to Pemberton. Unfortunately, I didn't see a single Sasquatch.

Ride 4b: Bamfield > French Beach > Hope Princeton Highway > Salmon Arm

See my South Vancouver Grand Loop Update