Myra Canyon, British Columbia
For those of us who like to ride bikes a long ways and in spectacular places, the Kettle Valley Railroad project is Heaven. An assortment of 480 miles of abandoned railroad beds in southern British Columbia have been assembled into a public access multi-use gateway in the mountains that is a world-class destination. In the summer of 2003 a vast forest fire burned many of the original wood trestles that carried ore-laden trains out of the mountains a hundred years ago. Highly motivated proponents of outdoor recreation were able to raise about $18 million to have the trestles rebuilt to their former splendor. Just a few weeks ago this magnificent park was re-opened to the public.
In the brilliance of a cerulean afternoon, Dwight, Barbara, and I piled our bikes onto the back of an old jeep and then stuffed ourselves inside for the ascent up a rutted dirt road that would take us to the starting point of a section that contains eighteen trestles traversing mountain canyons. On top, I hopped on my mountain bike and immediately felt like the king of the hill. There are not many places where one is able to ride a bike 800 feet across wood latticework two hundred feet above the canyon floor, while enjoying a view of the lakes 3,000 feet further down. Several tunnels also added to the texture of the experience. Those people in jets overhead had nothing on the experience we were able to enjoy.
En route we enjoyed fine conversation with a Swiss girl working her way across Canada by cleaning rooms and taking care of horses on ranches. On one of the trestles we encountered the retired man who had the original vision for creating a park out of these abandoned rail beds. On our return we had a nice snack of ginger snaps, fruits, and water on our return. We were back down to earth in time for a fine steak dinner.
The Kettle Valley Railroad is certainly an uplifting way to travel, even if the trains don’t run any more.
No comments:
Post a Comment