Ten Reasons to Bike B.C.

    It’s not difficult to think of ten reasons to bike B.C. Our ride for ovarian cancer has slipped onto the other side of the Continental Divide, to vast Prairie fields and skies, and I’m left wondering what just happened.

Where did the mountains go? The ride through B.C. flew by, likely because each day brought new vistas, new experiences and renewed awe about this amazing province.
For those of you who have time to go slow, may I lay out ten reasons to cycle through Beautiful B.C.

The Crowsnest Highway

The Crowsnest Highway (#3) is a much more inviting highway for the

cyclist than the TransCanada (#1). There are lower elevation gains and losses through the four mountain ranges you cross; Coast, Monashee,

Selkirk/Purcells, and Rockies (and there is even one spur off the Crowsnest – Highway 3A through Nelson and Balfour Ferry – that averts a pass through the Selkirks entirely). This primarily two-lane highway also passes through the less developed, industrialized areas of the province, allowing you to connect with the quiet, slow paced roots of rural B.C.

Spring Abundance

Biking in B.C. during late spring may have the occasional rainshower, but days in warm sunshine, surrounded by a cacophony of blooms and

wildflowers and eye-popping green, outshines any grey days. At slow speed, the lilacs and dogwoods beneath still snow-peaked mountains overwhelms your view.

Get Outside

Rather than the deadening feeling you get from long spells in the car, self-powered travel, outside, invigorates. Think of the vast draughts of oxygen you’re consuming, and earth’s voice – the meadowlarks, bullfrogs, spring-filled creeks, rustling aspens – that envelops your world. All is right with

the world when you experience it immersively like this.

Slow Enough to Stop

Getting your car off the road when you’re travelling at 100 kmph always seems massively inconvenient. Not so on a bike. You know those iconic and quirky things about each community you pass by in a car – the

dollhouse churches, abbeys, tunnels, park tea rooms and interpretive centres, Doukhobor

homesteads, saloons, goats on a store roof, houses made of 150,000 bottles of embalming fluid, smudge circles, biggest truck in the world, biggest 2-scoop ice-cream cone – and never stop for in a car? You’ll be happy to get off your

bike for them.

Fellow Canadians and Travellers

Going a fifth the speed of a vehicle slows your pace enough to land in the orbit of others – those who

are working, playing, exploring and living in this vast and varied country. And undoubtedly those encounters will warm you and affirm what we already suspect – goodness prevails.

Artisan Alley

I’ve never seen the statistics, but I’m sure more artists and artisans per capita call B.C. home than any other province. And the quality of their work – if the Kootenays was

any indication – is world-class. Fantastical brooms featured on stages in London and Chicago, weaving that experiments with hybrid yarns, pottery that incorporates ancient traditions. Don’t pass these cottage industries by – people who have devoted their lives to their craft will be delighted to show you why.

Craft Beer, Wine, Coffee & Food

The food is good, fresh and bountiful in B.C. An epicure’s delight. A

cyclist’s dream. From well-stocked grocery stories to legendary farmer’s markets, to well-loved bakeries, one does not lack for tasty, healthy food on the road in B.C. Add the burgeoning craft beer industry, the ever-expanding vintner expertise, and the locally roasted coffee, and well, you’re in for a treat while biking B.C.

Burn Fat, Not Fuel

No need to wax on about the health and fitness benefits of cycling (like any other sustained cardio-vascular

activity, including boosting your immune system), but I would like to point out that the only time you need to stop at those exorbitantly priced gas pumps in B.C. is to perhaps use their restrooms. Now, that is sweet!

Purposeful Travel

Yes, cycling is purposeful on its own (given all the above reasons) but if you can find one thing to give it even more focus – like exploring all the ghost towns in B.C., hunting for the elusive yellow warbler, a ride for

cancer – an added raison d’etre will give you reason to keep pedalling determinedly down the road.

Great for Blogger/Photographer Geeks

Beautiful B.C. gives you something to write about. If you can ever put your camera down.

What a privilege – as a blogger, an educator and an avid cyclist – to honour my sister in this way and turn up the temperature for ovarian cancer research. Bike B.C. – I’ve listed just ten reasons. What would you add?