In the end it was a group of six that set out on this 80km trip from Waterfront. When we say we are out all day, we mean it! It was about twelve hours door to door, not all of it cycling of course. The idea for this trip was to try some new routes to New West and visit some interesting places on the way and then take a different route back downtown, instead of the BC Parkway.

Certainly we found new routes, don’t think we’ll be repeating the Cariboo Bike Route, very steep. Trans Mountain Pipeline people werre helpful for the route planning and the work was as described, very helpful flaggers keeping drivers and riders safe. Happily, stairs made a welcome return to the route, not too challenging this time though. Mundy Park was the first stop, about two hours from downtown. Usually we go around the edge of the park but this time we went looking for the lakes and were well rewarded, beautiful reflections and gorgeous greens. The first hints of autumn too, leaves starting to change now.

The hills up into New West were a challenge and we needed to stop for food and a rest at the end of Cariboo. Happily we met a friend there so chatted to Lesley for a while. From there we made our way to the Flavour Balance Espresso Bar, the world looked a better place after coffee and cake, well worth a trip.

The Pier Park was quiet, from there we made our way to the Q to Q ferry, three bikes per trip, and the ferry ran an extra trip to get us across to Queensborough quickly. From htere it was cycle around the rather nice waterfront homes up to 22nd Street Skytrain and then, via some twists and truns to the Japanese Gardens at the Nikkei National Museum, a wonderful oasis. Nana’s Bakery provided cherry tart and other delicacies and off we went to Central Park, then the Ridgeway west before heading north on Prince Edward and eventually to Red Truck. Beer and a side of fries, excellent.

This was a pretty hard and long day out but really interesting, lots of new routes, new things to see and more ideas for more bike rides.

See the route here on Iain’s Garmin 1040