Kettle Valley Railway

This a pretty famous cycling trail around this area and around the world. I got a chance the other day to cycle 60km of the trail - all downhill. We cycled over trestle bridges spanning huge gullies, through tunnels 1km long and lots of beautiful mountain and lake scenes.

New Denver Mountain Biking

Last summer my goal was to ride up Idaho Peak from New Denver. That was fun last year and a couple of times this year. This year I wanted to ride from Retallack on Highway 31A over the Stinson/Reco Ridge and down in Sandon and then up the Idaho Peak road and down to New Denver for an awesome epic day. It was. Lots of good climbing ( 3000m ) and lots of good descents. I think I'm fine for next year. Andrew ( in the photograph ) is the willing participant.

Idaho Peak Bike Ride

The Idaho Peak bike ascent from New Denver was my goal for last summer. I ended up doing it a couple of times and look forward to doing all of the trails again this summer. It's 6,500 ft of vertical from New Denver. 30 minutes or so on highway 3A up to Three Forks. Another 30 to Sandon on dirt road. I think that's about 12 or 14km. Then the grind really begins. The next 12km ( almost 2 hrs ) are up the forestry road to Wild Goose Basin and on up to the parking area right on the ridgetop. The trail then follows the ridge to the summit or alternatively drops right off the south side on the Wakefield for about an hour single track descent, followed by narrow wagon road, followed by the main logging road up Silverton Creek for a total of 1.5 hrs descent. Ride back to New Denver - 10am.

Incomappleux Valley Road Closure

I first visited the Incomappleux valley fifteen years ago doing some exploring for ice climbing. The canyon has been paddled once for sure and looks like mostly class III with a short section of class IV. The upper and lower river seem to be nice class II with some sweepers and cold water. It is a cool entrance to a valley that extends 40 km north and widens considerably. CMH and Selkirk Tangiers ski up here. The road has been closed since February. No current plans to reopen.

Incomappleux valley

Jim and I had the good fortune to visit Patrick at the Mountain Hostel in the Incomappleux valley over the last couple of days. We heard that a rock fall had closed the road into the valley from the canyon so it sounded like the Incomappleux was remote once again. We drove through Nakusp and past the Galena Bay Ferry and turned off before reaching Trout Lake. 15km of flat mountain biking up the valley brought us to the Hostel. It sounds like Patrick had a few adventures building the beautiful lodge. The following day we got a ride up into the hills for a look around the surroundings. The Incomappleux valley was apparantly named after a french phrase for land of lots of rain.... The headwaters of the valley are the glaciers at Rogers Pass.

Idaho Peak North Ridge

I thought that this would be one of the ultimate mountain bike rides and I was not dissappointed. I started riding at 6am from New Denver climbing to Sandon by 7am on the roads and then started up the Idaho Peak Road. Once again it took me about 1hr 45 minutes for the climb to parking lot. I did continue up to the peak and then walked down the north ridge to protect the fragile alpine environment. I joined the single track following the ridge and then continued down and left from the towers to join with the wagon road. Then it was right and some crazy road traversing incredibly steep slide paths and then into the bowl with the Alamo Mine. The trail below the mine joins the Queen Bess Rd and then taking the first left which is signposted "Alamo" and becomes a very cool singletrack for another couple of thousand feet before the "Choices" turn ( left for Alamo and right for "Choices" ). Down through sweeping wagon road turns and then onto the old Sandon Wagon Rd. Yahoo. Back before 11....

Pedal Power up Idaho Peak

One of my goals this summer was to pedal my bike up to Idaho Peak. From New Denver it is a 5,500 ft ( approx ) climb over about 25 km. I have been riding a couple of mornings a week mostly doing the loop up to Three Forks and back down. There are a couple of neat variations as there are three possible trails to get to Three Forks ( the highway, the Galena Trail, or the old Sandon Rd ). It is about 30 minutes up to Three Forks and about 30 minutes down. From Three Forks it is about 30 minutes up to the old Mining Ghost Town of Sandon on a dirt road. Get up there early before the heat of the day. From Sandon the grade on the road cranks up a notch. It is 12 km to the ridge top. It seemed a reasonable 1 hr 45 minutes and I walked a few short steeper 10 meter sections. Incredible views. I left the New Denver at 5am and was on the peak before 8:30 and then descended the Wakefield singletrack which was a little exciting in some steep sections where it was all I could do to keep the brakes on full and the bike on the trail. The trail connects the old mines on the southern side of Idaho Peak and connects to an old wagon road and then follows Silverton Creek back to Silverton. Yahoo. Back in New Denver at 10am.

The attached photo was taken 1902 of the town of Sandon with a sub peak of Idaho Peak in the background.