Canada - Day 30 - Abbotsford to Vancouver

 69.1 miles, 2700’ elevation gain, great blue heron, 4 black bears

From our hotel in Abbotsford, we used Google maps to select a way back to our route. Immediately it seemed like a mistake: no shoulder, large trucks passing pulling multiple trailers, tons of traffic. It felt dangerous. We carefully reversed our course and chose another route. It was still not great riding, but it got us there. We noticed that Abbotsford tended to smell: garbage, fertilizer, manure, insecticide — what was that pervasive smell? Why no shoulders on the roads? Why so much traffic? Neither of us feel any inclination to return to Abbotsford and find the answers any time soon. 

Finally we turned off on a trail that lead us to quiet roads past small farms. We got on a levee (dyke), apparently for flood control but doubling for recreation along many of the waterways. There are many trails on top of these, nice because there’s no traffic and few road crossings. 

We turned off into the town of Langley, stopping immediately in a charming coffee shop for a break. The town was upscale with beautiful river paths that lasted for miles past houses, docks, tall trees, berry bushes. We exited the river path to ride up a circular ramp — four stories — across the Golden Ears Bridge on the huge Fraser River, an amazing amount of water in the eyes of a desert dweller. The bridge is huge, too, and we were glad to be separated from traffic by a cement wall. After maneuvering thru some streets and neighborhoods, we were back on shady river paths along the Pitt River. After another bridge, we hopped on a path into Port Coquitlam, first on the Pitt River and then through some town parks. We went on many different named paths, most with their own logos and names, often covering the same local trail.

The forests are so dense here that even parks in town feel like they are out in nature. We turned down a path near a creek just minutes after taking a picture of a sign warning that bears are in the area. Suddenly Ed stopped. Two small bear cubs scooted off the trail and through the ferns to our right. We looked for the mother and realized that there were 3 cubs, edging past each other, one climbing to the top of a small tree, pretty cute. Finally we spotted the mother bear in the creek bottom, headed away after her cubs, not looking perturbed or defensive. We walked past, trying to snap a few pics, then continued onwards.

We had a mix of loud roads, quiet trails, and finally we came out into Vancouver. Navigating the route through the city feels chaotic: cars, bikes, scooters, pedestrians everywhere. The first hotel we tried couldn’t accommodate bikes, so we went forward through Chinatown, into central Vancouver, past cute neighborhoods, derelict businesses, hectic traffic. We ended up at the Holiday Inn, a 17 story high rise in this big city, not our first choice but close to our route and welcome after nearly 70 humid, sunny miles.