In Radium: the ride to the south

July 22, 2023

Roll on, Columbia, roll on / Roll on, Columbia, roll on / Your power is turning our darkness to dawn / So roll on, Columbia, roll on

Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1941 while on contract with the BPA to build public support for the hydroelectric projects on the Columbia River. I first learned it sixty years ago when I was a camp counselor at Henderson Camps on the south end of on Lopez Island. We would end each day sitting in the large dining hall overlooking the bay singing folk songs led by the resident camp musicians. It’s one of my favorite memories from my youth, and may have been my first exposure to folk music. The song has been on my mind the last few days as we bike along the headwaters of the Columbia.

Yesterday’s ride into the national park was fine, but not enough for us to drive so far into it to bike a different section today. Instead we’ve been tempted by another option I ferreted out last night: the recently completed Westside Legacy Trail. Opened just last year, it’s a paved bike path that runs for 25 kilometers down the east side of the river behind Lake Windermere between Invermere and Fairmont Hot Springs. It looks like a fine riding experience, and pairs well with another lunch stop at the golf course restaurant we had lunch at three days earlier.

We once again get an early start, timing our departure so that we’ll arrive back in Invermere for lunch roughly at noon. After a ten mile ride south we find a convenient parking lot and start biking somewhere around eight. Conditions aren’t quite as attractive today as the previous two, because there’s enough smoke in the valley that it reduces visibility.

A few last minute adjustments and then we’ll get started.

The ride starts with a fairly steep drop to the Columbia before climbing up the other side. It’s a narrow, busy road and enough off a descent that I’m wondering how it will be to climb back up to the car at the end of the ride when the day has warmed up considerably.

So that’s one surprise. The other is that the Westside Trail isn’t the relaxed cruise I’d anticipated. At the north end at least it has some significantly steep stretches where the trail for no obvious reason climbs sharply away from the paved, quiet Westside Road that it roughly parallels. In a bit of dimwittedness, the ride planner drew out this out and back ride but then never bothered to even look at its ride profile, imagining this to be lazy family-friendly outing sort of place. I expected to be weaving around skateboarders and kids on trikes but instead we found ourselves shifting down for 10-12% ascents and then braking for the steep descents and tight hairpin turns on the other side.

Starting off on the brand new Westside Legacy Trail.

The Westside Legacy Trail is a fine cycling experience, but not quite the one we were expecting.

The northern end of the trail surprised us by how hilly it was, with several short, steep stretches. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but I never looked at the profile of the route I created for some reason.

I love roads like this. It reminds me of this magical stretch on the Door Peninsula a few years ago: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/msptonyc2021/washington-island/#29080_mzwgffbyn5d29sylyvtj2o4usxp

A treat, please? You can ignore all those don’t feed the wildlife signs.

Looking across Windermere Lake, which we never get a particularly good view of. Nice mountains though.

So that was pretty stupid, I think you’ll all agree with me - especially since Rachael had pointed out that the ride looked hilly to her. Fortunately though the Westside Road gave us an acceptable bailout option. After the first two hilly diversions we stuck to the much less contoured road for the next two until finally things generally smoothed out and we stayed with the bike trail the rest of the way to its southern end.

We also had a second bailout option: Highway 95, on the other side of the valley. We decided that at the end of the trail we’d cross the river and bike north on the highway instead, confident that this would be a gentler if busier return route.

On the Westside Legacy Trail. On its well behaved (flatter) sections we rode the trail, but in a few stretches we kept to the road instead.

We’re getting some smoke in the trench today. There’s a south wind, so maybe it’s blowing up from Cranbrook. That fire is still spreading and out of control.

Near the south end of the trail it largely follows the road for the last five miles, gradually dropping toward the river.

The trail ends at Highway 95. Not long before we arrived I zoomed in on the Garmin and was surprised to see that we’d hit the highway just west of Dutch Creek. Dutch Creek! That’s the spectacular spot with the hoodoo cliffs we drove past on our drive up from Cranbrook. I’ve been regretting failing to stop for a better look at the time, but now we’re unexpectedly getting a do-over opportunity. Of course we accept the option.

Descending to the highway, I see on the Garmin that we’ll be only a half mile from Dutch Creek. I convince Rachael that we should add a mile and go see the hoodoos.

Dutch Creek and the hoodoos. I was so pleased to get a chance to come back for a slower look.

It’s a fast ride north on Highway 95, which with the day heating up quickly is exactly the right ticket. It’s not the most scenic stretch of road we’ve ridden lately, but the shoulder’s good enough and the miles pass by quickly as we benefit from a brisk tailwind.

It’s just noon when we make it back to the car, and ten minutes later we’re sitting down at the golf course restaurant cooling off with refreshments and waiting for our mains while I watch some thrilling chips from the rough and near-miss putts in The Open on the ring of huge screens surrounding the room and Rachael listens to a nearby sales pitch. For only 10,000 CAD we could be shareholders in the club! Tempting, but I might have been more interested if they’d been screening the Tour instead.

We’re on Highway 95 for the next 18 miles, taking the faster and easier route back to the car. It’s warming up so we bike nonstop, and with a fair tailwind the miles click off fast.

Well, we don’t quite bike nonstop. We have to stop when we cross the young Columbia, which begins only about two miles south of here at Columbia Lake.

A merganser family! It’s like with those ducklings two days back - as soon as they sensed that they had an observer they all began furiously racing upriver.

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Today's ride: 38 miles (61 km)
Total: 960 miles (1,545 km)

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Kirsten KaarsooI remember when the Westside Legacy bike trail was put in a few years back and people complaining about the hills as most expected it to be much more 'family friendly'.
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