Walnut Grove is not the sort of name that appears on a postcard, and that is part of its charm as the last stop of the day. The point lies in the Township of Langley, in the lowlands of the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, where the land flattens into a broad plain of farms, greenhouses and new subdivisions. A few kilometres to the east, the little town of Fort Langley preserves the old Hudson's Bay Company post, founded in 1827, where in 1858 the colony of British Columbia was proclaimed after the gold rush brought thousands of miners up the river.
The Fraser itself is the great fact of the landscape. It comes out of the mountains with a load of silt, runs wide and brown between its banks, and has laid down the flat, fertile delta that makes this one of the richest farming areas in western Canada. In the fall, salmon run up the river in huge numbers, and eagles gather on the sandbars and cottonwoods to feed on the carcasses. To the north, the Golden Ears and the North Shore mountains stand in a line, and on a clear morning their snowy tops are the first thing you see.
The riders who end their day here have usually come back from the ferry at Horseshoe Bay, and the Sunshine Coast, with its green ridges and long inlets, is already behind. The road home is mostly the Trans-Canada Highway, wide, busy and fast, with commuter traffic that moves in big surges and plenty of trucks, and the more interesting route is along the river by Fort Langley, along back roads with farm stands, hedgerows and the odd tractor. Rain is the main hazard: the Fraser Valley collects weather from the Pacific, and winter days can be wet and grey for weeks.
Fuel and food are no trouble. Walnut Grove has stations, supermarkets and a number of cafes and chain restaurants, and Fort Langley has bakeries and small places for a proper meal. In summer, look for blueberry and strawberry stands along the roadside, selling fruit picked that morning. May and June, or September, are the most pleasant months to ride, with long daylight and warm, dry roads, and Fort Langley is worth an hour of your time before you go home.