CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Out of West End, one way: 127 km, roughly 2 h 13 in the saddle. On the way it passes Horseshoe Bay, Porteau Cove and Squamish. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,400 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 22 km this is Sea-to-Sky Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Vancouver is a city that sits between mountains and sea, so closely that you can ski in the morning and sail in the afternoon, as the local line goes. Glass towers crowd a peninsula with the North Shore peaks rising directly behind, and Stanley Park, a huge, forested park on the tip of the peninsula, wraps around the downtown with a seawall path and old-growth cedar. Gastown, the historic quarter, takes its name from a talkative saloon keeper, Gassy Jack Deighton, whose statue stands in the square.
Read the complete Vancouver write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Vancouver is where the day begins. Next is Horseshoe Bay.
Horseshoe Bay is the place where Vancouver stops being a city and becomes a coast. It lies at the north-west end of West Vancouver, a small harbour with a ferry terminal, a marina and a strip of seafront cafes, and the mountains of Howe Sound rise out of the water behind it. The ferries run from here to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, to Bowen Island and to the Sunshine Coast, so the harbour has a constant rhythm of arrivals, departures, and cars lining up for the next sailing.
Read the complete Horseshoe Bay write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Horseshoe Bay comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Porteau Cove.
Porteau Cove is a small provincial park on the edge of Howe Sound, where the railway and the highway squeeze together along the shore and the fjord stretches out toward the mountains. A pier extends into the water, a beach of pebbles and driftwood curves around the cove, and across the sound the peaks rise steeply, with cloud lying in the valleys. It is one of the best places on the highway to stop, and the pull-out is quick and easy.
Read the complete Porteau Cove write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Porteau Cove. Next is Squamish.
Squamish sits at the head of Howe Sound, where the fjord ends against a wall of granite, and the first thing it shows you is the Stawamus Chief, a monolith of rock rising some seven hundred metres straight out of the forest. It is one of the largest free-standing granite faces in the world, and on any good day the white specks on its walls are climbers, which has turned this small town into a minor capital of the sport. Beside it Shannon Falls drops in a long white thread, easily seen from the highway.
Read the complete Squamish write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Squamish, late in the day. Next is Whistler.
Whistler began as an idea in the 1960s, when a group of Vancouver businessmen decided that a mountain north of the city might host an Olympic ski area, and it ended as one of the largest winter resorts in North America. The village itself is purpose built, a pedestrian maze of shops, bars and hotels at the foot of two mountains, Whistler and Blackcomb, joined by a gondola called Peak 2 Peak that spans a huge gap between the summits. The name comes from the hoary marmots that whistle from the rockfalls, and the surrounding land is the shared territory of the Squamish and Lil'wat peoples, whose cultural centre in the village is worth an hour.
Read the complete Whistler write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Whistler. That is the ride.
Vancouver → Horseshoe Bay is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Horseshoe Bay → Porteau Cove is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Porteau Cove → Squamish is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Squamish → Whistler is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.