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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Squamish it runs 638 km to Anmore; allow about 11 h 36 of riding. The stops in between: Whistler, Pemberton, Duffey Lake Road and near Anmore. Vancouver / British Columbia is the high point. It tops out at about 1,600 m. Back roads rather than main roads, where the map allows.
For 37 km this is Sea-to-Sky Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 36 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
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 fuel is where the day begins. Next is Whistler food.
Whistler is a village built for pleasure in an old logging valley, and it knows it. The pedestrian village at the foot of Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, with its cobbled lanes, hotels and rows of restaurants, was planned in the late 1970s and took off when the two ski areas were developed, and then hit the world stage when the Winter Olympics came here in 2010. The Peak 2 Peak gondola, which links the two mountains across a deep valley, opened in 2008 and holds records for its span and height. In summer the ski slopes become mountain bike parks, and in winter the village is packed with skiers from around the world.
Read the complete Whistler food write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Whistler food is where this day stops to eat. Next is Pemberton.
Pemberton sits in a flat, green valley surrounded by high, jagged mountains, a short distance north of Whistler, and it feels like a different world from the resort next door. Mount Currie, a rugged peak with a grey crest, towers over the farmland, and the Lillooet River winds across the valley floor. Farmers here grow seed potatoes, which are prized for their disease-free quality, and the fields with their neat rows are the first thing you see on arrival. The town has about two thousand people, a few cafes, a brewery and a laid-back air.
Read the complete Pemberton write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 95 km into the recorded legs you reach Pemberton. Next is Duffey Lake Road.
The Duffey Lake Road is the part of British Columbia's Highway 99 that nobody forgets. It leaves Pemberton, in a flat green valley of farms and potato fields, and in less than an hour climbs into the Coast Mountains and drops into the dry interior, one of the sharpest changes of landscape in Canada. The road crosses Cayoosh Pass, a little over a thousand metres, and passes the shores of Duffey Lake, a long, green, glacier-fed water beneath towering peaks, and the trailheads for Joffre Lakes, three tiers of turquoise lakes beneath a glacier that have become some of the most popular walks in the province.
Read the complete Duffey Lake Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Duffey Lake Road, early in the day. Next is Back to Squamish fuel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Squamish write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Squamish fuel. That is the ride. Next is Duffy Lake Road Loop.
Anmore is a small, wooded village in the hills above Port Moody, just east of Indian Arm, the steep fjord that runs north off Burrard Inlet. It is a quiet, semi-rural place, with large lots, forest and a strong sense of being on the edge of the wilderness, despite being only half an hour from downtown Vancouver.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Anmore write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Duffy Lake Road Loop is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Vancouver / British Columbia return.
The nearest town of any size is Squamish, twenty-odd kilometres to the north-east, and Lions Bay, a small village clinging to the opposite shore, is more than thirty kilometres away. What lies between is steep forested slope, small lakes and rock, with the Tantalus Range showing its white shoulders to the east.
Read the complete Vancouver / British Columbia return write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Duffy Lake Road Loop food stop.
The Sunshine Coast is not an island, but it might as well be. Although it is part of the mainland of British Columbia, no road connects it to Vancouver; you have to take a ferry from Horseshoe Bay across Howe Sound to Langdale, and the forty-minute crossing, through a fjord of forested mountains, sets the tone for a place that feels removed from the rush of the city. Sechelt, the main town, sits on a narrow isthmus between the Strait of Georgia and the long, sheltered Sechelt Inlet.
Read the complete Sechelt write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, about 405 km into the recorded legs. Next is Photo stop near Ganges.
Photo stop near Ganges sits at 493 km, about halfway. Next is Duffy Lake Road Loop checkpoint 8.
Richmond is built on mud, and proud of it. The city occupies Lulu Island and neighbouring islands in the delta of the Fraser River, just south of Vancouver, land so flat and so low that much of it sits barely above sea level behind a ring of dykes. Vancouver's airport takes up Sea Island to the west, the North Shore mountains rise beyond the city skyline, and on a clear day Mount Baker floats above the delta to the southeast, a white volcano across the border in Washington.
Read the complete Richmond write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Duffy Lake Road Loop checkpoint 8 closes the day. Next is High point near Langley.
Langley spreads across the Fraser Valley east of Vancouver, a mix of suburbs, horse farms, berry fields and wineries under a wide sky. It is not high in any alpine sense, but the gentle uplands here lift you just enough to see the Coast Mountains to the north and, on a clear day, the white cone of Mount Baker floating across the border to the south-east.
Read the complete High point near Langley write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 579 km into the recorded legs you reach High point near Langley. Next is Scenic stretch near Pitt Meadows.
Pitt Meadows lies on the flat delta land where the Pitt River meets the Fraser, east of Vancouver. Dykes hold back the rivers, and behind them stretch blueberry and cranberry fields, wetlands and farmland, with the steep, forested peaks of the Golden Ears rising dramatically to the north. On a clear evening, with the sun catching the mountains and the fields glowing, it is a beautiful place to end a ride.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Pitt Meadows write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Pitt Meadows, late in the day. Next is Back to Duffy Lake Road.
Anmore is a small village in the forested hills above Burrard Inlet, a short ride from Port Moody and the eastern edge of Vancouver's urban area, and the dot sits here because the Duffy Lake Road loop ends back in this part of the Lower Mainland. The land is dense with hemlock and cedar, the air is damp and cool, and the roads wind between lakes and ridges with a sense of being close to wilderness while only a few kilometres from the shops.
Read the complete Duffy Lake Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Duffy Lake Road closes the day.
Squamish fuel → Whistler food is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Whistler food → Pemberton is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pemberton → Duffey Lake Road is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Duffey Lake Road → Back to Squamish fuel is 119 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Back to Squamish fuel → Fuel stop near Anmore is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Anmore → Vancouver / British Columbia return is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Vancouver / British Columbia return → Sechelt is 45 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Photo stop near Ganges → Richmond is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Langley → Scenic stretch near Pitt Meadows is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Pitt Meadows → Back to Duffy Lake Road is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.