Great Trail wk4 d1

Our day started just shortly after sun up and ended just shortly before Sundown. It was about 12 hours of riding as we made our way from Merritt to Hope. We should have realized right at the start the things might become hopeless. If you look at the two pictures below one has the Sun behind us and the next one has the sun in front of us. That’s because after writing about two and a half miles down the recommended Google Maps route we were turned around by a washed-out bridge. It was so fun to waste 5 miles at the start of our longest day.

After the false start we spent another 25 miles retracing our steps from Merritt – that didn’t really seem to have much merit – back to Brookmere. We sort of thought the tough part of the day was over as we had gone mostly uphill. We were dreadfully wrong. As we continued over the next 30 miles we were met again and again with the great Trail becoming a game Trail and sometimes no Trail.

We were beat up pretty badly. But we needed to continue on in order to reach Hope where I had a non-refundable reservation at a motel. After anothrr 30 miles of the Great Trail not being so great we finally stopped going uphill and began downhill but with another 30 miles to go. Thankfully at least the scenery got better and better.. In particular there was one small Creek called the hole-in-the-wall which literally was water running through a cliff and then breaking out into the open.

The rail trail we had been riding since Castlegar, several hundred miles back, ended at Hope. The interesting thing is that the last few miles were actually the most amazing as we came into the final tunnels and trestles of the rail trail. If you are ever anywhere near Hope BC go see them. They are carved through a deep gorge with a beautiful River at the bottom.

We are still on the great Trail and will continue on to Victoria this week. But the rail trails are behind us. Clearly we’ve entered a new ecosystem as the woods are thick with vegetation and Moss. And yes, you guessed it, it’s quite beautiful.

Photos