CODY SHIMIZU

A look into my life, a journal to look back on, a blog for others to see.

Bikepacking has been one of the things I’ve been dreaming of during lectures over the past winter. I spent many hours, in class, procrastinating, spending nights, making up routes I wanted to ride. Yet this summer I hadn’t been riding much, actually not at all. Although as much as I’d wanted to go on amazing bikepacking trip pedaling through the wild unknowns, unfortunately for me this year many other ambitious adventures were lined up infront of any bikepacking adventure so it had been on the back burner for me. But then on a whim I decided to take some time off work to go on an adventure.

I had less than a month to plan out my trip and get everything together. Looking at my calendar I wouldn’t even have an opportunity to go on a trip to test out my gear. I already had in mind the route that I wanted to attempt. The BC1000 following through southern BC going from Cultus Lake just outside of Abbotsford to Fernie, via a mix of The Great Trail (used to be known as the Trans Canada Trail) and decommissioned rail trails. Looking at the time I had for the trip it would be a bit on the tight side. But going from my experience riding the Alberta Rockies 700 Trail where it followed Forestry Trunk Road along the front ranges of the Rockies I should be able to push the time a little and be able to make it. Although my lack of fitness and experience bike packing had me very worried about the trip. The plan was that I would meet up with my parents camping in Kananaskis, only problem is that if I don’t make it back in time I wouldn’t have a ride back to Edmonton.

The last 2 weeks leading up to the trip was absolutely chaotic with getting my bike together. I realized that the spokes in my wheels were pulling through, attempting to put Salsa Anything Cages onto my fork, getting my dynamo hub together; everything just felt last minute. But after a crazy week I managed to get everything together. Flights booked I went to bed the night before with a mix of excitement and nervousness. I’ve never done such a big trip solo, that mixed with the tight timeline, I was worried to say the least.

After working a Saturday I got home and could barely get any sleep. The 7am flight the next day couldn’t come fast enough. At the airport the next morning, Swoop absolutely ripped me off trying to take my bike onto the plane where they charged me $200 to get the bike on the plane; little did I know this would be the start to one of the longest days of my life. After a short 1.5hr flight I was in Abbotsford, I could feel the warm humid air as I walked across the tarmac into the small-town airport. I quickly built my bike up in a quiet corner of the airport and got rolling. After killing some time waiting for Cabela’s to open since I needed to buy bear spray and fuel for my stove I finally got rolling. From the start I could tell it was going to be a really hot day, not a cloud in the sky. I rolled along the pavement taking in the unusual scenery of the not so tall but plentiful rolling mountains.

The small rollers going up to Cultus lake already had my legs feeling a bit sore. I didn’t realize how touristy that area was. But from there all the suddenly I headed onto a very rough gravel road, going through the mountains. Steep yet short climbs sapping the energy away from my legs, twisting and turning along the rough roads it finally popped me out on the road to Chilliwack lake. By this point the sun was high, temperature still rising, the false flat going up to Chilliwack lake was soul sucking. At one point I pulled off to the side of the road to take a dip in a river running under the road. Within minutes of getting back on my bike again I was already starting to overheat. After what felt like an eternity I finally made it to Chilliwack lake, a beautiful lake nestles in the front ranges of the Rockies. From there was the hardest climb of my life, a steep jeep track with grades upwards of 17%, my bike weighed down with all of my bikepacking gear, with a not so light gearing, and the sun shining tall providing little to no shade made for a brutal hike-a-bike. I could feel the onset of heatstroke, the next 4 hours was a repeat of walking shade to shade, drinking copious amounts of water, refilling my bottles at every stream that I found. I was physically and mentally exhausted, I found myself in a bad cycle of checking my phone constantly to see how close I was to the summit; every time I looked it was demoralizing. Finally a turnoff into a narrow single track with only small palm sized signs labelled TCT (Trans Canada Trail) signalling that I was going the right way. I hadn’t seen anyone in hours, the sun was starting to set. FINALLY the summit. I was still close to 60km from Hope, yet the skies turning a beautiful hue of orange. But thankfully I was able to end the day on a bit of a high note. The entire 60kms was all downhill, the trail barely being used was super overgrown, if there was anybody else on the trail I would guarantee a pretty bad head on collision yet at this point I didn’t really care. I sped through the bushes barely could see where I was going until I saw a bear, a black bear. I skid to a stop and quickly pulled my bag off frantically trying to grab my bear spray to somewhere more accessible, as I yelled for my presence to be known the bear scampered away. From there it was smooth sailing, as I spun my tired legs away to make it to Hope before dark. Finally by 9:30PM I rolled into town tired and exhausted it was definitely one of the hardest days of my life.

The next morning I woke up to another beautiful day, almost too beautiful, without a cloud in the sky it was going to be another hot day. Only day 2 my legs already exhausted, I had no one but myself to blame I hadn’t trained for such adventures at all. Leaving Hope was a mix of highway and cruddy ATV trails along the side of the highway cobbled together for The Great Trail, which this section was also known as the Kettle Valley Railway Trail (KVR). From there I decided to stay on the highway which lead me to Coquihalla summit, I avoided the KVR for the highway since I heard rumors that the KVR which stayed low in the valley was in rough shape, parts of is washed away by floods. Although Im not 100% sure of the condition of the trail, in my opinion. Big mistake. The Coquihalla summit was a brutal highway to make my way up, especially with the crazy heat. It was just steep and never ending. As the pedaling went from walking speed to a crawl, I would move for 10minutes then take shelter under what little shade I could find. After suffering from border line heat stroke for a solid 3 hours I finally made it to the summit where I was greeted with a food stand serving burgers and ice cream, I sat by the little shade I could find by the public washroom and chowed down the greasy burger like a savage as the people pouring out of the tour buses darted their eyes around trying to get a glimpse at this weirdo. Already on day two and the second hardest climb of my life. From there it was fairly smooth sailing yet still close to 100km to go of gravel trails it was already 2pm, once again I pushed into the evening finally rolling into Princeton close to 8pm. Chowing down burgers once again at A&W I met some other bikepackers, they were all here from Germany, although they all came separately they decided to ride together. It was nice to meet others alike and talk to them, listen to their stories.

Only 2 days into my trip and both days I was moving for close to 12 hours, in extreme heat, already absolutely exhausted. It gave me cold feet, the doubts I already had in my mind manifesting. Maybe I wont make it in time, but even when I told myself whats the worst that could happen? That I need to bus home from Canmore? I couldn’t get the feeling of dread out of my mind. Either way it was failure, my ambitions had lead me on a trip beyond me, or beyond what I thought I was capable of. I didn’t follow the rule dream big, start small. I decided to make a last-minute change, from Penticton I would head north hitting the Okanagan Rail Trail through the valley Revelstoke, Golden, through Lake Louise back into Canmore.

The ride to Penticton was a nice change of pace. Starting with a bit of a climb coming out of Princeton, from there the rail trail hugged the mountain side riding high above the valley going around the contours of the mountain as I slowly descended towards Penticton. I managed to roll into town fairly early for once.

Rolling through these towns I realized that stopping in these towns it was actually cheaper staying at hostels rather than the campgrounds. It was crazy expensive staying at these campgrounds for just a basic non-service tent site they were charging close to $40 a night. Ridiculous!

From Penticton after spending the night at their hostel I headed out of town a nice rail grade ascent out above the Okanagan valley. I had been dreading this climb for a while considering how much elevation I would be gaining. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d expected and once I made it up to Chute lake there was a nice little restaurant where they had one of the best brisket burgers I’ve ever had. I managed to chow down the meal talking to another bike packer who was going the other way on the KVR. From there I got to ride through Myra Canyon Trestles, a series of bridges that connected the rail trail from back in the day. A fairly touristy spot yet it was a cool feeling to have ridden there from Abbotsford. From there I peeled off of the KVR into Kelowna. From here I would take the Okanagan rail trail through Vernon to Sicamous then just hit the highway to Canmore.

From Kelowna, I managed to make it to Canmore 2 days earlier than expected. Don’t get me wrong I was pretty happy about myself that I was able to make it to Canmore from Abbotsford by bike. In the big scheme of things its nothing grand, but personally it was a big achievement. Unfortunately, milestones like this have almost certainly come with an asterisk. I wasn’t able to complete the original route I had wanted to, the BC1000 trail and looking back maybe I could’ve made it but at the time physically and mentally I wasn’t feeling it. Once again I had let my ambitions lead me to beyond my means. Sometimes its good to dream big, but when you dream too much its easy to forget to keep reality in check. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be back. I’ll definitely be back to finish what I started.