It was 8:40am when we finished airing up at the Rady Creek FSR (Forest Service Road) trailhead. Still reasonably early, we weren't in any rush as far as our daily itinerary was concerned, but I knew that it took about 45 minutes to reach the Galena Bay ferry - departing for Shelter Bay at 9:30am - from our current location, so we zipped along at a good pace on our way toward the terminal. The N52010 Fire smoldered at the base of Mt. Murray in the Lardeau Range as we passed by. Terminal - in the case of Galena Bay…
14 CommentsTag: West Kootenays
In all my exploring, there are few places that I've returned to for a third time. Off the top of my head, I can list only a few: a special little spot in the California Sierra where my Dad and I meet each year, the Alvord Playa in southeast Oregon, and Butte Valley in my favorite National Park. I first visited Rady back in September of 2021 after hearing about it from Mike @POSTacoMike and watching a video that Shaun put together about the deactivation of the road that climbed high into the Kootenays of British Columbia. At the time,…
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I'm not a huge fan of airing up tires, so once we've aired down on a trip, I generally try to stay aired down until the trip is over and we're pounding pavement towards home. Today though, we had 350 miles of pavement - and a ferry to catch - between Lillooet and our next item on the agenda along Upper Arrow Lake, so we took the time to run the ARB compressor and get the new Kenda Klever RTs up to full pressure before speeding along at 100 mph. Err, km/h, which is basically the same, right? Just outside of…
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Having thoroughly enjoyed my time on Rady Creek FSR, I popped out at Trout Lake, just before 9:00am. As had been the case the last couple of days, BC-31 here was smoothly graded dirt, and driving was a breeze. I really wanted to get down to the lake - a few hundred meters to my west and maybe a hundred meters down - so when I saw an offshoot, I took it. As far as I could tell, the road I ended up on was the old highway to Galena Bay. Having fallen into disrepair since the new road -…
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Having thoroughly enjoyed American Creek, I found myself both excited and apprehensive about the next leg of my journey. I was excited because Rady Creek was the reason I'd headed to Canada in the first place. I was apprehensive - I suppose - because I really wanted it to live up to the image I'd formed in my mind about how great it was going to be. Looking back now, I was obviously over thinking things. I'd heard about Rady Creek from Mike @POSTacoMike, who'd posted a video to TacomaWorld of a trip he'd taken to this special place just a…
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It was 9:45am when I reached the bottom of the Lavina Lookout trail and turned the Tacoma north on the Balfour-Kaslo-Galena Bay Highway (BC-31) again. Almost immediately - and to my joyous surprise - the highway turned to well-graded dirt, alleviating any desire to air up. Dirt highways are definitely a little different than what I'm used to south of the border, but they sure do make travel more pleasant - at least in nice weather! Winding my way through the woods on BC-31. My route took me along the banks of the Lardeau River. Along the way, a little…
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For the last two years, I've been itching to get back into Canada. Covid-19 has - as we all know - had other plans for the world. Any other time, it wouldn't have been a bit deal, but recently a buddy Mike @POSTacoMike shared a trip he'd taken to Rady Creek - a trail that was scheduled to be deactivated (and made inaccessible to wheeled travel) by British Columbia's forestry ministry. Originally scheduled for deactivation on Aug. 1, 2021, I learned that a nearby fire had postponed the work until spring 2022, but of course, it wouldn't be long until…
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