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The seemingly endless network of resource roads in southern BC provide a means to explore vast amounts of territory by bike. After looking at maps and scheming about a summer adventure, Svein Tuft and I decided to go for a gravel ride around the Valhallas.
We headed south from Slocan via the Little Slocan resource road and up Koch Creek to a low pass. Having skied a fair bit in that area, I often wondered if the pass was passable by bike in the summer. Lo and behold it does, at a grade three plus bushwhack. There may be a better route, I'll post an update if I go back to investigate.
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An ATV trail that deteriorated into a little bike dragging for a kilometer and a half or so, led us to the Burton Creek FSR. Don't be fooled by the satellite imagery, the road is quite over grown. I should have remembered the alder bashing good times I'd had in the bottom of those avalanche paths in late Januarys past. However dopamine veils reality and I convinced myself it would be good to go.
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After several kilometers of medium paced alder tunnelling, we popped out on the active haul line in Burton Creek. It was smooth sailing from there to Burton. If you time it right, you can get a cold drink and a snack at the Burton City Cidery. This was quite nice, as it was 35 degrees when we rolled into Burton.
From Burton, it's a sizeable climb up Caribou Creek to ridge top. The grades on the climb range from casual to severe and yield spectacular views into the Columbia River Valley. Steep switchbacks led us up to the Tillicum mine and then up to ridge top. When we crested the ridge, golden hour light stretched longingly towards the Vallhallas while the ridge behind us was backlit by the setting sun. Low on water, we continued on across the ridge and descended to a valley bottom creekside camp.
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The next day we woke up bright and early coated by heavy dew. After a hit of coffee and breakfast, we broke camp and started our climb up the Shannon Creek FSR. Once we hit the height of land, a scintillating descent dropped us down to the community of Hills on the north end of Slocan Lake. There we jumped onto the K&N rail trail and headed south down the lake back to Slocan.
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All in all, it was an exceptional 14 hours on the bikes plus a bivy in an abandoned dump truck bed. The route is roughly 210 km and just shy of 5000m of climbing. 50c tires are highly recommended along with a keen sense of adventure. There's distinct element of commitment and at time you feel relatively out in the boonies. We erred on the side of caution and brought overnight kits; however, with a good level of fitness and good route finding, this would be a wicked day trip.
