Car-Free Freeriding

Being a car-free mountain biker in Metro Vancouver is tricky, but not impossible. I’ve been working to promote alternative transportation for 7 years in Vancouver, and have had a tough time reconciling my love of mountain biking with my environmental beliefs, particularly those that relate to transportation. My experience suggests that you can exercise your love of gnar and trail without sticking it to mother nature every time you want to go for a ride.

Why bother?
With few exceptions, a love mountain biking seems to go hand in hand with an affinity for nature. If this connection resonates with you, consider the following facts:

1. Road traffic is the main cause of poor air quality in Canada (Centre for Sustainable Transportation, University of Manitoba)
2. Transportation account for 25% of Canada’s GHG emissions – and 40% of BC’s emissions (Live Smart BC)
3. As individual Canadians, transportation accounts for more than 50% of our personal GHG emissions (Environment Canada)

Every car trip has an impact – and, at least for me, those impacts don’t jive with the values I hold dear. So I’ve done some work on finding sustainable ways of getting my mountain biking fix. If you’re interested, I’d like to share them with you.

  Metro Vancouver buses now hold fat tires.

Note 1: I’m basing the following trips and tips on being based in Vancouver. But you can make the necessary changes to make them work from almost anywhere in Metro Vancouver or elsewhere in the world, or use the ideas to come up with your own approach.

Note 2: Before you start making excuses, consider: I work full time, own a fix-er up-er home and have a family; where there’s a will there’s a way. End of rant.

The Shore
Its tough to live so close to the coastal mountains but still be separated from them by water, highways, etc. But for Seymour and Fromme at least, access is no more than a bus ride or two away.

  Locked in – unless you are in the Downtown Eastside – more protection might be wise.

If you are brave enough to ride your mountain bike into Vancouver’s Downtown East Side, you’ll find the #210 Upper Lynn Valley bus. The #210 takes you from the heart of downtown through East Vancouver, over the 2nd Narrows bridge and straight up Mountain Highway. In fact, it will drop you off at the corner of Mountain Hwy and McNair Drive – further up the hill than a non-resident can legally park a car. From there you have to ride up like everyone else, but on the way back you can bomb down the road until you run out of gravity, and then hop back on the same bus and head back into Vancouver.

The #210 makes a stop at Phibbs Exchange, the bus depot just off the 2nd Narrow Bridge. Get off here and you can catch the Indian River Community Shuttle (C15) which turns off Mt. Seymour Rd. at Indian River Drive. Old Buck starts right across Mt. Seymour rd. from this stop – ride up to the  parking lot and keep climbing to access the upper trails, or hang around the parking lot and ask around for a shuttle if you don’t feel up to the climb. The less common but more direct option is the #211 Seymour – it will take you from downtown to the bottom of Mt. Seymour Rd. in just over half and hour,  but only during the middle of the day.

  To the top!

A couple of words of advice: all of Translink’s buses now sport front loading bike racks. Whereas you had to work to fit anything bigger than a 2.3” tire in the old racks, the new racks are simple to use and will take all but the fattest tire – and Translink claims they haven’t dropped a bike yet. However, if you are going through the DTES on your way to the shore, locking your bike to the rack can make the trip a lot easier on your nerves. When I get off, I usually leave my lock on a pole at the bus stop so I don’t have to lug it up the hill with me.

The SFU Shuttle
Laps on Burnaby Mountain can be had quick and cheap if you’re willing to use public transit. From downtown Vancouver, you can hop on the #135 SFU and step off at the top of Burnaby Mountain. If you get off at the corner of University Drive and Gaglardi Way, you can head down past the outdoor track and access the upper trails – if you get off at SFU Exchange, there’s a convoluted series of streets that will take you the top of to the Poplar Trail. Find a map.

  Lynn Peak and Mount Fromme (left) emerge from beneath a cotton blanket.

Once you get to the bottom of Nicoles, Gear Jammer, etc. you’ve got two options. Get some cardio by riding up the Trans Canada trail to the top of the mountain or up Gaglardi and University Drive East to the trail head for Poplar/Nicole’s, Mel’s, Gear Jammer, etc. Or, if you’d rather save your legs, head down the road to the junction of Gaglardi and Broadway and use your transfer to board the #143 SFU, which will take you back to the top of the hill. One caveat: you may find yourself lining up with the groms to get on the #143 – they know what’s up. (An addition to this is the planned Gondola up SFU Ed.)

After a couple of laps of Burnaby Mountain, head down Gaglardi again, but this time keep on going past Broadway until you get to Lougheed Hwy. Turn right and ride one block to the Production Way Skytrain Station. On the skytrain the rule is 2 bikes per car (except during rush hour when bikes are verboten in the lemming direction) but from here you can get back to Vancouver, New West, Burnaby or Surrey.

  And now we ride!

The Epic
My personal favorite public transit powered day of riding gets me to the top of the Roberts Creek FSR on the Sunshine Coast before noon. Either the #250 and #257 Horseshoe Bay will take you from downtown Vancouver to the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal in about 45 minutes. Bikes load first, which means you can hit the cafeteria and score a prime seat before the first drivers have stumbled up to the passenger deck.

Once you arrive in Langdale you can take BC Transit from the terminal out to Roberts Creek and head up the FSR. Or for the full pull, ride up the Highway (best to wait till the ferry traffic has past so you’re not sucking fumes during the climb) to Sprockids Bike Park and take Sidewinder and Highway 102/3 (just follow the blue flags) up to the highest trails on Mount Elphinstone. Spend the afternoon playing on the Roberts Creek trails before climbing back up to the Boyko clearcut and riding back down 102/3 and Sidewinder to the Ferry for the return journey. Since you don’t need a ticket for the return ferry trip, you can hang out in the Sprockids skill park, hitting the jumps or riding the pumptrack, until 15 minutes before your ferry leaves – time it right and you can bomb the hill (but keep your head up so you don’t miss the view) and ride right on as it’s about to set sail. If you don’t feel like climbing back up the FSR, you can ride back on the highway through Gibsons (with an optional pit-stop at Molly’s Reach) to the Langdale terminal.

  A minor setback.

Back in Horseshoe Bay, with bikes again being let off the ferry first, you can deposit yours on the bike rack and get a prime seat on the bus (if there is such a thing) for the 45 minute trip back into downtown.

You can get a map of the Roberts Creek and Sprockids trails at Spin Cycles in Gibsons on the way out to the Robert Creek FSR. Ferries to and from Langdale run every hour during the summer, but if you’re going over in the shoulder season it’s best to work out bus and ferry times so you’re not stuck at the terminal on either side. If the forecast calls for rain, the hand-dryer in the terminal washroom might offer some comfort, or plan ahead and “forget” a change of clothes and a bottle of Baileys on board the ferry, to be reclaimed at the start of the return trip.

 

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Is it worth the hassle getting to your destination using transit?  Would this work where you live?  Can you be environmentally aware and be a mountain biker at the same time?  Point your monster truck here…

  If you have never put your bike on a bus – here are a few musical tips.