A Look Back: Bella Coola Bike Tour

This is the first summer in years that I don’t have some sort of multi-day bike tour planned, as I’ve embarked on the adventure of raising a wild and beautiful baby girl. But the other day I received an email from a friend, who runs an adventure travel company up in Bella Coola (www.wildearth-adventures.com), BC, looking for photos that illustrate the area and can be used on his site.

I immediately thought back to the day, a few years back, when I loaded up the bike and B.O.B. trailer and began the 5-day bike tour from Pemberton, BC, (just north of Whistler) to Bella Coola. It was an amazing bike tour, one that started with a long climb up Duffey Lake Road (an awesome place to access backcountry ski tours BTW) over Cayoosh Pass (in the Lillooet Range) before dropping into the high desert town of Lillooet. From Lilloet it’s pretty much straight north to Williams Lake, after-which you head west again towards Bella Coola. While the entire ride is relatively devoid of traffic, this last section, on HWY 20, from Williams Lake to Bella Coola is pretty much desolate…a true bike touring paradise.

If you ever have the chance to visit this area – on two wheels or four – I highly recommend it. It’s truly a magical place.

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