Tri Cities Loop by Bike

The Tri Cities loop is part of the Trans Canada Trail but be forewarned - it is definitely NOT for road bikes. There is a lot of variety - paved trail, roads, crushed gravel, forest trail and dyke riding as you wind your way along this route connecting Coquitlam, Port Moody, and Port Coquitlam.  Not a great choice if you are looking for speed and distance, but if you are interested in amazing views and exploring, this is a winner!

Salmon stream along Hoy Creek Trail

As we step up our training for our West Coast tour, we have been trying to get in a few longer rides on the weekend.  The forecast was good, so we began our trek to the trailhead at Lafarge Lake in Coquitlam Centre park.  Despite a good forecast, the day turned out to be quite "humid"  We were glad to have come equipped with our heavy duty rain gear.

Cue sheet a little worse for wear due to the "humidity"

The route had lots of variety!  We rode past Rocky Point Park in Port Moody, Barnet Marine Park and enjoyed city riding along the Burnaby Urban trail and the Central Valley Greenway.  Near the end of the ride we enjoyed a section in Colony Farm Regional Park before making our way back along the Poco Traboulay Trail.

Forests come to life - spring is in the air

Bears also coming to life!  

Section along the Trans Canada Trail after leaving Rocky Point

Bummer....we were climbing up!

I think it is clearing up!

Are you sure this is the right trail?

Giggle of the Day

When I found this great route on trailsbc.ca, I excitedly shared it with Rob.  He took a look, agreed that it looked both amazing and challenging and promptly declared, "we are going to get lost".....and we did!  Not once, not twice, but numerous times.  On the bright side we discovered a fabulous kayak launch site at Barnett marine park.

We have also been playing with a web app called stravos.  This tool allows us to time and map our rides  through our cell phone and provides data on speeds, elevations etc. etc.  Today we decided to join the 21st century and go high tech for our ride.  No maps, no compasses...just all the technology an Iphone can provide.  Everything was great until the four hour 27 minute mark...after following a wonderful trail along river and through woods we arrived in a little town called Maillardville and realized we had no idea where we were and also realized we weren't even in the right city.  Not to worry, our handy iphone and stravos would set us straight.  A great plan...except the cell phone battery was dead.  No worries, we had marked our parking spot with a gps tag....our only problem...the gps tag was stored in the dead cell phone.  We went old school and asked for directions...they were sketchy at best, but definitely better than what our iphone was offering.

Here is our Stravos map.....

Breathtaking blossoms along the way.

Map and route tips:

Our finished map!