I’m not going to lie, this one’s a doozy.
The series of events that led to establishing this BPC route were my friend Rob’s doing. The premise was an off-pavement loop to the top of Cypress and back down. We were both aware this was not going to be straightforward nor easy, but I don’t think either of expected to have such difficult days on our beta rides. We pushed up for hours, only to barely straddle our bikes on the way down. We ended up in deep ravines at dusk, and other spots where scrambling without a bike wouldn’t be so bad but with a bike it was treacherous.
In the end, Rob gave up on putting together a route that he could recommend in good conscience. But thought the process, despite how tough it was at times, I gained an appreciation for the parts of Cypress you’d normally never see by bicycle. This was the origin story of Bike Portage Club. This route is silly, bordering on stupid, but it makes for a really good day out in the woods. It also makes for a very good upper body workout, something you don’t often find with bike routes.
Photos presented in no particular order; the route starts by climbing up to the Cleveland dam via a series of quiet roads and punchy connections. From here, a taxing 200m climb through the British Properties is an unfortunate necessity to reach the Brothers Creek FSR. I hope you like climbing though, because it’s another 400m of ascending on a long forsaken access road, across a rather new aluminum bridge in the middle of nowhere, and up a hiking trail (please don’t try to ride your bike on hiking only trails, not that there’d be much point in trying) to the lakes near Hollyburn.
The image above is Blue Gentian Lake with a thin layer of ice, November 2023. Below is the aftermath of an over-the-bars moment along the Brothers Creek “FSR” … as you can see, it’s hardly a road anymore.
Playing in the subalpine zone is something else and entirely wonderful.
