The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Selkirk Loop 2019

June 25th to July 9th

Ride Director: Sue Bunten
Ride Co-Director: John McCoy
Ride Driver: Warner Griswold
Report by: Miriam Joscelyn

After our get together dinner overlooking the Spokane River falls, twenty one BAC’ers left on a mission to revive the Selkirk International Loop ride.  This ride promised to eliminate some plastic waste as reusable insulated drinking mugs were provided to each rider to replace plastic cups and reusable silicone bags replaced sandwich baggies.

We rode along the Spokane River on the Centennial Bike Trail and later followed other trails as we pedaled on our way to more rural areas.  On our second day we had a lovely ride along the east side of the Pend Oreille River on a tree lined road.  As we rode through the Kalispell Indian reservation we saw a large herd of buffalo.  We crossed the Canadian border at the Nelway crossing on our third day.  A group of cyclists from Utah were crossing into the US.  They were doing the Loop in reverse order to ours.  Nelway is a less busy crossing and our group allowed some cars and trucks to wait in a line behind us.  Once in beautiful BC we enjoyed a pleasant ride through valleys and along rivers.  High mountains were snow covered and lower slopes were forested.  We passed through funky little communities which reminded us of the ‘60s.  This part of BC has a rich mining history.  We climbed up into the Selkirk range and passed ski areas before descending into Nelson.  That evening some of the group enjoyed Nelson cultural attractions including an art show and a burlesque show.         

We biked along the Slocan valley and lake  One of the sights in the distance was the Kokanee glacier.  The scenery was spectacular.  At the top of one climb we took a short hike off the road to an unobstructed view of the town of Slocan and the lake.  In New Denver there is a memorial to the internment of Japanese Canadian citizens during WWII which several of us visited.  After a 10 mile climb the next morning we  stopped at Fish Lake where there were many tadpoles from toads. Following our rest break we enjoyed a 20 miles downhill coast into Kaslo where we stayed in a lovely hotel on Kootenay Lake.  The next morning was Canada Day.  Some of us put the Canadian flag on our bikes to honor/honour our neighbors and hosts.  We rode south out of town along Kootenay Lake passing Ainsworth Hot Springs where several riders stopped and enjoyed a soak.  

After reaching Balfour we took the longest free ferry ride in north America to Crawford Bay.  We spent the night at a golf resort and some of the riders arrived early enough to play 18 holes before happy hour.  Our next day brought us to a fanciful home created by the cementing of more than half a million formaldehyde bottles.  That night was our last night in Canada and after crossing back into the US we rode past the largest contiguous hop farm in the world.  We saw meadows, pastures, ranches and grain fields as we continued south in Idaho scheduled to arrive in the railroad town of Sandpoint on the shores of Coeur d’Alene lake July 4th.  We had a spectacular view from our hotel balconies of the fireworks display.  July 6 we biked to the city of Coeur d’Alene and spotted a bald eagle as we left Sand Point.  We enjoyed bike trails on the 7th, riding to the eastern most end of the Idaho Centennial Trail..  After a short ride west into Spokane along the Centennial Trail, we had our farewell dinner and left with memories of majestic mountain peaks, crystal clear lakes, rushing streams and rivers and sightings of deer, elk, moose, marmot, osprey, quail and turkey during the ride.