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Your club’s recce team had this dream of pioneering a bike route over the rumoured new Port Mann bridge. We began on the cycling equivalent to the TransCanada Highway called the Central Valley Parkway and made our way toward the bridge. When our former governor, King Gordon as he was then, ordained the erection of his legacy monument, he described how it would be replete with multiple lanes for powered vehicles, express buses, bicycles, and provide for future railways. So as we approached the bridge we scanned the view for tasteful signs showing how the likes of us might safely use his vast concrete/steel structure.
Since we were heading east, we surveyed the south side of the approaches for over an hour to find an access point. Not one sign, nor even a handwritten Post-it note. So we backtracked almost to Square One, and took a direct way onto the shoulder of Highway 1 itself. We rode on a shoulder at least 10 feet wide and felt quite comfortable, even though we were accompanied by racing cars and thundering trucks. We celebrated with hoots of joy and bellringing. “Mission accomplished?”. Not likely. As we got closer to the bridge the shoulder got thinner and thinner until it was too thin even to contain a bike.
When we got within spitting distance of the first tower we saw the inevitable mud bespattered doom sign which we all detest: NO BIKES. Dream shattered.We had to get out of there, so we wheeled our bikes back down the shoulder until we could climb three concrete barriers and drag our bikes over. No easy feat as these things are big concrete lumps, massive enough and high enough to deflect a 100km/hr juggernaut. So we made our way out via unofficial mud and tarmac ramps to a pleasant ride back home via New West’r and River Road.
The final indignity came in New West’r as we were about to walk across an ordinary but quite busy street when a cop, lights aflashing, gave us a fatherly talking-to, for trying to cross the street. If only he’d seen us 20 minutes previously!
But we were still alive. No ice blocks had fallen on our heads, and no flaming meteorites. I guess we were lucky.
“Tread softly for you tread on my dreams”.
Gillian (Navigator), Katey (Victuallist), and Dennis (Scribbler)
Yes, indeed, this ride route looked perfect on the internet. It was based on a (my) very optimistic reading of the descriptions on the internet. The $50 million promised to pedestrian and cycling improvements to the Port Mann Bridge will take a few more years to materialize. Thank you to Dennis and Katy for being good sports and coming along.
This April 20th ride will be changed, and I will be posting the replacement ride before that date.
Gillian
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