CENTRAL VALLEY GREENWAY BIKE PATH, VANCOUVER, BC

Riding the Central Valley Greenway

“The Central Valley Greenway is a 24-kilometre pedestrian and cyclist route in Metro Vancouver, running from Science World in Vancouver to New Westminster, though Burnaby. The Greenway officially opened on June 27, 2009 with opening celebrations, guided bike tours and walking tours on sections of the Greenway. Despite its official
opening, some sections are complete on an interim basis and are anticipated to be upgraded in the future.” - Wikipedia

A week after the official Grand Opening, I set aside an afternoon to ride the entire route out of Vancouver, through central Burnaby, and into New Westminster.

There is finally an accurate map available from TransLink. An online version is here but you really want the paper version so you can take it with you. There is also a route posted on bikely.com here.

Most previous maps, either printed or on web sites, are inaccurate and may end up directing you down some dreadful freeway in Burnaby, so get this map before you start. Even with it, I got lost once, and thereafter learned to ask people if I was unsure of the way ahead.

The City of Burnaby is sometimes not so good when it comes to bike route signage. They mean well, but often miss the final details that make the difference to bewildered cyclists who have never been there before. I knew that already, so I went to the ride guided by the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition (VACC) the weekend earlier so I could
get a look at the route at least as far as the Sperling Avenue Skytrain station.

That ride started at Trout Lake at 10:30 on a Saturday morning. I made it to Bandidas Taqueria at about 10:15 and grabbed a breakfast burrito to go. I was worried they’d leave without me, although I should have known better. Nothing
organized by cyclists ever starts when they say it will, and I had plenty of time to eat my burrito (and enjoy a free coffee) over at Trout Lake before signing up for the ride.

The route through East Vancouver from Trout Lake to Boundary Road is obvious and reasonably well designed. It’s all paved, runs beneath the Skytrain tracks, and there are traffic lights to cross most major arterials. I’ve heard, though, from the VACC that some women have expressed concern about this section: it’s lined on both sides by tall
fences with razor wire at the top, and once you’re in that chute, there’s no way out. You either keep going ahead or turn around and go back.

The first kilometre into Burnaby is the similarly obvious, but when you hit Gilmore Avenue, this changes. There are some signs telling you that Burnaby General Hospital is 2 km this way, and that some community centre is 1 km that way, but nothing that tells you which way to turn to keep riding.

The map shows that you have to detour a block south and cross Gilmore at Still Creek Drive. Once you figure that out, the signage improves and directs you down a narrow gravel path and over a steep little bridge, and you soon reach Willingdon (I think). There you must go left and continue on a sidewalk and carry on past dreary industrial
stuff until you rejoin Still Creek Drive with hastily painted (and very narrow) bike lanes on it. This part sucks, but it’s a temporary diversion until they get the unfinished bit built. I wouldn’t go on it on a weekday.

Once past that, you are directed onto another gravel path that will take you down to Sperling Station. There you will see a nice new bridge to carry cyclists over Winston Street, and the bike route then continues on Winston Street for quite some time. Winston Street is boring, although the painted bike lanes seem okay, at least on a weekend afternoon.

The boring part ends at Caribou Road, where we turn right across some railway tracks. These train tracks are well used, and you may have to wait while a long freight train passes by. There is even a special traffic light on this corner that tells all traffic to stop because a train is passing. Cars stopped here stack up quickly, and what Burnaby’s signage does NOT tell you is that once across these train tracks, you must then turn left across Caribou Road to once again find the bike route. I found it best to pull over and wait for the stacked up cars to disperse, and I had to ask some passing cyclists where to go next.

The most rewarding part of the ride comes next. The route goes through a forest alongside the Brunette River, out of Burnaby and into New Westminster. The ride is a long gradual slope on a wide gravel track beside the river, shaded by trees. You hear lots of birds singing, and see people fishing. It’s beautiful, but you’re about to pay dearly for that luxurious long gradual slope.

The map now indicates some steep hills, and the approach into New West is diabolical. One expects, of course, to have to climb some hills to get out of New West, but having to climb a gigantic hill to get into
it seems perverse. But that is what you must do next. New Westminster is also diabolical: their hills have other hills built into them and the bike route finds every one of these and directs you along (and up) them. You approach the Patullo Bridge from the east, and then are redirected up a big hill to get around the bridge approach. Follow that
(gasp gasp), and you are then redirected up another bloody hill to get around some construction mayhem on Columbia. More gasping.

My advice for the short term: ignore those redirects and just ride on the sidewalk instead wherever possible. (Riding on the sidewalk is legal in New Westminster; in fact, it's encouraged.) For the long term: the New West advocates have to mobilize to get that fixed! It would be much easier if the bike route just followed the lower car route,
without that punishing uphill detour. Do not try this on a hot day: it’s a sweat fiesta (as I soon learned).

I staggered into the Royal City Cafe on Columbia Street, ordered a coffee, wiped my face dry with paper napkins, and begged them to refill my water bottle. They obliged, and were tipped accordingly.

I decided to not continue any further into downtown New West, since I knew that meant more hills to climb on the way back up and out. Instead I pushed my bike for about 10 blocks up a steep San Francisco style hill and found my way back to the Beresford Avenue bike route in South Burnaby.

Beresford parallels the Skytrain southeast of the Royal Oak station and, if you know where to turn, ends around Kingsway and Edmonds. It’s a nice ride, although finding my way to it from New West proved to be even more uphill punishment (uphill, against the wind, and no shade anywhere: beware of the South Slope!).

I collapsed under a tree after climbing up to Beresford and Griffiths, poured most the Royal City Cafe’s water over my head, and watched the ants climb up and down the tree trunk. “10 more miles to get home,” I thought. I looked in my wallet and found a transit ticket that I could have used, but I recovered enough to not need it, and rode home instead.

Time spent (including getting lost once, and a coffee break): 4 hours

Mileage: 31 miles (50 km)

Bike: Mountain Bike

Advice: get the good map first; ask other riders where to go next; take a bike that can handle gravel paths and steep hills (the granny gear will be needed); and do not do this ride on a hot day unless you’re a beggar for punishment.