Cranberry Delight Bike Ride, Saturday 11th October 2025

Iain writes:-

So the weather forecast for this bike ride was rain throughout the day. In the end it turned out that the first few hours were dry and then after that it was intermittent heavy rain, showers and a few dry bits. For this ride we used the Skytrain to get to LaFarge Lake Douglas, the very last stop on the Millennium Line. A couple of us arrived early enough to get coffee at a nearby cafe and once everyone else arrived we set off past the lake itself to encounter our first obstacle, a firmly closed trail. Handily a friendly local advised us of a short cut and we were soon back on track, heading south down the PoCo Trail to ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park, offering its glimpses of the Port Mann Bridge before we crossed the Mary Hill bypass to head east along the Fraser to the Pitt River Bridge, crossing onto the dike system.

ƛ̓éxətəm Regional Park Bridge in the rain, image by Iain

With no wind the river provided a rather serene background to the ride, although later we did encounter a head wind, proving the first rule of cycling. There weren’t many people out and about, a few dog walkers, a few families near to the road accesses to the dikes, but otherwise very quiet. As lunchtime approached, so did the rain, and there wasn’t much opportunity to find shelter. We huddled under a tree which didn’t provide much shelter but was well positioned for a view of the ongoing cranberry harvest, a very spectacular sight.

From there it was on through horsey territory to our coffee and cake destination (Rustic Roast Cafe) at Pitt Meadows Regional Airport (the seventh busiest in Canada in terms of landings) We rested and were thankful before we headed off again to recross the Pitt River Bridge, the planned stop at Cannoli King Italian Bakery was abandoned, really too wet and cold and by this stage at around 60kms, the end of our trip was in sight, and we decided to leave this until another day.

The United Boulevard bike lane is improving each time and took us back to Braid Station, a change from the planned Sapperton end point. It was closer.

Using the Skytrain to get to the start worked well for this small group of seven, some started at Waterfront, some at VCC and one at Rupert, so we’ll try it again. It makes the dikes and other areas, such as Barnston Island, much more accessible without it turning into a prohibitively long bike ride.

Here is the route from Iain’s Garmin 1050. 83kms but most people ended up with around ninety with riding to and from the start/finish Skytrain stations.