Watery Art - Saturday June 28th 2025
Art at Willoughby by Iain
Iain writes:-
The weather forecast was promising, just a hint of rain, with rising temperatures and increasing sunshine during the day as eight of us met at King George Skytrain for our long day out. The idea for this ride had come from realising that some of our critical water infrastructure hosts some pretty fine artwork as well as a lot of useful information. The good people at Metro Vancouver’s Liquid Waste and Water Services (Thank you!) gave us a short list of the locations where we could find “interpretive and cultural elements” and we strung a route together which would visit most of them. We had to leave the First Narrows art work for a different day,
Water - Clayton Reservoir Interpretive Element 7080 190 St, Surrey
Water - Jericho Reservoir Mural 20400 73a Ave, Township of Langley
Liquid Waste – Golden Ears Pump Station and Storage Tank Mural 20050 113B Street, Maple Ridge
Liquid Waste – First Narrows Pump Station 100 Bridge Rd, West Vancouver
Liquid Waste – Sapperton Pump Station 230 Brunette Avenue, New Westminster
We soon left the busy environs of King George and joined the Green Timbers Pathway, which is always a joy, lots of people out walking. From there we took a jagged route south east to Cloverdale before our first stop at Clayton Reservoir and continuing our journey north to Jericho Reservoir for an extended lunch stop and an opportunity to recreate an ancient image.
The route from Jericho to Golden Ears took us alongside some busy roads, but mainly separated from traffic. Just before Golden Ears we saw a group of cycling hot dogs. Their intention was to have a hot dog at each of the lower mainland’s CostCo stores, when we saw them they were at four hot dogs. The art at Golden Ears Pump Station is tricky to photograph as there is no safe place for a group of cyclists to stop at the north end of Golden Ears Bridge, nevertheless Tamsin, as last person over the bridge was able to get a photo.
Then it was on through Pitt Meadows and over the Pitt River Bridge and into familiar territory, making our way to Sapperton Pump Station, which was the location that started the whole idea, if you are visiting be sure to go up the short flight of steps to complete your exploration.
On through New Westminster, slightly interrupted by me falling off my bike at a crosswalk, thank you Michele for prompt assistance. Next was a chance to check out the relatively new bike route up Stewardson Way and past 22nd Street Station. This is a major improvement to our cycling infrastructure.
The Central Valley Greenway and Lakewood took us to Parallel 49, just off the Pandora bike route where it seemed that burgers and other refreshment were in order. The route itself, from King George to Parallel 49 was 82kms, which took us 9 1/2 hours with all our stops. Some members went back to the north shore by bike, collecting around 100kms in all.
This was a fun day out with great weather and interesting stops. Happily there was only one mechanical issue, glass in a tyre, leading to a bit of intermittent pumping but this didn’t delay us.
Later in the summer we’ll join the Green Necklace in North Vancouver to a diversion that will take us along the Spirit Trail to the First Narrows art installation, that will be a shorter journey though.
You can see the route here from Iain’s GARMIN 1040 Solar
