Bicycling Southwestern British Columbia & the Sunshine Coast

Les Harding is author of The Voyages of Lesser Men: Thumbnail Sketches
in Canadian Exploration.

Simon Priest is an experienced cyclist who has taught courses on bicycle touring and bicycle repair. Bicycling Southwestern British Columbia & the Sunshine Coast is a companion to his Bicycling Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.

This guidebook has 107 bicycle tours, covering urban and rural regions: Greater Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast, Whistler/Pemberton, the Fraser River Delta, Maple Ridge/Mission, Chilliwack/Hope, Abbotsford/Langley, and Howe Sound/Squamish. The tours range from 5 to 44 km. in length. Both the advanced cyclist and the beginner with bad knees will find something to enjoy. Each tour is rated for difficulty on a scale of 1 to 10, and the arrangement of tours is such that several trips can easily be combined into one. There are notes on distance, traffic conditions, terrain, repair facilities, availability of supplies, connections with other tours, and highlights along the route. Probably the best feature of the book is the maps. There is a detailed, easy-to-read map for each tour; anyone using this book would have to work hard to get lost. There is also a checklist of essential items for day and overnight trips, a short bibliography on cycling, and an index of place names.