Kettle Valley Railway Bike Tour
By Robert Allen, British Columbia Land Surveyor (Life Member) Canada Lands Surveyor (Retired) Life Member, Canadian Institute of Geomatics Group photo at one of the now-decommissioned trestles.
E
arly in the Spring I noticed an ad in BC Nature magazine, for an organized bike tour along part of the old Kettle Valley Railway (KVR). It started at the old Coquihalla toll booth and headed about 25 km down the KVR, to the Portia Exit. I’ve always had an interest in old railways, starting when I was a kid and my Dad would take my brother and me hunting near Courtenay. We were able to travel along some of the old Comox Logging railway grades. The grades were straight with long gradual curves with very little elevation change: perhaps that is what started my interest in surveying – wondering how they could be so straight. There had to have been a surveyor involved! They were
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also ideal locations to look for grouse. I have also spent a fair amount of time on different parts of the KVR and marvelled at the tenacity of the surveyors that found a location line that would work for the required alignment and grades – no easy feat in the rugged mountainous country that we have in south western British Columbia.
Kelly Pearce holding a photo of Andrew McCulloch, the Chief Engineer on the project.
The tour was on August 11, organized by the Hope Mountain Centre for Outdoor Learning http:// hopemountain.org, there were 15 of us plus a guide/historian and a bike mechanic. We started riding about 10:00 am and were down at the Portia
