2 Cool 4 Skuul
Vancouver Bike Route #4
All Vancouver Area Bike Routes
At some point you have to close the books, get on the bike and work off the study pudge. You can create your own variation based on where you live by comparing the route to the official Translink bike route maps for Metro Vancouver.
This route links the two major research universities in the region, Simon Fraser University (SFU) and the University of British Columbia (UBC). The route starts at Production Way and Eastlake Dr, just north of the Production Way Skytrain Station where SFU’ers take the bus up the mountain. It then heads west where it loops around UBC’s endowment lands and follows the coastline of Outer Vancouver Harbour before terminating at the VCC/Clarke Skytrain Station.
From the start point, head out along the multi-use trail that hugs the south edge of Burnaby Mountain. A great aspect of the route above is that the middle part — essentially, East Van — consists of just wandering around aimlessly on quiet residential streets looking for nice little hills to climb to get in the HIIT component of the workout.
To help achieve an aimless state of mind, stopping by Steamworks Brewery on Williams St. in Burnaby is a great place to start the consciousness alteration.
West of Steamworks, along Williams St., is a nifty feature of the urban landscape, a pedestrian bridge overpass crossing Highway 1. The design is clearly from a much earlier era, because at the height of being astride a bike, the side protective railings feel very low and it’s actually a tad scary crossing it on two wheels!
West of the Emily Carr campus, there’s a great little Soup and Ice Cream combo joint. I don’t know how they’re related other than seeming to share the same space, anyhoo the soft serve with Orange Belgian Hardened Chocolate topping is pretty great.
From this nexus of ice cream and soup, keep going west into Olympic Village, hugging False Creek until you pass Granville Island, where you can scooch on over to the Arbutus bike trail. From the trail, going west at 37th Ave will get you into the West Side neighborhood that abuts the UBC area.
UBC is protected from urbanity by the Pacific Spirit Regional Park endowment lands, so you’ll definitely want to take a break from city life and explore the trails in the old growth shade.
My recommended cycle hack is to stop by Murchies in the UBC condo area at the southern edge of the campus, and get some iced teas, because you can pour the ice into your water bottles to chill your water nicely for the rest of the ride.
Riding down the slope from the top of UBC’s geologically thrusted up rock zone — sorry, I have to look up later what the actual term is for the big piece of risen-up Earth UBC is built on — you’ll end up at water’s edge and passing by a lot of beaches, so here are a bunch of beach photos to prove it.
If you keep heading east, you may come across a bunch of kid art in Kits:
One thing nice about Vancouver proper is that it is becoming increasingly anti-car, or pro-bike (I think these have to be the same thing, ultimately) and so you get all these great streat areas that have been reclaimed for pedestrians and cyclists, such as this area below along Ontario St.
Which, of course, will eventually lead you to Faculty Brewing Company, which is the final photo in this 2 Cool for Skuul bike route of mine, appropriately enough!
