Seeing Vancouver by Bike

Once I returned to Vancouver within the late Eighties, biking within the metropolis was completely different than it’s at the moment. In my reminiscence, the one folks courageous sufficient to experience downtown had been bike couriers. On sunny afternoons there can be a dozen of them lounging and smoking exterior the HSBC financial institution constructing on West Georgia Road, ready for his or her subsequent sortie, trying bored and skeptical, outlaws each one.

Mere civilians, like me, had been discovering mountain bikes round this time since you may experience them on trails, which is to say, safely distant from the at-times murderous city visitors.

All that has modified. Bike couriers fell to know-how. Vancouver got down to turn into a “inexperienced metropolis,” and we now have a community of protected bike lanes all through the downtown core because of this. Commuting to work, and even simply casually biking about, is now now not a life-and-limb enterprise.

In the meantime, again in 2015, town additionally accomplished the final extension of the ocean wall with separated bike and pedestrian lanes. Now you can journey its size, with little elevation change, from the Vancouver Conference Middle on the north aspect of downtown, round Stanley Park, alongside the north and south banks of False Creek, and at last, all the best way west to the huge sandy seashores at Spanish Banks. There, in late spring and early summer time — notably on crowd-free weekdays — bald eagles could be seen wheeling in pairs within the updrafts over the anchored freighters.

The brief route

Canada Place to Denman Road

I really like the ocean wall. However then, lots of us do right here. We stroll it. We bike it. We crowd the group squares alongside its size in any remotely good climate. Requested how a customer can actually see this place on a brief go to, that’s what I’d say: Lease some wheels and hit the ocean wall. There’s no higher means to absorb Vancouver from so many angles whereas accessing a variety of native tastes and experiences as you go. And with bike and e-bike rental retailers all through the downtown core, it couldn’t be simpler.

From Canada Place, the cruise-ship port in downtown Vancouver, probably the most compact model of the ocean wall experience can be to experience all of it the best way round Stanley Park, the 1,000-acre, densely forested public park that extends westward from downtown and is arguably the crown jewel of town. Weave your means via the buskers and conventioneers close to Canada Place and decide up the bike path on the southwest nook of the Vancouver Conference Middle. From the north aspect of the constructing you’ll get an awesome view of the working harbor: orange cranes towering over their quilt-work stacks of containers; ferries crossing the inlet to North Vancouver; the low roar of floatplanes taking off and heading west via the uprights of the Lions Gate Bridge.

It’s only some minutes experience from right here to the park, winding across the Coal Harbour Marina with its huge yachts, then the Westin Bayshore. Count on foot and bike visitors. However previous the red-and-white lighthouse at Brockton Level the visitors thins out. I discover it serene gliding alongside this stretch, Stanley Park’s forest rising excessive on one aspect and people towering mountains proper there throughout the inlet.

As soon as across the nook beneath the Lions Gate, automotive visitors booming excessive overhead, cease to absorb the seabirds, fishermen throwing traces off the rocks, sailboats tacking and reaching their means among the many anchored freighters.

At a leisurely tempo, which I encourage, it takes about 40 minutes to succeed in English Bay from the place you began at Canada Place. I all the time hop off the ocean wall right here to dive into the dense vibrancy of Vancouver’s West Finish. Like many others, I used to lease down right here. And in the event you cease for a drink on the Sylvia Lodge bar, or head up Denman Road for espresso at Delany’s, or for 5 pork dumplings in beef broth at Legendary Noodle, you would possibly simply consider your self as an honorary West Ender as properly.

To finish this brief experience, depart the ocean wall now and proceed north on Denman Road. You may stroll your bike for this stretch as the road life is its personal leisure. Once you attain the water on the north finish of Denman you’ll rejoin the ocean wall and may then observe it again to Canada Place.

The reasonable route

Canada Place to Granville Island

For an extended experience, about 90 minutes spherical journey, stay on the ocean wall and keep on previous English Bay, beneath the Artwork Deco-style Burrard Road Bridge, and into False Creek. Right here one can find a really completely different set of Vancouver scenes and moments.

Residence to sawmills and lumber yards as lately as my very own childhood, False Creek is now a residential zone with waterside condos, retailers, eating places, parks and extra large yachts within the marinas alongside the north aspect of the creek. I all the time cease to take a look at the smaller boats anchored totally free: liveaboards, which, mixed with these bathtub ferries taking folks forwards and backwards for procuring on Granville Island, give False Creek a pleasingly lived-in really feel.

I flip this right into a picnic after I’m down right here with family and friends. There are wonderful eating places blocks off the water within the stylish transformed warehouse district of Yaletown. However quarter-hour previous English Bay so far as the foot of Davie Road, you may decide up a extra informal lunch of pancetta and onion pizza on the Sciué Italian Bakery or a bento field from the upscale grocer City Fare. Eat on the benches that line the water or in David Lam Park, the place you may take heed to youngsters within the playgrounds, and watch the bridal events taking pictures beneath the cherry blossoms.

Solely 10 minutes farther on the ocean wall, across the finish of False Creek, previous the geodesic dome of Science World, you’ll discover the general public sq. in Olympic Village. You’ll know you’re there while you see “The Birds” sculpture: two home sparrows slightly below 20 toes tall. For those who’ve waited for lunch, that is prime meals truck territory, however a peach and rosemary tart and a espresso from Terra Breads cafe has by no means didn’t hit the mark both. After lunch, wander all the way down to the water, lean on the railing and watch the dragon boats, 20 paddlers every, churning the water to a white wake.

Following the indicators for the ocean wall bike route, you’ll quickly roll into Granville Island. It’s an enormous attraction, so count on crowds. Nevertheless it’s an area place, too. Once I lived nearer, I shopped on the public market right here nearly day-after-day. Even now I’ll cease to say good day to the parents at Tenderland Meats, or watch the fishmongers breaking down salmon. You may as well wander down the island’s lanes to see glassblowers at work. Popina on the tip of the pier is your spot for all the things from falafels to Nashville sizzling rooster, lobster rolls to crispy cod sandwiches. To finish this 90-minute experience, take the bike-friendly Aquabus on the far aspect of the market and it is going to be beneath quarter-hour again to Canada Place by way of protected bike routes.

The lengthy route

Canada Place to Spanish Banks

You’ll have seen lots of town by now. However as an area, I might take into account one cease nonetheless excellent. That is the longest model of the ocean wall experience and would take a bit over two hours in whole from Canada Place to Spanish Banks and again. Proceed west from Granville Island, round Vanier Park, previous the Vancouver Maritime Museum. Pause to take a look at the heritage boats moored at Elsje Level. I just like the red-sailed Anja particularly, a Bristol Bay Cutter, the ancestor design of contemporary racing yachts. Proceed previous Kitsilano Seaside park, down West Level Gray Street, and across the nook on the Jericho Crusing Middle, the place youngsters be taught the ropes on their 420s and Lasers. Right here Spanish Banks opens up forward: a large stripe of grassy shore and sandy seashore that scallops its means westward.

On summer time weekends the world buzzes with household barbecues, volleyball video games on the sand. However for me, the day of the week issues a lot lower than the tides. I time my go to to Spanish Banks for the bottom low, when the ocean pulls again dramatically, exposing a whole bunch of meters of sand alongside a two-kilometer stretch of seashore.

You’ll need seashore footwear. There are tidal swimming pools. Along with your bike locked up, head out onto the sand flats. The canine will chase Frisbees up and down. The gulls will scream and dive. The eagles will circle and soar. And in the event you stroll out near the lip of the sands, the freighters will appear nearly shut sufficient to the touch.

I’ll invariably flip and face town at this level. I’ll observe the dense inexperienced shoulder of Stanley Park, the West Finish towers rising and bristling, the crystal glass constellation of downtown and False Creek towers, all seemingly silent and nonetheless from this distance, a seam of life pinned in place between the dome of eggshell sky above, the metal blue ocean under.

Right here is town’s greatest angle, I submit. Vancouver in a single macro-glimpse. Effectively definitely worth the journey for a newcomer. Even for this lifer, an eye-opener each time.

Timothy Taylor is a novelist and journalist. His newest work is a novel concerning the rise and fall of a celeb chef. Mr. Taylor lives and eats in Vancouver.