Happy Feet

Just an afternoon ride
Today I took a break from painting and home renovations to get in a little ride around one of my favorite local cycling spots; Sumas Prairie. This flat region is situated just east of Abbotsford and nestled between Sumas Mountain to the north and the American border to the south, dominated by the snowy volcanic peak of Mt. Baker beyond. It is home to fertile farmland and quiet roads surrounded by drainage ditches and dike systems and fairly popular with the road cycling crowd. Although most roadies stick to the straight, low traffic stretches of the prairie to work on their form there are also a number of hidden jewels along the way for touring cyclists. The following is a description of today's route of mixed road and gravel terrain which I did to highlight some of them.



The Tim Hortons timhortons.com at the Whatcom Rd. exit of Hwy 1 (1) is a good starting point for riding the Sumas Prairie because there's coffee and donuts while you wait to meet up with others and a convenient large gravel lot across the road with free parking. From there I set off eastward along North Parallel Road until I reached the Atkinson Bridge (2) 5km's away. This bridge crosses the Sumas drainage canal that meanders all across the prairie. On weekdays this can be a busy road as there is an active gravel pit on Atkinson but on Sunday morning it is fairly quiet.



At this point the ride could take two directions. If I followed the drainage canal east I could ride the gravel dike trail or, I could cycle in the same general direction on pavement. This time I chose the second option simply to save a little time. The dike is very nice but it meanders a bit more than the road.

Continuing along N. Parallel Rd. for another 5km's I came to the Number 3 Rd. intersection (3) which crosses the Freeway (Hwy 1) on the right. Usually, if I were just putting in miles, I would take this road southward towards Yarrow but today I was looking for scenic so I continued still eastward on N. Parallel for another 3km's until I reached the Barrowtown (Sumas) Pumping Station (4).

This facility pumps water out of the prairie and into the Vedder drainage canal to eventually empty into the mighty (muddy) Fraser, a world heritage river. It (the pumping station) has been in operation since the shallow lake/prairie was drained in the early 1920's. Without this facility the whole area between Chillliwack and Abbotsford would slowly revert to a large shallow marsh.

If I had taken the earlier dike variant I would come out here as well. From here forward, the road east becomes a continuation of that dike trail. For a sneak peek at what the world would look like if humans left I dropped down onto an abandoned roadway for a stretch before reaching the junction of the Sumas and Vedder ****s. Then I turned south and followed that dike trail towards Yarrow (5).

At this point I met a group on a fundraising ride and one of them was a friend I hadn't seen in a while so I stopped for a bit to chat and then rode with them for a stretch of the 5km's of pleasant gravel riding along the dike.



This brought me to a short pathway leading to the right that ran down to pavement (Community Rd.) on the outskirts of Yarrow (6). Following this I came out into busting downtown Yarrow and a coffee and muffin break at the Chesnut Springs Organics Bakery chestnutsprings.ca (7) .

After being fed and watered I set off again, this time westward along Yarrow Central Rd. until I hit the T intersection of it and Boundary Rd. Turning south I followed a zig zag of quiet farm roads that led south then west then south etc... towards the low shoulder of Vedder Mountain that marks the CAN/US border. Specifically: Boundary (S), Towne (SW), Campbell (W), Interprovincial (S), Wells Line (W) and Powerhouse (S).



Eventually doing this I came to Vye Road and two points of interest; the old Arnold train station and large Hydro Electric Powerhouse (8). The train station is no longer in use but the old outhouse still stands beside this quaint structure and the Powerhouse has been restored as a private residence. The ride continues along the west side of the Powerhouse even though there's a sign that says no trespassing. However, in a short stretch of what looks like a gravel parking lot there is a 20m connecting path to Old Yale Rd. beyond. This is a little jewel of a road/lane that is part of the Yale Trail that connected prospectors from the US (crossing at Sumas) to the gold rush in Yale and follows along the base of the mountain westward until it comes out in Arnold (9). They actually created the border crossing there to regulate the massive flow of Americans northward that would make Yale one of the largest towns west of Chicago for a brief period in time.



Arnold is an old time farming community snugged up into one corner of the prairie in hopes that time and progress will pass by and forget about it all together. Little more than a hamlet, it represents an almost ideal buccolic splendor which is enhanced by the fact that it is shielded from the world by a high railroad berm that a few roads cross under, as if it were the towns very own castle wall. From the intersection of Old Yale and Arnold Rd's I ride north and come out again onto Vye.



Left on Vye Road and straight west for 4km's until I hit Fadden Rd. and turn left onto it. Ordinarily, if it were a training ride, one could go a bit further and turn right onto Whatcom but there is one more stop I wanted to make. Up Fadden a bit is Birchwood Dairy Farm birchwooddairy.com (10) and some of the best ice cream in town. I stop for Salted Caramel in a cone.



From there it is west on Nelles Rd. and then north on Whatcom and in no time I am across the Freeway and back at my start point at Tim Hortons. Total distance was 53km's which I did in 3 hours including chatting, coffee and ice cream.