Derby Reach Trail Opening and Group Ride

Metro Vancouver, Trans Canada Trail and the Township of Langley are sponsoring the official opening of the Derby Reach Trail and are inviting the public to the opening ceremonies at the main Derby Reach Park location on Allard Crescent near Edgewater Bar. This is a new section of trail that winds through forest, fields, nears the Fraser River and winds through active farmland to join up with the Edge Farm Trail and Fort to Fort Trail. The trail was constructed with the cooperation of Trails BC, Metro Vancouver as a part of the Experience the Fraser Project, the Trans Canada Trail and local farmers. This section has now been added to the Trans Canada Trail sections that connect from Maple Ridge over the Golden Ears Bridge to the Derby Reach Trail via 102B Street. It then joins onto the Fort to Fort Trail to Fort Langley and connects to the eastern Langley sections of the TCT. This provides another connection in their goal of connecting the entire  22,000 km Trans Canada Trail across Canada by 2017. Here is a map of the new trail section.

More information about the opening ceremonies can be found on the Metro Vancouver Event Calendar.

Group Ride Details

In support Valley VeloRiders is organizing our weekly Saturday Group ride around this event. As usual we will be meeting at the Fort Langley Cyclery at 9-9:30AM and leaving by 9:30. We will follow our normal route go onto the new trail at the 208th trailhead and from there continue on to the Derby Reach site. There the group can stop for lunch, enjoy the opening ceremonies at 1:00 PM or continue on the rest of the route back to Fort Langley. The decision on what to do from Derby Reach will be made by the group at the time.

Date: Saturday, July 23
Meet Location: Fort Langley Cyclery, Fort Langley
Meet Time: 9:00-9:30 AM
Ride Pace: Leisure (15-20 kph)
Route: http://ridewithgps.com/trips/308457

Ride On!
Richard.



Edited 7-21-2011 4:06 PM - Clean up of some of the wording.

Ride Report - Tynehead Park and Perimeter Trail ride

The day was a bit wet to put it mildly, but we left on time from the Fort Langley Cyclery which allowed us the time needed to be at Tynehead for the ribbon cutting ceremony. There were only three of us on this ride, no doubt due to the wet weather but it would have been nice if a couple more hardy souls could have joined us. In spite of the weather we had a lot of fun on the ride and were able to join up with other groups cycling their from Surrey and Maple Ridge. We all got a bit wet, but it was warm and easy to tolerate the poor weather because the route and the company was great.

It is great to see new and family friendly cycling (and walking/hiking) facilities like this become available that allow us to enjoy the outdoors and cycle safely away from traffic so the more people who turn out to support such events only encourages those in decision making positions to do more of the same.

For a more detailed write up on the ride with photos and route map check out the entry on my personal blog, Comfy Cycling along with Alex Pope's report and photos on his Living in Maple Ridge blog.

We hope to see everyone for this coming Saturday's ride to the Derby Reach trail opening. There will be more details about this event in my next post.

Ride On!

Group Ride - Tynehead Park and Bicycle/Ped Overpass opening

Event - Tynehead East Perimeter Trail Opening

This will be a ride from the Fort Cyclery that I will lead that will take us along the Trans Canada Trail from Fort Langley, through Derby Reach to 208th and then onto the Golden Ears Way multi-use path to Tynehead Park on Saturday July 16th. The pace will be a leisurely 15-20 kph (level road speed) and will be a very family friendly route. Because the route will take us along the Trans Canada Trail from Fort Langley to 208th Street which has a gravel surface, road bikes or bikes with skinny racing/training tires will not be suitable for this ride. Hybrid, mountain, kid's and recumbent bikes or trikes (adult) will be suitable and welcome. Round trip the ride will be about 40 km long.

The event is the opening of the 5 km Tynehead Trail and new cycling/pedestrian bridge over the Hwy 1 from Tynehead park. Metro Vancouver Parks are host this grand opening of the bridge and the new Tynehead Park multi-use path. We will be riding this path on the way there and back. Except for a kilometre or so the entire ride will be off the road on trails or paths specifically created for cycling and pedestrian use. This new trail and bridge along with other planned cycling improvements in the area will open up many new route options away from traffic including access to Barnston Island via the Tynehead overpass which is a very pleasant and scenic ride

You can find more detail about this event along with some maps of the various routes at the following links.

Metro Vancouver Parks - http://tinyurl.com/68lrnvd

Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition - Surrey Chapter - http://www.vacc.bc.ca/gold

Meet: Fort Langley Cyclery

Time: 8:30-9:00 AM (we leave by 9:15)

Please RSVP ( Richard Edge ) ride so I know how many are interested. I will then send that number to the VACC to let them know that there will also be a group ride coming from Fort Langley. If you are intending to join us on this ride but find yourself a little late, or have RSVP'ed but can't make it at the last minute, please contact me by phone at (604) 807-8508.

Spring around the corner and ride update

Spring is just a few days away and with it comes milder and improved weather conditions for cycling. The weekly group rides though the winter have been on a "weather permitted" basis and I have been able to get out on a few of them through January and February.

Local Trail News

For those who haven't been around the Edgewater Bar/Derby Reach area in a while, some new sections of multi-use trail have been added. As many of you may know, last year a section of trail was added from 208th Street (half a block north of Allard Crescent) which takes you toward the river, through some farm land then comes back out to Allard. From Allard, another new section of this trail has been added this last Fall/Winter which runs along the north side of Allard Crescent then turns back toward the river and joins with the trail through the Edgewater Bar trails and then the rest of the trail to Fort Langley. I will try to get a route mapped as soon as possible, but have not ridden on the newest section which was still being worked on several weeks ago. Here is a description of the newest section which is a demonstration project of the larger Experience the Fraser project.

"Derby Reach Regional Park: Golden Ears Bridge to Derby Reach Regional Park Connector - the walking/cycling segment in Derby Reach Regional Park is under construction. A grant of $107,000 was received from the Trans Canada Trail Foundation for work in Langley outside the park. This is a partnership between Metro Vancouver and the Township of Langley."

These new sections are to be a part of this much larger project to create multi-use trails from Georgia Straight to Hope along the Fraser River. These new trail sections will now make our route even more "family friendly".

Group Ride Schedule Update

We will continue with the schedule as it is for the time being with some small changes. Because of my involvement in a new part time venture which will require me to attend training sessions on many Saturday mornings, I will likely not be able to lead or join in on many of the next several Saturday rides so I hope someone else will be able to step forward to lead them. I will not be able to lead tomorrow's (March 5) ride, but I have reserved March 12 at the regular 9:30 AM start for a bike ride. Weather permitting, I will be there on that day but other than that I will not be available for the next several weeks for Saturday morning group rides.

Route Map

As a reminder of the route we use for our Saturday group rides here is a map in case you can't find it elsewhere. Note that this map does not include the new trail sections. I will create a new route map at the first opportunity I have to ride the whole route again including the newest trail additions.

VeloRiders 20K Leisure Ride - Fort Langley - Derby Reach Loop

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

I will update the blog as this situation changes and hopefully by the time the warmer mid to late Spring weather arrives I will again be able to lead these and other group rides. I will also be looking into arranging other longer rides using different route for later in the Spring or Summer and certainly another Pitt Meadows, Central Valley Greenway and/or US bike ride are possibilities.

Ride On!

Happy New Year - belated

A belated very Happy New Year to everyone.

Yes, I realize it has been a while since my last update, but most of the group activity has been on our bikes. While the Valley VeloRiders mailing list contains about 30-35 people, we do have a small core of 3-7 riders who come out to ride on a semi-regular basis. Even I have not been able to make several of the Fall 2010 rides due to other commitments.


Now this is an informal group and there are no regular ride announcements other than the weekly Saturday rides  as those who want to ride just show up and join the Saturday morning group. I am hoping and planning for bigger and better things for 2011 and maybe even include some longer rides or day tours. I am open to ideas and hopefully we can see a greater turnout this year. The riding season will soon be upon us except for the few (like me) who ride year round.

Don't forget your regular bicycle maintenance and support your local bike shop for cycling related products and services. They are the best option for helping you keeping your bike maintained and supplied with the necessary bike toys :). Two excellent local shops are the Fort Langley Cyclery in Fort Langley and Cranky's Bike Shop in Aldergrove. Both provide excellent service and support.

Hope to see many of you join with us on our Saturday rides on your bikes.

Richard

Summer's Coming

It has been a while since updating the blog due to a number of factors. First, I have personally been quite busy with work, my commitments as chair of our Langley committee of the VACC, team leader for my workplace Bike to Work Week team and life in general. We have been having pretty poor weather for our Saturday bike rides with only two or three good days to ride which has resulted in an understandably poor turnout. Even after my recovery from surgery which went into mid spring the weather was poor and I have only been able to ride on 3 Saturdays myself, only one day of which was sunny. I am ever optimistic that we will have good weather as we approach the summer and that we will have good turnouts as a result.

News

In local Valley VeloRider news, I are planning a little bit more promotion of these weekly rides which will include a poster and route map to be made available through the Fort Cyclery Bike Shop to hand out to those interested. In addition the rides will be promoted through the Langley VACC committee event calendar and other local media outlets. Be sure to let anyone interested know about our rides as well. Also, you can now join on our rides even if you don't currently have a bike as the Fort Cyclery now rents bikes at a very reasonable rate which includes a helmet. Check it out on their Rentals page. Since their Saturday hours are 9AM-5PM the shop will be open for the start of our rides. I have also received a request for ride information from Peter Sylvester for his church's mens group to participate in one of more rides. I have sent him the information he needs along with a link to the route.

Speaking of cycling, many of you may know that June is Bike Month and there are many cycling events planned for the month with Bike to Work Week being the first, starting today and going until June 6th. If you work at Trinity Western University and want to participate sign up at http://www.biketoworkmetrovan.ca/, look for Trinity Western University and join our Valley VeloRiders BTWW team. Log your trips daily which will enter you in the Bike-A-Day give away along with other prizes. Otherwise sign up for your workplace and join an existing team or create you own. Be sure to check out the many events during the month of June starting with Velopalooza via their Facebook link or the Velopalooza web site. Another site to check out is B.E.S.T. 's Bike Month website for other Bike Month news and events.

Lastly, if you want to have a say and participate in cycling issues, infrastructure and advocacy in Langley come to our monthly meetings on the second Tuesday of the month 7-9PM at Langley Civic Centre in the Murray Creek meeting room. More information is available at the VACC main web site an the Langley committee link.

Lets ride.!!

Fort Langley Cyclery - Grand Opening

All are invited to the grand opening at the new Fort Langley Cyclery. There will be several activities planned including the following activities organized by the bike shop owners:

Fort Langley Cyclery Grand Opening

-Enjoy a free BBQ hosted by 100.5 FM The Peak

- try the new Bionx electric assist system for bicycles (we will have a couple of demos for people to try)

-enter to win a free bike (Opus Classico)

Other Activities

In addition the Langley Chapter of the VACC will have an information tent set up with all kinds of cycling information including maps, bicycle operator manuals, cycling advocacy information and much more. Valley VeloRiders will be also be leading a 20km group bike ride from the bike shop through Fort Langley, Derby Reach Park and back. A route of the ride is shown below and will be suitable for all levels of cyclists.

VeloRiders 20K Leisure Ride - Fort Langley - Derby Reach Loop

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com