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Bella Coola, British Columbia

Started by AncientMariner, August 29, 2012, 10:41:45 PM

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AncientMariner

I heard about riding the hill to Bella Coola from a guy who did it with his wife on the back of his bike.  He wanted to go back one more time before he's too old to make the trip and asked if I wanted to go along.  What a silly question.  Before 1953 the only access to Bella Coola was from the sea.  It's up a fjord a bit north of Vancouver Island.

The hill is a steep, windy gravel road that joins the Bella Coola Valley to the Chilcotin Plateau.  Now part of highway 20 it's about 11 miles long.  It used to have up to 18% grades but I think they're no more than 14% now.  In fact of the signs I managed to read as I went down the hill 12% was the steepest that I saw thus documented.  Three of us left Kalispell and spend a night in Nakusp and one in Williams Lake on the way to Bella Coola, where we spent two nights.  We went a little farther going south.  We spent one night in Barriere on the way back to Kalispell.  Unbelievable scenery and great riding.

I was too busy riding to take photos of the hill, sorry.  Going in (down) it was raining, making seeing the road a bit of a challenge.  Going out we had beautiful weather.   It made the hill seem about 1/3 as long as it seemed going down.









'01 TTR125L, '01 WR426 plated, '00 Super Sherpa, '81 KM100, '80 SR500, '78 XS650, '06 DL650, '10 MG V7C, '12 MG Griso 8V SE, '12 Kaw Nomad -John

Hank

Thanks for the pics.   You take a lot of cool trips.

Does this mean you're back to 100%?    Will you be in the Hills in Sept?

AncientMariner

Here's a pic of "the hill" taken by somebody else.  Imagine meeting a cage coming the other way in the rain.  It had grades up to 18 percent but I think it's less steep after numerous improvements/repairs.



I hope to see some of you guys in September.
'01 TTR125L, '01 WR426 plated, '00 Super Sherpa, '81 KM100, '80 SR500, '78 XS650, '06 DL650, '10 MG V7C, '12 MG Griso 8V SE, '12 Kaw Nomad -John