Shortened Bikes Not Pipes tour roars up Slocan Rail Trail
By Contributor
With the ‘cling cling’ of bicycle bells and shouts of “Bikes Not Pipes” the little tour pedalled up the Slocan Valley Rail Trail this week.
The four-person crew — Tom Nixon, John Alton, Keith Wiley and Shannon Lanaway — took just one day to go from Nelson to Winlaw, avoiding highway riding almost the whole way.
After an informal evening talking about the movement to stop Bitumen Pipelines at Winlaw’s Kayu Cafe the tour continued the next day all the way to the end of the Rail Trail in Slocan City and up the highway to Silverton.
A second evening dinner talking pipelines was at the Mercado Restaurant in Silverton. With the weather delay from the previous week, plans had to be changed and the riders couldn’t go on to Kaslo, this time.
“Glorious spring sunshine,” said Wiley, who says it was great to ride up the valley. “We were so glad we postponed from the cold rainy days just last week.”
“The Rail Trail is wonderful, we got to Winlaw in one very easy day of pedalling, it could easily be done in three or four hours,” he said.
Another rider, Shannon Lanaway promoted the Dogwood Initiative plan to push for a provincial referendum to ban bitumen pipelines from BC and tankers from BCs coast.
Nelson’s John Alton said he wants to do the tour again next spring, but with more riders and a little more advance notice.
“It’s a wonderful time of year to ride,” John said. “No bugs, not too hot, and all the water running everywhere makes spring such a great time to ride the Valley.”
Photo caption: Tom Nixon, John Alton and Shannon Lanaway take a break on the Slocan River.
