Lillooet Swingset Loop
Organizer's Report
Lower Mainland Summer 600
Ride dates: August 9-10, 2025
by Andrew Hartline

The ongoing "situation" in the USA kept us from crossing the border in 2025. This is fine. We did it for years during covid, and we could go on doing it forever. But it did result in more repetition in our rides this year. Without all the interesting roads in Whatcom and Snohomish counties, the 2025 Randos rides did more Fraser Valley kilometers than is probably optimal.The Valley is quite nice in moderation but having lots of it tends to work against one of the primary goals of our club: to do challenging and adventurous rides that offer a glimpse of the unknown. In this spirit, and inspired by last year's Williams Lake 1000, I wanted to organize a 600 that would be a really challenging adventure with significant unknowns.

Like Mt. Baker, the Lillooet loop presents itself clearly to a Vancouver-area cyclist looking for interesting places to ride. It is a very obvious loop because its upper section, the Duffey Lake Road, is the only paved route north of Highway 7 from the Sea to Sky Corridor to the Fraser Canyon. It is also a very large loop: it happens to be almost exactly 600 kilometers, and needs only minimal added "squiggles" to get to the official ACP distance (I used the Pitt River dikes and a quick trip to Miracle Valley). It's also a very difficult route. The elevation gain is a little more than Everest-high, and the few ride reports available online mention heat, extreme grades and restricted access to services.

However. The Lillooet loop is actually a lot more practical and achievable than a kid's dream of going all the way around on a swing. I myself dreamed of doing it for years, but considered it too difficult and with too many unknowns to be worth actually trying. Doing Etienne Hossack's Lillooet Loop 600 several years back changed my perspective. Getting the chance to run the loop with some experienced randos showed me that it's actually quite manageable. It is not the route to pick if you need a sure thing to qualify for PBP; but on the other hand always picking sure things is not really what our club is about.

So we did it. I piled on high cycling volume all year, thought a lot about what to bring and how to set up my bike, and finally prerode the route with Dave King a week before our riders were scheduled to go. I found it challenging and adventuresome but had not underestimated any significant part of it. I was prepared enough to get by every difficulty safely, and thankfully none of my most significant worries materialized.

In fact, this ride was the highlight of my summer cycling season. I remember cheerful families lined up and chatting at the gas stations in Boston Bar and Lillooet, and a herd of about six horses gathered around an apricot tree off Highway 12, just eatin' apricots together. And I remember a place on the opposite side of the Canyon on First Nations land where there was a little farmhouse in a windy meadow halfway up the steep canyon side. It really looked to me like a Hayao Miyazaki dreamscape.

I was worried that no one but me would actually want to do this ride, but the randos came through and we got quite decent ridership for the calendar's most difficult 600. I am elated that every rider who started managed to finish within the tough time limit, and I hope in good spirits. Chapeax all!