This trip requires some logistics, including renting bikes and arranging for a lift to Canadian border, but it’s worth it. The wall of mountains to the west provides a staggering vista and you can see wildlife to boot.
If you bring your passports and a friend in a pickup truck, take bikes to the imposing, roadside Glave Peak (Three Guardsman Mountain), British Columbia, 52 miles west of Haines on the Haines Highway. Then coast back downhill from nearly 4,000 feet elevation, 13 miles to the U.S. border station at Dalton Cache along the wall of sharp-toothed, snow-covered Coast Mountain peaks to the west. Starting in the wide, treeless, alpine landscape, buffeted by chilly winds and pocked with patches of snow at mid-summer, this ride descends into the lush, verdant rainforest. Watch for brown bears that sometimes dart out in front of bikes.
