BC Backroads Explorer - Kootenays (Canada)

Six nights in a loop from Kelowna, self-guided and self-supported, on gravel forestry roads through the Kootenays on a Honda CRF 300L.

This is a different proposition from everything else Renedian sells. There is no chase vehicle, the group is capped at six riders, and everyone carries their own soft luggage, which means the trip is as much about self-reliance as scenery.

Kelowna opens it with the bike introduction and the packing, then Grand Forks by way of the Okanagan vineyards and lake roads, climbing into the Boundary country, where the Doukhobors, a Russian pacifist sect who emigrated in 1899, left their communal settlements behind. The remaining days run deep into the Kootenay backcountry on forestry service roads, past fire lookouts, waterfalls, swimming holes and natural hot springs, with free inland ferries crossing the long lakes and remote shoreline riding between them before the loop closes.

The bike hire is included, with Turkana soft luggage; the full inclusions are not itemised on the operator’s page and are worth confirming at booking. Seven days on a lightweight trail bike with your own kit on the back is the cheapest thing the operator runs and the most physical for its length. July to September is the season, since the forestry roads are snowbound outside it and the wildfire season can close them at short notice. Anyone who has done a supported tour and wondered what it would be like without the truck has their answer here, and the Kootenays are a good place to find out: the logging network runs for thousands of kilometres and the nearest settlement is often a long way off.