need some route advice from Banff to Vancouver

[birdrunner]

We'd made it to the hotsprings (camping) when some guy told us we'd have to be NUTs to take our bike over that.  Amazing what some people call speed bumps.

[Kootenanny]

Don't do hwy 5 from Kamloops to Vancouver. The Coquihalla Highway is boring.

Swing West from Kamloops to Cache Creek, go through Pemberton, Lillooet, Whistler and Squamish, then to Van.

...And you need more time.  

I'd normally strongly recommend heading from Kamloops to Vancouver via Whistler (Hwy 99, the Duffy Lake Road, is worth it--see the pics) but be aware that this year there may be a LOT of construction going on south of Whistler on the Sea to Sky highway, in preparation for the Big Expensive Party in 2010.  And I've read reports that Duffy Lake Road itself is not in such great shape.  Plus, as veefer says, you need more time!

[1KPerDay]

I can't believe your route was going to skirt the Going to the Sun Road.  Must have been an oversight.

Only because my brother just got back from another Beartooth run and says it's light years ahead of the GTTS road in views, traffic, etc.

I may have to cut the beartooth out but we'll see. Thanks to all for the advice.

[ajf]

If you need more to cut out, the Lolo Pass takes you a fair bit out of your way and I'd suggest leaving it for another day.  There's other, even better roads in the area with much less police presence that you really should ride too, but they are dead ends.  It's more of a destination than a road you ride once on the way through, and it's not too far from where you live to do it on a long weekend.

If you follow the suggested routes through the Kootenays to Vernon, the next really good road that's not too much out of the way is Merritt to Spences Bridge.  From there you could go south along the Fraser River to Lytton and do a time check.  Either continue directly to Vancouver (the ride along the river has lots of long sweeping turns, so it's kind of fun), or take the long way via Lillooet, Pemberton etc.  The latter will add roughly 4 hours, depending on construction and how fast you ride twisties.

[birdrunner]

Only because my brother just got back from another Beartooth run and says it's light years ahead of the GTTS road in views, traffic, etc.

I may have to cut the beartooth out but we'll see. Thanks to all for the advice.

Well given a choice between the 2,  Beartooth is much more impressive.

[Croak]

If you need more to cut out, the Lolo Pass takes you a fair bit out of your way and I'd suggest leaving it for another day.  There's other, even better roads in the area with much less police presence that you really should ride too, but they are dead ends.  It's more of a destination than a road you ride once on the way through, and it's not too far from where you live to do it on a long weekend.

If you follow the suggested routes through the Kootenays to Vernon, the next really good road that's not too much out of the way is Merritt to Spences Bridge.  From there you could go south along the Fraser River to Lytton and do a time check.  Either continue directly to Vancouver (the ride along the river has lots of long sweeping turns, so it's kind of fun), or take the long way via Lillooet, Pemberton etc.  The latter will add roughly 4 hours, depending on construction and how fast you ride twisties.

I also recommend the 8 from Merritt to Spences bridge, it's a great little section of road, just mind the mountain debris on the left handers.  From Spences Bridge, it's only about another hour to take the northern loop through Lillooet/Pemberton/Whistler, about 50 extra road miles, (with Downtown being the destination).  Might even be less, since you're only in metro-level traffic once you get near Horseshoe Bay, and don't actually hit seriously congested areas until North Vancouver (Lions Gate bridge traffic), which makes up for the lower posted average speed on the north loop.  

There's about a 20 klick stretch between Lillooet and Pemberton that was being actively repaved when I went through there three weeks ago, so going west you'll have some somewhat lengthy gravel stretches.  If you come through on a weekend, there won't be any actual construction going on, but expect flagmen during the week, and who knows, the contruction might even be done by then.

Taking the 1 south from Spences is nice enough, but once you get a bit west of Hope, traffic turns to crap and you'll essentially be on a busy and boring "interstate" from there to Greater Vancouver.  Bypassing the 1 and taking the 7 doesn't help a bunch, it turns into a congested surface street once you hit Mission.

[alphabet man]

+1 on #8 it' one of my favorites
 here is a pic just west of Lillooet on 99 from 3 weeks ago, was a few kilometers of gravel

[ajf]

From Spences Bridge, it's only about another hour to take the northern loop through Lillooet/Pemberton/Whistler, about 50 extra road miles, (with Downtown being the destination).

Croak, thanks for correcting my screw-up.  The four hours I suggested was an estimate I made for a different route when the thread first started.  I composed the post in a rush (I was packing for my car/SV trip to the Kootenays - weather and roads were great, traffic delayed the car a fair bit, but was no problem for the bike) and added that four hour estimate without thinking about it.

[iguana]

+1 on #8 it' one of my favorites
 here is a pic just west of Lillooet on 99 from 3 weeks ago, was a few kilometers of gravel

Another +1 on #8 and #99.

I rode both coming from Kelowna about 10 days ago. #8 was the usual no-traffic, plenty-of-speed fun. #99 was even better. The first half was pretty good, despite the short gravel section, although the asphalt needs to be redone. You can only go about 7/10ths, because there is likely a 6-inch frost heave or two in the middle of the next corner. However, I met the paving crew about halfway to Pemberton, and had to wait for half an hour. After that, riding nirvana and then some. Once we were released, I got out in front of the pack (not hard when you're only 4th in line), and it was very fresh, very twisty, traffic-and-LEO-free asphalt for the next 40 or 50 k. Pure bliss. Even fully loaded for touring, I was scraping my toes every third corner. Not that it would have mattered, but the weather was a perfect 25C, too.

That was day 1 of a long tour around BC and AB (ride report to follow when I get back home). From there, its been 1700k of what seem like straight, flat and boring roads. (Straight enough to square off my back and front tires, to the point I had to replace them today). I'm finishing up the tour next week  by riding home through the Kootenays, so there will be a good finish.

Oops, sorry for the thread hijack. Back to the point: Ride #99, and ride the bike like you stole it!