rebalancing the bike. I hoped one
of the bouncing rocks didn’t reach a
front wheel brake caliper. The route’s
washboard surface led me to believe
this was either a road extensively
plowed in the winter or a road where
ABS brakes on larger 4x4 vehicles
were used a great deal. Eventually
the bouncing road relented, reaching
a plateau. I was now moving into the
South Chilcotin region of the prov-
ince and stopped the bike to take
in the beautiful views of the Coast
Mountains, the Pemberton Valley
floor and rushing Lillooet River.
I had heard of the “I Survived the
Hurley” stickers and I planned to get
one for my aluminum panniers. After
this ride I would have deserved one.
After about an hour of negotiat-
ing an increasingly narrow road that
changed from wide gravel track to
muddy trail while keeping the Hurley
River on my left, I had achieved my
destination, one of the most success-
ful gold mining towns in British Co-
lumbia history.
I put the kickstand down outside
the Bralorne Pioneer Motel, which
had been modified from the former
mining office. Inside was the original
safe where gold extracted from near-
by claims would have been kept be-
fore transport arrived to take it to the
bank. In 1933, during the Great De-
pression, 80,000 ounces of gold were
extracted, valued then at $2.5 million
CDN. There were signs that gold min-
ing ambitions were alive and well
in Bralorne, as the lights of the new
mine buildings were what guided
me in to town the night before, but
it would be hard to compete with the
heyday of the town in the Great De-
pression years.
After a solid sleep in my comfort-
able mine office’s motel room, I ex-
plored the nearby area, riding the
KLR across the gravel leading to Bra-
dian, the work town of the mines. The
houses in this residential neighbour-
hood for mining personnel and their
families were all boarded up, the red
corrugated roofs peeling away from
the elemental power of many harsh
winters and spring thaws.
Further down the road was the for-
mer site of Pioneer Mine. On my map
it said “Pioneer Mine (abandoned)”. I
could see why as I rode further down
a gravel lane. A massive pile of sun-
bleached wood and rusting metal
girders and gears were all that was
left of the processing facilities for
ore extracted from the claim. Ap-
parently the town decided to destroy
what was left of the derelict buildings
in the 1970s when it was discovered
squatters were living in them. Now
only ghosts remain in the splintering
and rotting wood of an historic mine
town’s buildings.
TRAVERSE
61
Sandon is a 5-kilometre ride down
a black gravel road that leads from
Highway 3A east of New Denver.
Highway 3A is a gloriously twisty fun
road that takes in a route from New
Denver east to Kaslo. This is the Sil-
very Slocan, a part of the West Koo-
tenay region of British Columbia fa-
mous for its silver mining past and its
many excellent motorcycling routes.
I rumbled down the gravel Sandon
Cody Road in a hurry as I was keen to
see this quintessential ghost town. A
former silver mining town, this place
had been the definition of a boom-
town following 1891 when two pros-
pectors stumbled on an outcrop of
silver ore. But before I could achieve
my destination, I glanced to the right