While the Trans Canada Trail in the Fraser Valley is essentially in place, planners across the Southwest Region are still collaborating in a variety of ways to ensure the Trail’s continuity or integrity. As time goes on, the Fraser Valley communities increasingly find ways to add interest to the Trans Canada Trail by adding or enhancing features and to enrich the discovery process such as the integration of the Trans Canada Trail into the Experience the Fraser Project.

The Southwest Region has much to offer to the Trans Canada Trail enthusiast in its more than 600-kilometre section including alternates for cycling and equestrians. Some of the features of the Trail in the Fraser Valley include:

• the Matsqui Trail and The Discovery Trail over Sumas Mountain and the Sumas River dike trail in Abbotsford;
• the Vedder River Rotary Trail, a major heronry display centre, and Cultus Lake in Chilliwack;
• the Chilliwack River Valley, Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park, the Silverhope River Valley to Hope;
• the Othello Tunnels in the Coquihalla Canyon Regional Park, the start of the Kettle Valley rail trail;
• finally, from here, sections of the Kettle Valley rail trail are experienced via the Coquihalla Summit on the way to Brookmere.

The Trans Canada Trail in the Southwest Region offers a myriad of connections to other important cities, regional and provincial parks, and a number of trail loops and alternative routes, many of which are described on our website.

The experiences offered along the Southwest Region are remarkably rich and varied. Natural seashores, salmon-bearing streams and hatcheries, working forests and rivers, first and second-growth forests, rain and alpine forests, marshland and polders, farmland, meadows, bird sanctuaries, cultural and heritage opportunities, spectacular vistas, mountains, valleys, waterways, and major water crossings are some of the unforgettable experiences to savour.

While the whole trail can be cycled over a variety of terrain some of it is better experienced on foot. Fort Langley to Cultus Lake is next travelled on a bicycle, the Chilliwack River Valley, Paleface Pass into the Silverhope Valley on foot and the rest on a bicycle.