OUT THERE: The Columbia and Western Trail from the Paulson Bridge to Bulldog Tunnel

By Adrian Barnes

It’s long been an ambition of mine to take my two sons through the kilometre-long Bulldog Tunnel that’s located roughly halfway between Castlegar and Christina Lake on the Columbia and Western Trail (see the very useful map attached to this story as well as this photo gallery).  

After all, what could be more appealing to a kid than a trip to and through a spooky, pitch black tunnel? Certainly, the idea appealed to their imaginations. However, over the course of a couple of failed attempts during the last seven years, we had yet to make it to the tunnel. That is, until this weekend.

How hard, you may well be asking, can it be to take a bike ride on a gentle rail grade? Well, pretty hard, as it turns out. In the past we’d attempted the trip from the Castlegar end and the problem with that route is that it’s a constant climb on a false flat. In other words, twenty five kilometres of climbing on fairly loose gravel.

If any of you out there are road bikers, you’ll be very familiar with the depressing effect that a slow, constant climb can have on a rider psychologically. To your eye, it looks like you’re on flat ground, but your slowly-weakening legs and pounding heart tell a different story.

Consequently, on those earlier attempts, we never made it all the way. We did enjoy a couple of shorter tunnels and some spectacularly high trestle bridges, but we never made it all the way to the fabled Bulldog.

Then I heard that an alternate route was to take the Paulson Detour Road (about three kilometres east of the bridge) and approach the tunnel from the west. The advantages of this route is that the bulk of the ride in is downhill—fast and fun. Of course, the ride out is a bit of a grind, but—hey—once you get the kids in there they know they have to pedal out or end up cougar food! So off we went.

The drive down the mostly-paved detour road is a steep but easy one—achievable by any car. At the trailhead there’s a map and a handwritten warning about a grizzly in the area that dates back to June. We parked the car, got on our bikes, and began to peddle.

One very interesting feature of this trail is the memorial to Peter ‘Lordly’ Verigin that’s located about four kilometres in. The memorial is located at the site of the bomb attack that killed the Dukhobour leader and  on October 29, 1924 near the now-abandoned town of Fallon. A time bomb planted under Verigin’s seat killed 20 out of 22 passengers in his carriage, including an MLA.

Interestingly, the murder was never solved and theories abound. Splinter Dukhobour groups, Verigin’s own son, Soviet agents, the Canadian government, and the Klu Klux Klan have all been the subjects of at least somewhat plausible theories. Verigin, for example, had recently bought land in Oregon and may have been contemplating moving his people down there. Such a plan would have aroused the ire of the commune-hating KKK...

The site of the memorial is peaceful until one notices the bank of the railgrade, which is still charred and scattered with melted glass and metal almost a century later.Further on, the trail offers some splendid views of mountain vistas that can’t be seen any other way.

Along the way there are several camping/picnic stops with tables and toilets. We passed by several abandoned townsites but there isn’t much to see, unless, perhaps, one toodles around in the bush a little. We didn’t do that, but remained grimly set on our destination.

It’s worth noting that the trail is also open to motorized use. We passed a convoy of four ATVs on our way back, but the drivers were very friendly and courteous—slowing down so as not to choke us to death on the very dusty trail! Certainly, this is a trail where hikers, bikers, and machine users can co-exist peacefully: it’s easily wide enough to allow an ATV to pass without a cyclist having to dismount.

When we finally got to the tunnel, we were glad of the cool it offered and greatly enjoyed our stumble through it. Note: bring a flashlight! You won’t want to make the trip without one. My sons enjoyed the tunnel, though perhaps they weren’t quite as flabbergasted as they would have been had we made the trip a few years earlier: teen-aged nonchalance tends to sap the magic a little.

A final note: it’s worth an extra little trip 3K south of the parking area to view the Paulson Bridge from the bottom. It’s a very science fiction-y experience and something you’ll keep in mind every time you cross that bridge thereafter!