Photo: Let's Go BikingCortes Island

Cortes Island

Challenging Demanding on several fronts at once, or a lot of riding on busy roads.

Difficulty Our overall read of how demanding a route is. We score surface roughness, climbing, singletrack, and how far it runs from services. The route publisher's own rating, a lot of busy road riding, or sheer scale can push the tier up, never down.

Derived from OpenStreetMap. Good data, not perfect. Spot something wrong? Tell us.

How we describe routes →

Cortes Island takes two ferries to reach, which keeps its roads wonderfully quiet. The riding runs 20 to 50 km from Whaletown to Smelt Bay Park, with side trips to Squirrel Cove and Cortes Bay, through forest and along the sea. Do not let the island size fool you: the hills come steadily and steeply. Historic stops and swimming beaches reward the effort.

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Where this ride goes#

Approximate lineGet the real route ↗

Map key & layers

Show stops Mute other bike trails

AttractionsSuppliesCamping

Riding near fast trafficFastest stretches

Dashed line = our rough sketch of where the ride goes. The rideable route lives at get the book from Let's Go Biking.

Fast-road stretches#

We believe these are the fast, unprotected roads on this route. We can tell you which roads and roughly how far, but not the order you will ride them. If you see an error, tell us and we'll fix it.

about 15 km of Whaletown Road · near Mansons Landing

☕Stops worth stopping for8 along this route

Communities along this route#

Mansons Landing 5 Cortes Bay 1 Squirrel Cove 1 Whaletown 1

Mansons Landing (5)

Cortes Island Museum & ArchivesInfo· Museum / Gallery · Free

Cortes Natural Food CoopInfo· Grocery Store

Smelt Bay CampgroundInfo· Public Campground

Cortes Island Library BranchInfo· Library · Free

MarketInfo· Grocery Store

Cortes Bay (1)

Wild CortesInfo· Museum / Gallery · Free

Squirrel Cove (1)

Squirrel Cove General StoreInfo· Convenience Store

Whaletown (1)

Gorge Harbour Marina ResortInfo· Private Campground

Slice and dice these stops in the directory →

These stops come from our directory of welcoming places across BC. Spot something wrong, missing, or closed? Tell us and we'll fix it.

⛴Getting here, bike and allLund

Getting to this ride, bike and all#

The transit network doesn’t quite reach this ride. The closest doorway is Lund, about 17 km from the route. Ferries and buses will carry you and your bike that far:

Cortes Islandbest: just ride
Nanaimobest: ferry + bus
Vancouverbest: bus + ferry
Victoriabest: bus + ferry

Or pick any two places on To & Fro →

🪶Traditional territories

This route travels through the traditional territories of the Homalco, K’ómoks, ɬaʔamɩn gɩǰɛ (Tla’amin), and ƛohos giǰi (Klahoose).

Territory data from Native Land Digital, for educational purposes only.

Ready to ride it?

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