In early July, 2019 I want to ride the Kettle Valley Rail Trail with a small group. This trail stretches from Hope, BC to Castlegar, BC. We will only have enough time to ride one way and I'm looking for transportation recommendations either to Castlegar (ride back to Hope, where we will leave a car/truck) or from Castlegar to Hope or Kelowna, where we will fly or have a car/truck waiting.
Since the Greyhound bus is no longer operating, this is proving very difficult to plan!
Options I've looked at:
Shuttling. Leaving a vehicle in Hope, then driving everyone + gear to Castlegar, though will have to find a suitable vehicle and will have to then get back to Castlegar to pick up the shuttle vehicle at the end. Renting a big enough vehicle one-way has so far been impossible. Only options are $1000+ for a moving truck or $500+ for a minivan.
Flying from Kelowna. Driving to Kelowna and leaving our vehicle, boxing the bikes and flying from Kelowna to Castlegar. This means we will do a shorter trip and the cost is still $300+ per person + bike for the flight one-way. And we will need to ride from the trail to the Kelowna airport through the city, which isn't really that big of a deal.
Canada's public/rentable transportation options are lacking and expensive! There could be a big opportunity for someone to do a new bus or train service here. Or even a car-sharing service/long-distance Uber!
I'm determined to do this trip though. Just need to figure out how it will work. Likely, we'll need to limit our group size to 3 in case we have to drive our own vehicles and fit the bikes & gear, which is unfortunate because I think at least twice as many would like to come.
If you've done this trip, please share how you got from one end to the other and any other recommendations.