How would you respond if a preteen kid with green hair challenged you to a ride in a BMX park? If you were middle-aged and riding a skinny-tire touring bike, you might be inclined to shy away. Then again, if you were out exploring the urban greenways around Kamloops on two wheels as I did last July, you might just take up the tyke’s offer. After all, the rewards of travel often blossom from exactly this type of chance encounter with locals anywhere, whether in the heat of a summer’s day in McArthur Island Park or a world away.

For millennia, travellers have journeyed along the sandy banks and watery surfaces of the North and South Thompson rivers, which merge in Kamloops. The town’s name is even taken from this important geographical intersection: it translates from the local Secwepemc language as “where the rivers meet”. It used to be that Kamloops ranked among the faceless cities that drivers routinely pass through on their way to somewhere else. Used to be.

These days, Kamloops is more than just a place of natural convergence. It’s also where golf, baseball, hockey, curling, and cycling aficionados gather. Inspired by the success of hosting the 1993 Canada Summer Games, city officials set out in 2001 to transform Kamloops, the largest city on the Trans-Canada Highway between Vancouver and Calgary, into the tournament capital of Canada. Each year, a growing roster of sports events, such as the B.C. Summer Games in 2006, draws crowds to an array of indoor and outdoor facilities.

At the same time, Rocky Mountaineer Vacations, the Vancouver-based rail-excursion company, chose Kamloops as the hub where its passengers overnight. Their international presence, coupled with the youthful energy brought by students at the city’s Thompson Rivers University, has sparked a renaissance in the heritage downtown core along Victoria Street. That’s why a visit with no grander aim than to simply enjoy all that the city has to offer perfectly suits a weekend getaway.

There’s a timelessness about the surrounding weathered cliff faces that stare down on the rolling rivers. When the rich scent of sagebrush wafts off the hillsides and grabs you by the nose, magic happens. Like the sudden apparition of a kid with green hair. Maybe this little ripper was just bored. His competitive zeal certainly appeared genuine, and with good reason. Riding an undulating BMX track guarantees an exuberant experience on any type of bike. At the finish, experience triumphed over youth. It hardly mattered.

Clearly, what counts in Kamloops is not acting one’s age. If there had been any green hair gel handy, you might even have applied a highlight in a show of solidarity. And no one would have given you a second glance as you explored McArthur Island Park, except the chubby yellow-bellied marmots always eager for a handout or the nectar-seekers in Gregson Butterfly Garden, adjacent to the bike track. Created in honour of a lifelong local naturalist and his family, this corner of the park borders on a backwater of the Thompson River. Have a seat and watch the flickers and hummingbirds at work, not to mention a dozen or so varieties of butterflies. In summer, the garden is a riot of bright shades. Nearby lies a massive skateboard park, which appeals just as much to in-line skaters who carve amazing lines of their own in the park’s deep peanut bowl while floating like Lepidoptera.

Three kilometres of greenway circle McArthur Island Park, a fraction of the 40-kilometre Rivers Trail that runs along the banks of both Thompson rivers and touches on several parks. Riverside Park marks the starting point in the heart of downtown, with kilometre zero at a gathering place there called Highwater Plaza, where a detailed trail map is posted. From there, the paved trail branches out in two directions beside the river. One of the pleasures on a warm summer evening is enjoying live music in Riverside Park’s band shell, starting at 7 p.m. during July and August. If you’re on foot, bring your lawn chair or beach blanket and stake out some space beneath the graceful weeping willows that line the riverbank above a sandy swimming beach.

Cycle the greenway as much for the cooling breeze it creates as for the enjoyment of stretching your legs after a car ride. Once you get started, it’s hard to say where you’ll wind up. Head to the Overlander Bridge for an elevated view of downtown, including McArthur Island to the west. Along the way, formal gardens, art installations, historical plaques, interpretive displays, and a restored steam locomotive are just some of the unexpected attractions that will spike your enjoyment. Keep your eye out for that green-haired kid, too.

Access: Kamloops lies 355 kilometres northeast of Vancouver on highways 1, 3, 5, and 1 via Merritt, or 423 kilometres on Highway 1 via Cache Creek. Information is available from Tourism Kamloops (1290 Trans-Canada Highway West, Exit 368; 250-372-8000 or 1-866-372-8081; www.tourismkamloops.com/). The City of Kamloops Web site is a good on-line source of trail maps (www.kamloops.ca/).

For rental bikes, visit Full Boar Bike Store (310 Victoria Street; 250-314-1888; www.fullboarbikes.com/) or Spoke ’n Motion (194 West Victoria Street; 250-372-3001 or 1-888-372-2044; www.spokenmotion.net/). Each caters to specific styles of cycling.