TR: S. Chilcotin Bikepacking

[406]

Day -1: After work flight in to SEA with checked bikes. Rental car pick up and spent night at sketchy Edmonds hotel.
Day 0: Drive to Tyax Lodge, via Hope-Lytton-Lillooet. Assemble bikes. Dinner at lodge. Camp at resort.
Nice place, but pricey:


Day 1: Float plane ride to Lorna Lake. Bike to camp site just below Iron Pass.
You can pack a lot of gear in the Beaver:






Lorna Lake comes into view:


Goodbye Beaver:


The trail up Grant Creek:


Nice stream for a regroup:


Camp spot:


Day 2: Iron pass to West side of Warner Pass.

Near the top of Iron:


Down we go:




Trail got faint, lower down and then we got really lost:


After a few hours of bush whacking I found a mining road that connected to the trail we wanted:


Rain started so we made camp for the night:


Day 3: Warner and Deer Pass.
Only the Griz puts down a better track than the Ardent:


A bit of hike a bike:




Cool pass:


A little loose on the downhill side:




Views got really good:


Warner Lake comes into view:


Nice trail around the lake:


All hike a bike in the 95 degree heat up Deer pass:



Getting above tree line there was a breeze:


pano:


Self shot with camera on backpack:


Deer pass:


Trail down to Tyaughton Creek was really nice:


Best camp of the trip. Nice swimming in the creek and very few bugs:


T.B.C.

[kidwoo]

Who's your buddy on the ibis?

I think I knows him.


Looks like a friggin rad trip!

[Shredhead]

Nice trip! I think you need a fatty next year.

[LeeLau]

well done.

[::: :::]

nicely done

[zion zig zag]

That looks both awesome and something I have no interest in, concurrently.

[frorider]

Good TR, thx.

[WaistDeepGroomers]

Sickness! Can I inquire as to costs and how long you need to get one of these Chilcotin epics done? Do they have missions of varying lengths?

[406]

Who's your buddy on the ibis?

He goes by Evdog on the forums, mtbr etc

[406]

Sickness! Can I inquire as to costs and how long you need to get one of these Chilcotin epics done? Do they have missions of varying lengths?

Thanks. A lot of people just fly in for a day ride out. The float plane was ~$800 a flight, with 4 people ~$200 per person. Flight to SEA was $200 on SW with $75 for bike each way, rental SUV was ~$250 each( split between the 2 of us). So not too expensive.

[cat in january]

Win!!!!!!

[406]

Day 4: Little Paradise and Little Graveyard Pass

Second two pass day started with some nice easy riding up Tyaughton creek trail through some horse camps:


That didn't last long before the mostly hike a bike up Little Paradise pass started:


Hike o bike on the horizon ( top of the pass):


The trail was faint but fun dropping down the east side:




No luck finding the "route" that started up Little Graveyard, so I talked everyone into going up some grassy slopes rather than the thick brush. This got us a bit above the trail we needed, but I think it was better than fighting slide alder and small trees with bike and gear. I found a gully down to the trail:




Then some really steep hike a bike:


Fox paw next to wolf paw( I think):


Thought about taping it on the front of the bike, but too heavy:

(photo by evdog)

This pass was very narrow:


Going down was fun at first:


Next bit was a bit brushy...then got really fun up until the crossing of Big Creek. Going up Big Creak trail was a bit rough, lots of roots with deep troughs. We camped near what we thought would be the location for the start of Elbow Pass trail. I slogged around in the swamps for a couple hours and couldn't find the trail. Bunch of smoke came in, so no views from camp:


to be continued,

[406]

Day 5: Lorna Pass to Spruce Lake

Awoke to nice views and less smoke:


I almost lost it crossing Big Creek:


Going up the pass is all rideable (wink):




The trail down the east side was a blast:




I want to ski that line off the plateau:


Tons of flowers:


Some fishing before the final push to Spruce lake:




3 Loons in the lake, the water was nice and warm:


We rejoined the rest of the group, at the nice camp ground on the lake:


to be continued

[406]

The only map you need for planning a trip in the Chilcotin:

[406]

Day 6: Back to the lodge

Evan and I considered going up over Windy Pass to bag another pass, but decided to take the popular Gun creek trail out and spend day 7 doing a ride from the lodge without gear. The Canadian crew wasn't sticking around for the bonus day and they got an early start leaving Spruce Lake.

Gun Creek was fun...and mostly down:






For dinner we went to the town beyond Gold Bridge called Bralorne at a place called Sally's. The cook wasn't in, but Sally fried us some food...sure was tasty, beer tasted very good after 6 days in the woods also.

Returned to the lodge with lots of beer (wow beer is expensive in Canada) and got really drunk and found our way into the hot tub:


GPS track of the bike packing route, sure seemed like a lot more work than the numbers suggest:


Day 7: Camel Pass and Cinnabar pass
Sure was nice to hike a bike without camping gear:




Up to Camel pass:


I don't see the Camel:


Down was fun and all on the bike:






Enough riding, time to hike a bike up to Cinnabar:


Awesome views from the top:


A bit of exposure:


Very fun trail down:




Then we got really lost for several hours. Considered retracing our path back over the pass and down the mining road, but figured that would really suck. Evan didn't have the CA base maps on his GPS, but we used the elevation info to find the elevation along the stream that the trail crossed after bush whacking though the forest for a couple miles. I find maps in meters very confusing...but we found the trail and put in our final hike a bike of the trip, I made sure to get a photo of it, as it was a big momment:


After that it was a couple thousand vertical feet of down on smooth moto track...very fun:


End up eating at the lodge again, really good food, because we were later than expected. Drove to just outside Lillooet that night to camp almost hitting several deer. Rained most of the night...but Tim Hortons for breakfast in Squamish made up for the hot and wet night.

I figure the peace arch will be one of the first things to go when the USA invades Canada for their water:


frances farmer will have her revenge on seattle:


The End!

[springsproject]

Fuck yeah!

[LeeLau]

Sickness! Can I inquire as to costs and how long you need to get one of these Chilcotin epics done? Do they have missions of varying lengths?

http://reviews.mtbr.com/bikes-and-ho...pine-adventure

http://forums.mtbr.com/washington/tr...-a-251766.html

http://reviews.mtbr.com/the-mighty-c...to-choose-from

or just google my name and Chilcotin

[Dantheman]

Epic trip.

[406]

or just google my name and Chilcotin

We had a running joke during all the 95 degree temp, mosquito/horse fly infested hike a bike, the the trip report was going to be "LeeLau ruined my Vacation" and we would only post photo's of pushing the bikes and bugs. But like all other type 2 fun, in retrospect it was an awesome trip

Looks like you might have got lost around the same area we did on Cinnabar.

[LeeLau]

You had the right attitude. Its good to explore. We've never given out the GPS for Little Paradise, Manson, Cinnabar, Fortress, Dash or the DilDil because everyone else should have the pleasure of exploratory alder bashing

[bennymac]

Legit - Looks like a satisfying mix of fun types.