T2R guest ride

Here I am showing off my new gloves won in a competition from Calgary Online cycle store- this photo was one of many we took so they can promote it on pinkbike. Actually the rest were serious but this was me fooling for my audience.

So its funny now, having been a regular guest of T2R that I am guiding their guests. This week we had 10, 3 girls and 7 blokes and we took 3 flights up to Spruce Lake on Thursday morning and set out in glorious sunshine with a storm buildiung up. By the time we reached the potato patch it started thundering down which was a great relief from the heat.

For once no-one wanted to wear a waterproof, the rain felt good. The tracks soon became tacky where they have been so dusty and the rolling was good. It rained on us most of the way down and after the 2nd bridge it was now mud not sand- first time I've been muddy since England!

We rode down in around 4hrs and after washing the bikes we hit the showers and bar.

Friday we rode North Cinnabar and then the local trails to Monkey See- riding as tail guide I was eating and breathing dust from everyone's wheels- must hang back further. Some of the group started to hit the wall so I fed them Clif shots and kept the back runners moving.

We finished the ride in the burn zone on the Turkey trail down to Mowson pond. I decided while the girls were walking up the hill that I'd hang back and get a good singletrack flow run near the end. I was going full pelt when my front wheel hit a burnt out stump and I went over the bars and was buried in soot! I could not extract myself from my bike until I unbuckled my camelbak!

Now covered in soot from head to toe I rejoined the group only to be told I looked like I'd been fighting fires! Black face and grey ash all over my kit.

Back at the lodge we just all ran straight into the Lake to cool off and wash off! Refreshing! It's damn hot here 35 degrees. And after the storms there are a lot of fires started.

The Hurley road (the shortest FSR out of here) has been closed, we can still get out via Lillooet, but its the busiest weekend of the year and we hope our customers are able to get here. More importantly we hope the fire fighters can contain these fires and keep everyone safe.

The local govt have called for a voluntary avoidance of travel in the backcountry - not good.

They say some 1,817 wildfires that have burned approximately 51,042 hectares of forests and grasslands have occurred since april 11th.

Currently there is 345 hectares burning on Copper mountain near Pemberton Meadows and I believe there are evacuation alerts there and in Lillooet. We watch with interest and hope that they are contained soon.

Epic Rides!

My day off and time for a big ride. Terry (the pilot) and I got a shuttle to the trailhead for Taylor Basin and started climbing. We climbed for 4hrs stopping for a snack and rehydrate at Taylor Basin cabin and then for a chat with some lovely Vancouver Natural History Society people at Eldorado basin who took our photo. One of them was an Ex Pat from Halifax and we compared Yorkshire accents mixed with Canadian.

We hike a biked on up Windy Pass for 45mins until we reached 2250m, there we met some of our customers and chatted for a while before we had our lunch and headed down down down the buff twisty singletrack for a 45 min descent to Spruce Lake.

We were doing good time so we pedaled along the lake to the Float Plane Dock and sat there dangling our feet in the water for 30mins before chatting to some campers and starting the long pedal back. 2.5 more hours was spent pedalling along narrow singletrack lines through wildflower meadows with views of mountains all around then down Gun Creek Trail skirting the creek and slaloming in and out of woods.

Had to refill a 3 litre camelbak twice from creeks so pretty much went thru 9L today- it's hot out there and the climbs take it out of you.

Adrian and Jordi met us with a beer at the Gun Creek Road pick up and the alcohol shot into my blood stream and to my head pretty damn quick. I was glowing with the sense of achievement. Another epic ride under my belt!

Where's that word I use so much recently - oh yeah - Wow!

And just to finish the day off with some excitement, while I was in the shower I heard an almighty bang in the cabin- it was that black bear breaking down the cabin door, followed by Terry chasing it up the road with stones! I'm just glad I didn't walk out of the shower to find it in the living room!!

Bear's and Fires

You know you are truly in the backcountry in Canada when....

...you have breakfast with the Forestry Fire Service guys who are damping the burn area down from the recent Forest Fire so we don't get evacuated again.

...you walk up to your cabin at 8pm and find a bear sitting outside it! Luckliy he was more scared than me and took off sharpish. (Note to self- Do not walk around with your head down anymore)

My group of 3 Vancouverites on the Warner Lake Float plane tour today skirting Trigger Lake!
It took us 6hrs of sweet sweet singletrack to pedal down the 42km from where the plane dropped us.

Hot hot day 34 degrees- we finished the ride and jumped in Tyaughton lake then dried off on the dock with an ice cold Sleemans Honey Brown! mmm mmmm!

Guide the Slide

A last minute booking had me heading out the North Cinnabar trail with 2 guests and riding the local trails. It's pretty slidy around there as the trails are so dry and sooo dusty, negotiating the switchbacks is more like turning your snowboard- significant drifting and applying brakes ona descent is a no-no, just let them go and slither down!

It was over 30 degrees and we ran out of water when we reached the fire zone near Mowson pond which was a real hot spot with no shade as there are no leaves left on th trees. You could feel the residual heat of the ground pushing up to us and the smell of carbon and soot was all around. But we made it back to the pick up spot at Mowson pond and ran straight into the Tyax bar for a couple of pints of ice cold water!

Tonight we sat on the deck of the cabin with some cold beers admiring the Lakes and Mount Truax peak now that Terry had cut some trees down so we can see it clearly! Great times!

Fly Fishing

After a hot day in the office I sat by the lake and chilled. Scott and Jenny offered to teach me how to fly fish so that is what I did! My technique was horrible infact Reg looked horrified as he tried to give me tips too! "10 o'clock-2o'clock Claire!"

After 2hrs of drinking beers and casting lines, something suddenly tugged unexpectedly on my line around 9pm ish and I reeled it in, in shock! A reasonable size fish! No-one could believe it espesh not me. It delighted our 2 young swiss guests too.

We packed it in at 10pm and finished some beers in the Lodge with some lemon meringue pies! Yum!

Terry arrived and set up the cabin so well- much homlier now!

Day 60- Glacier Tour and Alpine Passes

What a great day – drove a desk for 5hrs then jumped on a flight-seeing trip to the Bridge Glacier- what an amazing and remote place to be. Not many people get to hike on here- no roads no trails, just a float plan access onto the Lake that has now been revealed as the glacier recedes. It first formed over 5000 years ago, receded and then formed again about 700 years ago. It's been receding for the last 200 years and is now revealing ancient forests. Dale pointed out a fallen tree that has been carbon dated to 5000 years ago. Wow! Amazing to touch something that predates our own history!

Lumps of ice are carving off the glacier daily and we could see the fresh ones, some upturned to reveal the glacial blue ice that was below the surface. Heading back over downton lake and carpeneter both glacial lakes with blue silt and murky waters then we popped over to Gun Lake which was clear spring water you can see to the depths but its in fact around 200m deep! Wow again! So beautiful.

Straight after this Dale shuttled me up to Taylor Creek trailhead (TH) and pointed me up the Taylor cabin pass- At 2:15pm I set off and I climbed on this logging road for 1hr 45 and found the miners cabin, breaking my chain along the way, which held me back 20 mins of pfaffing!

I found camels pass but decided to carry on up to the High Trail turn off- another 45 mins of climbing, I turned left and swooped down the High Trail through meadows under high alpine mountain views- it was amazing! Then it started to climb and I thought I'd missed the turn off as the trail went on forever. Eventually I got to the Eldorado cabin (the one on the Collective/Roam movie I think). I thought maybe I was lost as no sign of the downhill yet! After an hour hanging around here trying to get a radio signal I got Adrian and confirmed I was in the right location. So on I went.

Eventually at 7:30pm I reached the downhill – no junctions at all quite different to how the map looks- I started heading down for 40 mins of amazing singletrack, roots, switchbacks, dusty shoots, occasional exposed ledges. Unbelievable!

I hit the logging road and almost crashed as I looked for directions and slid my front wheel but after heading back along the Freiburg trail I rolled into Tyax at 8:30pm 30 mins before dark! Straight into the bar for beers with Adrian, Scott and Jenny. What an amazing day! Exhausted but grinning!

Todays lesson was about the scale of the map here and the scale of the landscape- totally huge compared to UK OS maps! 2cm on map here - long way on ground!