Loving the Chilcotin

Since I was in the field on Canada Day, we both took last Friday off for another bikepacking attempt. And it was magical.

We saddled up at the bottom of the Hurley forest service road just outside Pemberton and were rolling by 2 pm. The first 5 kms of gentle rolling along the river abruptly change to a steep and loose, but rideable, dirt road climbing 1100 m over 15 kms to Rainbow Pass.

We brake for moose. Especially mommy and baby.

The FSR ends at Gold Bridge about 60 kms from the start. Although we had packed 5 or 6 dehydrated backpacking meals and some ride food, we had counted on being able to hit a convenience store in Gold Bridge for extra calories before heading into The Spruce Lake Protected Area. Except there was no gas station/convenience store, the general store was closed and the only restaurant/pub was closing in 10 minutes. We must have looked hungry as they kindly stayed open late and we chowed on veggie burgers, fries, nanaimo bars and beer. Another 10 kms of riding found us at the Carpenter Lake campground for this night. FINALLY! Successful bikepacking complete with camping! woooooohhhhooooo

Breakfast was rehydrated scrambled tofu from a bag that, curiously, managed to have 118% of the daily recommended cholesterol!! Fuel, maybe not the best fuel, but fuel nonetheless for our trek up to the ALPINE! HORRAY! ALPINE!

Saturday morning we rode up Gun Creek Road, leading to the double track, leading to the single track sweetness of the Spuce Lake Protected Area. All day was a steady climb, broken only by hike-a-bike sections,

failed stream crossings

and by the need to take pictures.

We first turned towards Warner Lake thinking of pitching camp there. There were suggestions that the local fauna was nearby and active.

I chickened out of camping at Warner Lake thanks to the claw marks on that tree. I didn’t know if there were bear proof food caches at the campground, so we rode to the camping at Spruce Lake with its known food caches. Spruce Lake is kind of the central hub for the horse packing and hiking camps and the most popular location for the mountain bikers that take the float plane in and take the trails down. Of course, while making dinner we saw a blond grizzly and her cubs just about 150 m across the lake!

By Sunday my ribs were aching and reminding me of last week’s crash. Fortunately all we had to do was singletrack back to Gold Bridge and then the dirt road back to the car. 100 kms of not too tough riding if the general store was open. If the General Store was closed on Sundays, then we had 100 kms of not too tough riding with a couple of pop tarts, 4-5 packs of ride food and a flask of Hammer gel. Our luck continues as the store was open.

It looked like we were going to have a successful and uneventful bikepacking trip until some shifting trouble led me to notice that I was missing 2 crank bolts and the last 2 were about to come out.  Shoot.  I was down 50% of the required bolts and looking at spinning the next 75 kms in my smallest ring. Time to break out the triple power mood enhancers. Beastie boys on the new-to-me-craigs-list ipod. Red Bull. Snickers bar. HOOOOOLLLY gollygoodness. I positively floated next to my bike, spinning along at a much higher candence than I prefer (almost a Scottlike cadence) , and it was all just fine. wheeeeeeeee. I wonder if you could pass an NCAA drug test after consuming red bull and snickers?? that was the good stuff!

We finally got back to the car giddy with success. I think we both knew we had experienced a world that was perfect for the two of us. mountains, biking, camping, remote, single track, wild flowers. This is an extraordinary life.