I found Kevin at a Pizza place up in Pemby around 4:30. I followed him through Lillooet and arrived at our Cabin around 9:30 friday night. It was a drive over gravel roads, and high places with high prices of failure for missing a turn. But it got us to Tyoughton Lake on Mt Tyax. The group, 9 of us in all would spend a lot of time on that deck, drinking bevies and recovering from a few tough days of riding.
Craig is a big fan of "Acclimatization Rides". 1 day to get your lungs to capacity for the trip. Day one would be an epic trek over Camel pass.
Yes, thats Marylin on the left. Not originally part of the plan, but her fam has a cabin in the area and she just happened to be around. Turns out, Patti, Dale and Bryan came up to celebrate Bryans 40th. Marylin went with us on this trip so she could lead her group on it again the next day. And then they had the Warner Lake trip on Monday. Marylin was at the head of our group the whole way, and prolly the other 2 trips as well.
We all rode as much as we could. My XC bike is out of commission so I borrowed a G-Spot proto from the bike shop. I was kinda glad to have an excuse not to ride up the whole thing.
We found our way to the Cabin at the half way mark and stopped for lunch. Then we started soldiering on towards the pass.
Snow on the last day of July.
And a tough push up a hill as grey clouds glowered over us.Craig had originally planned a different day one for us. But forest fires in the area put a kybosh on that so he had to think quick to come up with this one.
We made it to the saddle and started down. Unfortunatly, the trail had a lot of dead fall and trees on it. After a tough push up the hill we had a low flow, and short ride back down to the vehicles.
Im not complaining though. The views were Epic.
The Jewel of the trip was a Float plane ride up to Warner lake and a 40k trek back. The weather could not have been better. Warm with cool breeze. We had rain at the cabin the day after(Thinking of team Marylin) and figured we must have done the trip on 'the' day of the year to do it.This is us taking off from Lake Tyoughton.
Thats the plane at the 'dock' on warner lake. Our Pilot, Dale, was a man of few words and less sense of humor. But he touched us down on that lake just like a baby.
We started the ride. Some pushing up but a net loss of altitude of around 2700 ft. Maybe the best ride I have been on this year, and that includes porcupine rim in Utah.
I didn't get as many pics as I'd like. I'm waiting for Craig, Kevin and Bob to post up theirs so I can add em.
The ride ended around 10k after this shot of the river was taken. I had brought a beer with me and kept it to myself. I made the mistake of telling Lee I had it and towards the end of the ride he ratted me out. I ended the trip with a 6k mad dash to the end like a mother protecting its young. I made it in and cracked it open. I shared with the first few riders to get in. Tracy missed out though. Not sure I'll ever get back in her good books. Hehe.
Monday was a rest day for most of us. Craig and Kevin went out for a 6 hour exploratory of some ridge line about an hour away. They returned to report they had managed 14 minutes of saddle time in that. I was glad to have the day off.
We had our last day of riding in Bralorne, about 45 minutes up the road. A trail called Alphagetti. It was a hard push up for most of it. But a respectable 45 minute decent on loam.
I had the feeling these trails had seldom been ridden on. And will the number of people in the area, how difficult it must be to forge trails like this in this environment.
I saw my first bear on this ride too. A small black bear. Then a second on the way home with Tracey and Lee.
I wouldn't hesitate to do this trip again. Warner lake was epic and fun riding. Alphagetti would make a good primer too.Edit: I dug out a few more shots. Here in no order:
Day 2: Warner Lake
Day 1: Camel Pass
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