Fly, bike and hike in the Chilcotins, September 19/20

This was another trip I always wanted to do – fly up to one of the lakes near Goldbridge and ride down. Fly with a plane and ride mountain bikes for a change. It felt weird flying so close to the ground without feeling wind in the face. The pilot recommended Spruce Lake over our first choice Warner Lake, as he thought it would be to windy to get into Warner. The plane, a Beaver, took off very smoothly from Tyax Lake and Resort (where I spent a couple of nights with my parents last year), went along Gun Creek, and much too fast landed on Spruce Lake. The consensus was to take the more interesting route over Windy Pass through Eldorado Basin back to Tyax Lodge. I had forgotten how much work it was to push a bike uphill, and we had to do it for two climbs for a total of about 1000 meter elevation gain. Doesn’t seem much for hiking, but pushing a bike is a different story. But the downhills were sure nice – not too challenging for someone who mt bikes only once or twice a year. The weather wasn’t as stellar as we hoped, but not too bad either. A couple of rain and snow showers. Is winter coming?


Over Tyaughton Lake looking west to Gun Lake and Carpenter Lake


At Windy Pass


Sweet single track down


The boys after scree ride

On Sunday we explored the northern part of the South Chilcotins on foot (since body parts abused the day before needed some rest). Tepee Mt looked like a nice easy objective for the day. Took Tyaughton Creek FSR - Mud Ck-Paradise Ck FSR to the trail head just below 1800 m (from Carpenter Lake 1.5 h / 36 km, easy 4WD). The trail fades in and out through the forest, but flagged. It leads to open meadows and the pass east of Tepee Mt. We opted for a route up the grassy slopes on the north side (aesthetically more pleasing than the steep scree slope from the east). Except for the last 50 meters the route is an easy hike. Tepee Mt is capped by a layer of basalt which makes the last bit to the top a scramble. It’s not technically difficult, but somewhat alarming because one has to climb over a steep jumble of broken basalt columns. Summit at 2500 meters, 3 h up, 1.5 h down at a moderate speed. Amazing views all along. Wildfires up the Yalakom are still burning. Saw first snow on Mt Currie on the way back.

Coquihalla Granite Towers - September 13

Another trip ticked off on my list ... and several more added.

Whenever we hiked or skied Needle Peak I thought we should go and explore the granite spires one sees in the distance between Fraser Canyon and Coquihalla Highway - the peaks behind Yak, Nak and Thor. Recently there was a new report on Clubtread about a trip up Llama-Alpaca Ridge with good info on logging roads and trail. So off we went. With the description we found the trail head and trail easily (although it was more of a ‘route’, not your weekend warrior hiking trail). Along a seriously de-activated logging road, up through steep forest, onto granite slaps up to a pleasant walk along the broad ridge between Alpaca and Llama peak. Not another human being in sight – but wait! Pete spotted a wing in the air! What a coincidence – we watched three paraglider launch from Guanaco and land close to our parked car. On the way down we sampled many delicious blueberries and picked up a couple of King Boletes. Since I found the granite slabs in a couple of places a bit too exciting, so we took a detour through very steep forest. At least something to hold on to…

Great views of the Anderson Group (Chamois, Ibex, Gemse).

What an amazing place to visit. This is another of these spots that would be a great tourist attraction, would it be anywhere in Europe. But just like Jones Lake or the Sumallo Valley few people come to enjoy the spectacular vistas.

Just saw a trip report on scrambling up Vicuna…

Vicuna

Ridgewalk

Fallcolors

Red Blueberries

Kings

Saddle Rock, September 5-7

The rainy season has begun just in time for the last long weekend of summer – Labour Day. We decided to run away from the rain and spend the weekend east of the Cascades. Conditions were not promising for flying but at least it would be mostly dry. In the end, 3 days of parawaiting yielded 4 hrs of ridge soaring in rather strong winds at Saddle/Silos in central WA. While parawaiting we kept ourselves busy with climbing at Frenchmen Coulee. But it was time for only 2 climbs before we got rained off. Very windy so tents were getting blown around in the gusts.

Other weekend adventures: most amazing views of clouds, rainbows, overwhelming scent of sage brush after the rain, waking up on top of Saddle Mt when tents almost blew over, watching pelicans soar in +50 km/h winds and being buzzed by an owl interested in our lonely tent (after it finally calmed down). Despite low air time - a great weekend in the empty WA desert.

From Saddle Mt, WA

From Saddle Mt, WA

Surf and Fly, August 29/30

Sweet weekend!

Saturday was one of the 'you should have been here days' at Skooks. No kayakers on the ferry and nobody at the dock got me wondering if I had misread the tide table. In Egmont we met a Montana paddler looking for company on his first visit to Skooks. In the end we were 5 boaters - it was a tough job to entertain the endless stream of tourists (several thanked us for the show). Among the 'tourists' was a PG pilot friend. Small world!



Alpine start on Sunday for another hike&fly from Mt Cheam. Lots of tasty blueberries slowed us down. At launch we waited for an hour for the thermals to build and overpower the light easterly crosswind. All got off without a hitch to a nice smooth flight down to Bridal Falls LZ. Although there were no thermals for soaring like for my first flight from Cheam it was just amazing to glide high above the ridge and out over the Fraser Valley way below.


Alpine start


Landing zone is 2000 meters below - just east (below) the highway exit.


Pete fluffing his wing

Black Mt Fly-In, WA, August 15/16

Black Mt is the first big ridge on the right driving east into the Fraser Valley. Must be a pretty amazing site if its on, but it wasn't to be. Saturday we did a sleddy from a lower launch just below cloudbase. It didn't clear and we gave up waiting and drove over to Blanchard. Best launch conditions ever - smooth west wind - nice, slow inflation - lift off; but it was too late and only Andrew managed to stay up. Sunday we tried Black Mt upper launch, but wind was blowing over the back. Watched some interesting launches before driving back down and on to Bridal Falls. After all the driving and waiting I had almost an hour air time - shows again how nice and dependable our 'house berg' is.

Check back for pictures soon.