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.