South Chilcotins Bike-Packing 2020

I caught a BC ferry from Departure Bay, Nanaimo and Steve graciously collected me at Horseshoe Bay. We drove through Whistler, lunched at Pemberton, and we made the slow drive on the Hurley River Forest Road to the Gold Bridge area. We waited out heavy rain showers in the early evening and then continued driving and camped at Lower Tyaughton Forest campsite. When we got up at 5:00am, the grass was frozen but the skies were clear. The Relay Creek FSR was wet and muddy to start, but we barely noticed it as we gained elevation quickly.

We rode through blooming flowers and then reached the end of the 4WD road and the official trailhead from where we followed good singletrack for a couple of km's

The riding slowly became more challenging and the hike-a-bike increased. We stopped for a well deserved snack break at 11:00 am (4 hours after starting out). I topped up my water from a nearby stream. When there is plenty of fresh water about, I don't carry more than a bottle of water because I don't see the point of carrying the extra weight. When we reached the Twin Lakes area, it flattened out and we could ride more and push less. We saw plenty of grizzly bear poop in this area and at many other places along the route. We made a habit of calling out on downhills without much visibility and we didn't see any bears.

The "Southern Chilcotin Mountains Guidebook" describes the Relay Creek as challenging mountain biking. During the day, our opinions moved from "just hard work" to "challenging" by the time we were done.

The descent to the Graveyard Cabin required us to get off and on our bikes quite a number of times, so the cabin was a welcome sight. After a brief lunch we found the trail heading up the Big Creek valley and approached our first significant creek crossing.

The Big Creek crossing was routine. I kept my runners on while Steve put on his Crocs for the crossing. We got our feet wet on small creek crossing and swampy spots, so my light, quick-dry shoes worked for me.

The next section of about 5-6 km was not particularly easy and it took the better part of two hours. Rather than follow the valley bottom, the trail rose endlessly and I, for one, started to feel the effects of a hard day. We came across the Teco lake (more of a large pond) and the local mosquito population encouraged us to press on (the campsite didn't have much of a view either). We then reached an open grass area with views of the upper valley and suddenly it all seemed worth the effort.

The guidebook completely failed in its description of the Big Creek drainage. The book described it as "excellent" for mountain biking, or did our skills and fitness not measure up?

We crossed over Grant creek, checked out a rather unappealing, disused outfitter's camp before heading down to the banks of Big Creek to a splendid campsite on the Elbow Pass trail. We had done 45km on our first day and were happy to call it a day around 5:00pm. The views up the valley were excellent. We felt pretty good about our day.

We had another early morning. According to the MEC thermometer, it was -2.5C at coffee time. We both had opted for instant coffee, more a black bitter drink than coffee. Sleep and some Jameson whiskey (the previous evening, not for breakfast) had revitalized us, though I did feel some tightness in the pecs from all the pushing the previous day.

The track kept closer to the creek which was a mixed blessing. There was less steep climbing but plenty of mud to slow the pace. We had occasional views up to the trail junction to Lorna Pass. It was still pretty nice.

We kept our feet dry with a simple bridge crossing of Big Creek (in truth, my feet were already wet from pushing through swampy areas). It didn't take long before the lower trail below Lorna Pass cranked upwards. It wasn't a well engineered track for pedestrians, but as a bike pusher, I felt completely out of place (the guidebook described the trail as "good" for mountain biking). We would test the limits of absurdity further up the climb to Lorna Pass.

The steep grade lessened for a small stretch across a scree slope and the final section required some serious pushing and frequent recovery stops, but we did it. We made It to Lorna Pass (around 2,200m) on a beautiful day. It was time for a rest to soak it all in.

The wildflowers were magnificent, the views were terrific, but I couldn't help thinking that this would be a great place to hike (not hike-a-bike). The ridges were calling to me.

There was nothing else to do but to go down and we had a ripper of a ride for the next half hour.

Although the top section of Tyaughton Creek was amazing, we started to get a taste of what lay ahead. The trail wasn't quite as smooth or flowy as we had hoped. It took us about an hour to reach Bear Paw cabin.

No one seemed to be around the cabin but the canvas tents all had open doors so we surmised that the staff were on break somewhere. We found a shady spot and had lunch.

We rode through some fine country, forded Tyaughton Creek five times, and we did a lot more pushing up hills, etc. Steve banged up his shins on one of the hike-a-bike sections and my chain jumped and jammed in the midst of a billion mosquito cloud. We were feeling quite tired when we started to push up the last climb up to Spruce Lake after the last Tyaughton Creek crossing. At that point, I was mostly motivated by "let's get it done" and to keep moving to avoid the mosquitoes.

I had floated the idea that this trip was starting to feel "epic" to my riding partner at Lorna Pass and by the time we reached Spruce Lake, Steve was on board that characterization. It was just 30km for the day (7:00am-5:00pm), but it felt further as the riding along upper Tyaughton Creek was slower than expected.

We encountered the first people of our journey at Spruce lake (after about 75km of riding). Fortunately, there were few mosquitoes at the north Spruce lake campground.

We opted for the Gun Meadows trail which offered a beautiful track through some flowering meadows.

There were nice open sections that provided views up Gun Creek (towards Warner lake) and looking down lower Gun Creek. That was a nice section to ride.

Gun Creek crossings were on bridges and we did have to push the bikes on a number of occasions, but that was OK and par for the course.

The further down on the Gun Creek trail, the easier it got, as we rode on the remnants of an old road. Finally, we emerged on to gravel roads which were as smooth as they get.

We had quite a bit of work ahead of us on the gravel roads, with a few up-and-down sections to complete the loop and get back to Steve's truck. It was sunny and warm and the heat made the last stiff climbs more difficult and the cold beers later that afternoon more enjoyable.

We arrived at the Tyaughton Forestry Campsite by 2:00pm (50km on the day) and drove out to Carpenter Lake. We decided to overnight it at the BC Hydro Gun Creek campsite. It was a warm, mild evening. The following day, we made the almost full day drive home on Vancouver Island.

It was a great, challenging trip. I had great company and we really enjoyed the mountain scenery. It is a real privilege to ride a bike through wilderness. We both brought 4 days/3 nights worth of food but we completed the circuit in three days/two nights. Total distance covered was 125km with 2,200m of vertical gain. Neither the stats nor the photos reflect the full extent of our hard work. We had a real sense of achievement on completion, that few could fully appreciate.

Neither of us are technical mountain bikers but we are reasonably fit gravel bike riders. While it was a worthwhile trip and a different way to see the back-country, it was essentially pushing loaded bikes along a hiking trail. It did allow us to travel greater distances than by foot for sure. We found that with loaded bikes, many of the uphill sections required pushing so we often were hiking almost 50% of the time. The going was much easier from Lorna Pass down, and I would describe much of the trail in the second half of our trip as "flowy".

The trails closer to civilization and the Tyax Lodge area seem to be much more ride-able and the distant trails seem less flowy and more of the hike-a-bike variety. If I were to return (and I probably will), I would design a route that would keep us on the main riding trails.

The bikepacking.com description of the route "almost the entire route is flowy" and "no mosquitoes" is pure fiction.