Nursing an injury so thought I’d write a little recap from a big mountain bike ride in the South Chilcotin mountains from days past.
Day 1: We wake up at 430am after arriving at Tyax heliski lodge in the middle of the night. The plan is to get a head start on our first day of two. On the way out we stop by an outdoor washroom in the camping area. A sign is pinned to the door “warning: recent grizzly bear attack at spruce lake. Mother with cub, use extreme caution.”
We comment on it to each other nervously as it’s our first time in the area, but proceed as normal. We are both used to riding 2000M+ days in grizzly country.
With nearly 40 pound packs, our climb was slow and difficult in the 30 degree weather. A few hours after leaving Tyax on the Taylor creek trail, we reach our first destination – an old trappers cabin – and take our first real break of the day.
This cabin is one of many iconic to the region. We eat lunch here before beginning the climb/hike-a-bike up to windy pass.
We start our way to windy pass and pretty quickly encounter one grizzly bear foraging in an open meadow. We quickly move along and after an extended hike, reach windy pass. We take an good break to enjoy the views and rest our legs before the big descent of the day, down to spruce lake. This is where we’d see the only other people on our whole trip, a young couple who just got engaged 5 minutes before.
We are now on the high trail, and the descent down to spruce lake is one I’ll always remember. Blasting through open meadows, dense forest, and epic single track (in spots), knowing it’s all downhill from here.
By 330pm we reach spruce lake, and immediately see another grizzly bear across the lake. We make lots of noise and carry on to the other end of the lake, about 2km away to set up camp. Camp is a bivy sack for my riding partner, and a hammock for me. We eat the best tasting dehydrated meal I can remember, and explore around spruce camp a little bit. It took us about 8 hours including breaks to get here.
With lots of daylight left, we decide to hike our bikes up the nearest mountain and get some more single track in. This turns out to be an epic idea and got us on to a ridge within 45 minutes.
We return to our camp as the sun was beginning to set and start getting ready to shut it down for the night. We hear something in the woods, it sounds like a bull dozer. Next thing we know, a huge grizzly bear is standing on the shore line of spruce lake, sniffing the air in our direction.
We make lots of noise and luckily the bear runs off. Fast forward an hour, I’m laying in my hammock feeling like a bear burrito, while my buddy lays on the ground in his bivy sack knowing that there is at least one large grizzly bear in the immediate area. We make many mortal jokes back and forth and nervously try to fall asleep.
The night goes by with no drama and we wake up to temperatures just above freezing, and start the coffee to prepare for day 2.
Will continue with a write up from the whole trip if there is enough interest.
by scubasquatch100