THE EPIC – Stage 5

Posted on September 1, 2006 by Smoke

Enter…Stage 5. The ppenultimate stage, the last day. Also, Labour Day…your last chance to wear white. Yeah …. right.

Grab the Google Earth version of this post HERE.

I’ve also got the whole tour packaged up in a single file HERE.

Last night was cool, but not fricken’ freezing like the night before. We woke up to crisp bluebird skies, and a little gift from my buddy Dale at Tyax Air.

Dale had a lot of loads going into Spruce today, but was empty flying back most of the day, so nice guy that he is he flew our trailers out for us. This meant that we could ride up and over Windy Pass and out via Eldorado Basin and Lick Creek free from our loads. Which is a seriously good thing considering the scale of the route today.

The cool air of the morning was great on the climb up Windy. Here’s Shreddie during a rare flat moment on the first climb.

It’s a helluva climb to Windy from the back side like this, but it’s worth it. There was lots of mandatory walking, but some of us are stubborn….

Not Guinea. He walked the whole way.

Yeah, the pass. We started well on the other side of those mountains in the background, four days ago.

Sort of like a moonscape up here.

There you go, right from the entry to the site.

Steve Mitchell photo.

Yeah, now it’s time to go down. This was the best section of the entire route. It seemed like endless flow.

See those two dark peaks in the center? That’s where we’re headed.

Here’s Peter. I couldn’t place Peter in my memory for the first little bit. He sure seemed familiar, then we figured out that I used to tune his bike way back in ’92 or so. He had a green Kona Hot all macked out with XTR. Now he’s riding a plastic Giant. Man, you should have seen that sucker flex when he was pulling the trailer. Not that it slowed him down any. That little S.O.B. is strong.

Bri guy on the west side of the pass.

Chris railing a corner.

Just to put it in perspective. Look for the rider.

Same spot, looking back. Usually you’re going up this way to get to Spruce Lake.

Now we’re down into Eldorado Basin.

Like daughter…

…like father.

Steve charges into Eldorado.

After a timeless descent into Eldorado Basin, we had to turn and climb up to Eldorado Cabin.

..which of course deserved a little break. Only one more climb to go….

The last pass.

The final descent is the Lick Creek trail, which isreasonably technical and almost steep in a couple of spots.

The really cool thing for me was I that I hiked this trail with my dad and his buddy way back when I was about 12. See? That’s me…

This is my old man, back when he wasn’t so old. he might have been feeling kind of old that day, as I seem to remember an awful lot of Budweiser at the cabin, but he couldn’t have been any older than 42 there.

See, the same lake in the background. I was able to match a couple of terrain features in shots from both trips, but I won’t bore you with those. If you really want to see where we were, check the Google Earth links at the top of the post.

OK, downhill time.

Let ‘er rip…

Peter doing just that…

After hours of downhill, and encounter with three bears, a couple of crashes, and a little dirt road action, we rolled into Tyax Lodge to collect our trailers.

Of course, with a bar right there, what do you think happened?

Things really went to pieces when a Dutch tourist started handing out the cigars.

Some of us were a little unclear on how to smoke them though.

Steve thought he had the program figured out. A ga ga ga ga ga……I yam what I yam.

Ooops. I guess that wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“But will I still be cute?”

Our last camp (well nearly last) on Anderson Lake.

We had originally planned on picking up a lift in Goldbridge and trying for Tenquille Lake near Pemberton, but most of us were falling apart at this point. Shreddie and I had sore knees (mine was essentially toast), Steve was a crusty scab, Shane had a HUGE crash and smashed his back, and everyone else was just plain tired, so we called it off and hung out in Goldbridge waiting for our ride back to Williams Lake.

In a word … EPIC. Now about next year…..

THE EPIC – Stage 4

Posted on August 31, 2006 by Smoke

Get your Google Earth version HERE.

Holy crap it’s cold this morning.

Beautiful day though.

Steve Mitchell photo.

As yesterday was overly gnarly in the effort department, we had a mellow start to today. It’s funny, but the forecast had today as the ugliest weather of the week. We actually saw the storm pass us by to the south, but it just slid on by and the summer came back with a vengeance.

This next one is Steve’s too. Killer shot.

The landscape and vegetation is markedly different this side of the pass, but there’s still lots of sidehill rocks to deal with.

Whattya say to THAT?!

Probably the same thing you’d say to this.

Steve and Guinnea take a break.

Once we descended a little further we got into classic Spruce Lake meadows and fields.

Hour after hour of this kind of riding. What a drag…

Those are the heights above our destination, Spruce Lake. My mom tells me she used to go fossil hunting uup there in the 50’s. It’s pretty cool looking at her old pics of this area. It really hasn’t changed.

Today wasn’t all smooth sailing. Theresa’s B.O.B. finally packed ‘er in, so it was sacrificed. We divvied up the bits and carried ’em out.

Shane had a couple of issues too, but he was able to keep moving forward.

Yup, that’s broken alright.

Spare parts for next year.

Ha Shreddie…that’s what happens when you bring your dog AND your girlfriend. It’s one or the other, buddy (Theresa’s gonna punch my arm pretty hard next time I see her over that one).

Ho hum, more epic grasslands with alpine vistas.

Once we got near the end, there’s these aspen groves and crazy grasses and shrubs that you go cruising through. It’s hard to show it in a pic, but it’s simply amazing.

Just one little push up, and we’re going to be at the lake…

Oh yeah, in the clear now. Shane in the shadow of Mt Sheba.

We ran into Dale, of course. It’s too bad he’s so busy, becasue I know he’d enjoy this trip. He’d probably do it in 18 hours straight, but he’d be into it.

Steve grabbing some agua at Spruce.

..and for dessert, the birthday boy meets the green fairy.

THE EPIC – Stage 3

Posted on August 30, 2006September 2, 2010 by Smoke

Again…your Google Earth files are HERE, or if you’re Googley challenged, have a gander at this screenshot…

Day 3 looked to be huge. After another night of wind and fitful showers, we packed up and began our climb to Warner Pass. The big bonus? It’s ALL singletrack from here to Tyaughton, which is still a few days away.

Mitchell tries riding some Shore with the trailer.

I found it amazing how well the bike climbed pulling the trailer. The weight of it helped push you through stuff that you would normally bog down in. Also, it didn’t get really steep until the last couple of pitches, so it was pretty smooth going. Lyall enjoys a rare moment of downhill in the sub-alpine.

The last creek crossing, and someone has wet feet.

These sub-alpine meadows were astonishing, and the trail was fantastic.

So were the views. That’s Peter working his way up the climb.

Little tiny people in big ass mountains.

Steve going hard at 7000′.

No, this isn’t just scenery. Steve, Chris, and Punky are in there somewhere. Maybe Lyall too. Warner Pass is just at the upper right. We walked over that snowpatch to the summit.

Lyall, Guiness, fresh snow on the peaks, and snow falling from the sky. Welcome to summer in the mountains.

Time to take a rest as we close in on 7000′

Shane catches a snowflake on his tongue.

…then he enjoys a rare downhill moment. At this stage, downhill knd of sucks, ’cause you know you’re going to have to make it back right away.

OK, I’m not really that hurting here. Just hamming it up for the camera. I actually felt great here, and helped everyone else as much as I could. I crossed the pass a total of 7 times….

THE TOP!!!

Chris was first up, by a long shot, and Steve was right on his ass.

We had to take a break to enjoy the summit. According to Chris, who’s been here several times, we were at 8 100′, but the map places the pass at more like 7 800′. Whatever, it’s freakin’ UP there.

Since we were at the high point of the tour, I figured we should celebrate. I’d managed to carry some limejice, tequila, and triplesec all the way up here, and combined with some fresh snow it made a delicious margarita slushie. Cheers, eh?

Of course, at around 8 000′ it also made for a great buzz. Somehow that equated to Mitchell and me developing Hans and Franz accents and a constant stream of oddball pseudo-german comments all the way down.

“Ja…you think you are ze good rider, but I am ze one who is riding good, unlike you little girly boys.”

Oh yeah….now look closely and you’ll see little tiny riders way off in the background.

One of the smoother parts of the trail. Another great thing about riding with a trail is that it’s impossible to endo, which made riding down these massive talus fields possible. Being drunk may have helped….