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| Day 1, England -> Calgary |
| Day 2, Jumping Pound to Cox Ridge MTB ride (Canmore) |
| Day 3, Lake Minnewanka MTB ride (Canmore) |
Day 4, Canmore -> Golden (Canyon Creek MTB ride) |
| Day 5, Golden -> Revelstoke |
| Day 6, Key Stone Standard Basin MTB ride (Revelstoke) |
| Day 7, Revelstoke -> New Denver (Wakefield trail MTB ride) |
| Day 8, New Denver (Various MTB trails) |
| Day 9, New Denver -> Rossland (Wilson Creek MTB ride) |
| Day 10, Rossland (7 summits MTB ride) |
| Day 11, Rossland - > Kelowna (Doukhobor draw MTB ride) |
| Day 12, McDougall Rim MTB ride (Kelowna) |
| Day 13, Kelowna -> Vancouver |
| Day 14, Vancouver -> Pemberton |
| Day 15, Pemberton -> Tyax Lake (High trail MTB ride) |
| Day 16, Warner Lake MTB ride (Tyax Lake) |
| Day 17, Tyax Lake -> Whistler (Taylor Basin MTB ride) |
| Day 18, River runs through it MTB ride (Whistler) |
| Day 19, Comfortably Numb MTB ride (Whistler) |
| Day 20, Thrill me Kill Me & Lost Lake MTB trails (Whistler) |
| Day 21, Ring Creek Rip & Lost Lake MTB ride (Squamish & Whistler) |
| Day 22, Whistler -> Vancouver -> London |
| Holiday Links |
| Canada Holidays |
| Guest Book |
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The night before I had arranged to meet up with some bikers from Vancouver to do the Taylor Basin to Lick Creek ride as a shuttle using the resorts shuttle bus. I packed up all my gear and packed my car with my stuff and then rode round to the resort office. But we found that although the resort staff the previous night had said they could a shuttle , the shuttle driver refused to do it unless we hired a guide. As that was quite pricey the guys from Vancouver decided to drive home and do a ride on the way back.
I decided to do the ride on my own and ride the road to the start of the trail, a decision that turned out to be a very good one as the ride was the best one of the holiday. |
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It was a clear sunny day but was quite chilly to start off with, The road ride up wasn't too bad, and I only took one wrong turn on the way to the turn for Taylor Creek Road. |
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| Taylor creek road started off as a well defined road, but as you rode further up it it became more like a double track, and it looked as if only bikes, ATV's and horses went up it. One bridge over a creek had collapsed. |
| The road climbed steadily upwards and the trees were thick in places along side the trail, I had my first Grizzly bear encounter of the day as I was riding up the road, about 30 meters up the road from me a Grizzly bear appeared from round a corner. I shouted out loud and made my self look big , and he disappeared off into the trees. I continued making noise for about tem minutes, and then with my heart pounding I decided to carry on past the bear and rode on up the trail past where the bear had gone off the trail. |
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In places there's were clearings along the road, and the views were great. |
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As I got to the Taylor creek Cabin, 3 ATV's went past each them had a gun on their ATV , all I had was some bear spray and bear bangs.
The inside of the Taylor Creek cabin couldn't exactly be called cosy. |
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From the cabin I took a left turn and rode up the Camel Pass trail, which was tight singletrack which rolled up and down , but mainly up towards the Pearson trail. It was very hard work riding up the singletrack as the air was thin and I was tired from the previous days ride.
Riding up the Camel Pass trail - Video (8 MB) |
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The scenery was breathtaking and the altitude was breath taking as well, I was very glad I had decided to go ahead with this ride, and that I had decided to ride on past where I had seen the Grizzly bear. |
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| The Camel pass trail joined onto the Pearson trail and headed south towards the high trail, the riding was still pretty tough as it was mostly went up. The ride was great though as I felt as if I was the only person for miles around and the scenery was stunning. |
Looking back down the Camel pass trail |
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Looking up towards Camel Pass |
Looking up the trail to where I was going to ride
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Looking back into the basin
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Looking back into Taylor Basin
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I branched off right on the high trail and headed downwards towards High trail S Br. |
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The views were stunning , some of the best I've seen while riding my bike, and the singletrack when it was descending was great fun. |
There was no getting way from the fact there was a lot of hike a bike on this ride. |
Looking back on where I'd ridden |
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The climb up Trail S Br, was a hike a bike as it was very steep with loose dirt, and was very rutted from horse hoofs |
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I eventually came to the top of Trail S BR , and started to drop down it towards Lick Creek Trail. The trail headed down a valley with a stream running down it. |
Heading down valley to Lick trail cabins , unfortunately i stopped filming just before a Grizzly Bear burst out of a stream about 10 feet in front of me !!!
Video (15 MB) |
| The bear made a huffing noise and headed up the slope to my right away from me, and then even though I was making noises and waving my arms around he settled down on the slope, and eventually started snuffling around for food, so I decided it would be safe to continue down the trail past him, as he was a fair distance away from the trail now. |
I stopped and had a break at the Lick trail cabin where i relieved to find some people working at the cabin, so I didn't have to worry about bears for a bit. I had some food and then set off up the Lick trail.
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Looking back down the lick trail where I had ridden up, It was quite a tough climb up the lick trail with some hike a bike.
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| The lick trail was fantastic smooth fast singletrack through the alpine meadows, with tight switch backs and views of the mountains and lakes in the distance, It didn't look like Horses came this way very often. |
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The Lick trail singletrack just got better and as it headed down through the meadows. |
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Retuning on dirt road - Video (4 MB)
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As I rode back along the dirt road I spotted a black bear off to the side of the road, and I took a few pictures of him. He was 1/3 of the size of the Grizzlies I'd seen earlier on. |
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| My cycle computer said I'd ridden 28 miles in total. The ride had been the best one of the Holiday, with the descent down Lick Creek through the meadows being the best part. And the stunning colours and scenery in the Taylor basin were pretty good too. The down sides to the ride was the long climb up the Taylor basin road, and the risk of getting eaten by a bear. |
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Back at Tyax resort I washed my bike and chained it up to dry, I then had a shower in the Sauna area, and then packed up my bike |
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The drive back along the Hurley password only took me 45 minutes to do, in total the drive from Tyax to Whistler was 83 miles in distance. The views from the road as I drove back where much better than on the way out, as it was sunny and clear now. I got to Pemberton as the Sun went down and then drove onto whistler where I was staying at Glacier's Reach which had been recommended to me by Gary from Calgary. I got a really rate by booking with http://www.alluradirect.com
I got there late and bought a burger from a McDonalds as nowhere else was open. I tried to use the hot tub but found it wasnt very hot, before getting to sleep. |
I took a bunch of pictures as I drove along the Hurley Road which are shown below. |
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DAY 18
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