Tradition dictated we head to one of our favourite corners of our backyard to celebrate Canada Day. It's tough to find a better spot to celebrate our awesome country than the aptly named Paradise Creek in the South Chilcotin Mountains. Canada Day fell on a Tuesday this year so the week-end would kick start the official festivities. *Blog post on Norco Bicycles news here*
After a fine drive over the Hurley and a night in our humble Canadian cabin we set off for the trailhead.
We were treated to an amazing Canadian wilderness zoo experience the moment we left the truck. 5 minutes into the ride we spotted a beautiful and fairly large Bobcat travelling our route and got to within 20 ft of it as it checked us out face to face. 10 minutes later we saw a massive male Black Bear followed by another Bobcat 5 minutes after that. A good start to the day!
First creek = dry feet.
Second creek = wet feet.
After an hour or so we reached the single-track which was recently cleared by some unsung heros. Winter was fairly kind to the forest and we only removed 5 large trees or so. A minor amount of work and the least mountain bikers can do as prominent users of the area.
Canadian highway....
Hello Paradise....
Oh Canada....
Even though Canada was celebrating it's 147th birthday it appeared others have been living in the area for longer.
Such a scenic piece of single-track....
And after 10 hours we weaved our way through the grasslands and the final single-track to the truck.
A good day out for some fine Norco Canadian steeds....
We spent the next day sampling some of the juicier trails above Tyaughton Lake. Indeed another week-end in Paradise!
On Canada Day proper we headed home to Squamish and sampled the loam that is just above our house on Howe Sound. Juneau decided to join us for a 5 hour epic. The day's temp reached 30deg and the only place she found shade was in the old FSR road culverts.
Mmmm.... Canadian loam!
Spectacular views of Howe Sound!
After an amazing few days we capped it off with a swim and some relaxing in a local lake. Happy Canada Day!
10 comments:
Thanks for the clearing and update on the Paradise trail conditions. We were thinking of heading up that way in a few weeks, good to know we aren't looking at a repeat of previous years. We took 49 trees out of the second half of your loop a few weeks ago.
Right on....Nice work on Tyaughton Creek. Did you guys clear the trees and make paint markings just before the Castle Pass valley? Some very recent work has been done in there and looks great.
Nope, that wasn't us. I've never been up as far as Castle Pass (yet...), and I'd never use paint for marking. The only group we've ever seen on this trail were a couple of hunting guides & client in fall 2012, maybe them? The area doesn't get much use.
We had planned to clear the trail up from Tyaughton to Fortress Ridge but I lost one of the nuts that holds the bar to the saw. We looked for it but no luck; I'll be carrying spares in the future. We did what we could with hand saws.
Sounds good.... thanks for the work and the update. Not much was actually in the way up to Fortress ridge so all was pretty good. Get up there soon to reap the benefits of your work!
That's the way to celebrate being Canadian! Glad to see you had a great ride. Here's my blog post about our recent Chilcotin adventure: http://www.themountainbikelife.com/2014/07/chilcotin-chainsaw-gang.html#more
Right on Ina.... I've put in my fair share of overnighter major trail clearing week-ends through the years. Sometimes those are the most memorable trips of the year.
Nice Pat! Hope to catch up with you guys soon.
Thanks Colin.... ya, it's been a while and we need to get out!
Great blog and fabulous photos. Do you know the name of the trail off Lick to tyaughton?
Thanks Kim.... I don't know of a trail that goes off Lick to Tyaughton? When I finish Lick I ride the waterline trail back to the Lake.
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