By Ambassador Kathryn Dove

After a 3 year forced break from riding bikes in Canada due to the pandemic I was very happy to get back to this side of the border for a 4-day, 3-night heli accessed and guided/catered trip in the South Chilcotins with Tyax Adventures. My husband Jackson and I had done a similar trip in 2019 so we knew we were in for a treat especially when we saw some sunny days in the forecast leading up to the trip. We joined our friends Adam and Eric for this trip and lucked out with a great guide Nate for this adventure.

Speaking of adventure, sometimes you have to go through one just to get to the start of the trip. Ours was a vehicle issue in which the throttle body in our van went out just after leaving Squamish on our drive up from Snoqualmie, WA which resulted in our van losing power multiple times on the way to Whistler. Luckily, as an engineer, Jackson fixes problems for a living and had the issue not only diagnosed but had also tracked down a replacement part at a Napa in Pemberton so that by the time we got to Whistler we decided to continue on to Pemberton despite needing to pull over at least five times to turn the van off and restart in order to keep driving at full power. Once at Pemberton we got the replacement part along with some tools and Jackson replaced the bad throttle body quicker than the rest of us could finish lunch. After taking in the breathtaking views of Mt McKenzie behind Pemberton and a great meal at The Pony we headed on our way to Tyaughton Lake for the start of the trip.

The most direct way to get to Tyaughton Lake from Pemberton is to go over Hurley Pass which is a steep and loose gravel road that takes anywhere from 2-3 hours depending on how fast you want to take it.  With the van now working we had no problem with the pass and our whole group made it to Goldbridge, which is the tiny town on the other side of the Hurley, within a few hours.  We camped at Mowson Pond near Tyaughton Lake along with a few other groups of people that all looked to be out there for the same purpose as us given that they all had bikes.

Our Chilcotins trip started the next day with an 11 am heli flight which gave us time to get bikes ready and even have a coffee at the fancy Tyax Lodge before the flight. We had beautiful weather for the flight where we were awed with amazing mountain views and a fly over Lorna Lake which has the most intense bright blue color imaginable. In 2019 we landed on this lake in a float plane, however with the heli drop this year we flew past it to land in the Big Creek Valley in order to start our ride for the day which would take us to the Bear Paw camp for the next two nights.

The ride on day one took us through the Big Creek Valley and over to the Graveyard Valley which is named for the marked and unmarked graves of ancient warriors in the tribes of this region. The views in both of the valleys are gorgeous and the riding was flowy with a moderate amount of climbing in between the descents. At the end of the Graveyard Valley is a long climb up to Elbow Pass before a long and fast descent to the Tyax Bear Paw camp where we were greeted with appetizers, a tasty dinner, and a warm fire before getting to sleep in the canvas tents that are set up for guests and guides.

Day two would be a loop that would take us back to Bear Paw so we were able to ride with lighter packs than the first day. We headed out the Manson Creek trail and made it out to Relay Col in order to take a look at a possible long loop called Manson Castle but it was decided that this would be too much for us and we were happy with this decision when we found out later about the number of downed trees on one section of this trail. We did still have a couple of exciting things happen when our guide Nate had the heli swap a different bike for him at Relay Col since his brakes weren’t working. The heli happened to be flying in the area so was able to drop his bike while we were having lunch! Also we saw a mother grizzly bear with two cubs on the way back from Relay Col to Manson Col which was a little scary at first but she immediately turned and headed in the opposite direction and we kept a safe distance getting back to Manson Col. Once there we took the typical route that is done on day two which is to descend down the Little Paradise Valley and then up and over to the Little Graveyard Creek trail. Both of these have steep and fun descents before climbing at the bottom. My choice to bring the Process 134 paid off with these fun descents as it felt the best going down but made the climbing much easier than if I had been on a bigger bike. From the end of Little Graveyard Creek trail we ended back in Graveyard Valley and headed back up to Elbow Pass to descend back to Bear Paw camp which was a fun repeat from the day before.

PC Adam Vollmer

PC Nate Elman

The weather started changing overnight and we woke up to windy conditions with some rain expected for the third day which would include a big climb over Deer Pass on the way to the Spruce Lake camp for our last night. We had light rain on the way up to Deer Pass but made good time overall with around 2 hours to the pass. Once on top of the pass we made a quick transition to head down due to the strong winds and cold weather. We had a cold but fun descent to Trigger camp where we stopped for lunch and started to get fooled by a break in the weather thinking that the rain was over. From Trigger camp to Spruce Lake camp we found ourselves soaked from more rain so we were all looking forward to drying out near a warm fire and for the hot showers that are available at this camp. We got to camp just in time to get indoors during a strong downpour then were able to enjoy some time on the lake during a break in the weather before dinner.

PC Nate Elman

For our last day we took a fun descent down the Gun Meadows trail and were treated to the best trail conditions of the trip thanks to the rain from the day before. We made it to the end of the park boundary within a few hours and had some fun double-track trails all the way to the trailhead where we were picked up for a ride back to Tyax Lodge. Since we ended early we managed to get in one more shuttle-assisted ride for the best descent of the trip on a trail called Cinnabar which took us all the way back down to Tyaughton Lake. One more bear was spotted during this descent, this time a black bear, and Adam got to jump in the lake at the bottom making up for a missed lake swim during the downpour at Spruce Lake. Overall we lucked out with great weather and a great guide and can’t wait to get back to this area again!

PC Adam Vollmer