stuarttwiss2018trailride

[stuarttwiss2018trailride]

Up and around!

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Suddenly the end of the trail on a miserable and wet afternoon which became a very happy day.

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First Nation art on the Hydro pipeline supports at Seton Portage.

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The beautiful Seton and Anderson lakes

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Bridge River 1

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Fraser River.

[stuarttwiss2018trailride]

Day 40. Lillooet, BC to Port Moody, Vancouver, BC. 208 miles

Towards the end of the trail via some mountain passes and lake roads and the Whistler Skyway.

The morning route headed North up Fraser River before heading West between the towering cliffs cut by Bridge River 1. After a climb up and over the new dam and slipway the trail went through a tunnel and then on steeply over Mount Nelson on the Camoo Creek Road. It's a mild morning, the sun is trying to break through and the trail is damp and grippy.

The views are tremendous, especially of the jade green Seton Lake contrasting with the slate grey of Anderson Lake which is reached through Seton Portage where breakfast is an eggs and apple sauce concoction like an eggs Benedict.

Along the edge of Anderson Lake the trail became more challenging with steep loose descents through the remnants of the wildfires that had burnt here only weeks before. The trees are blackened and fallen but the pine needles curiously untouched. There are recently cleared rockfalls, some caused by the wildfires.

As the trail came to an end in Darcy it starts to rain, gently but then with more vigour.

I reached the 7000mile marker at some point in the afternoon but I was too wet and cold to notice. Again I found myself riding a highway in the wet. This time along a cloud obscured version of the 4th best scenic road in the world, the Whistler Skyway, highway 99.

I can see nothing and feel nothing, I'm literally treading water with soaking boots on my feet.

Suddenly however the trail doubles back on itself and heads towards the coast and I am there at Lighthouse Park in Vancouver, the end of my trip.

I call home and my wet day becomes so much brighter.

45 minutes and a traffic jam later I am being helped by Tony to unload my bike into the beautiful Airbnb apartment he shares with his daughter. My gear too wet and dirty to be inside we leave on the porch and balcony

Tony kindly shares his dinner of home made sausages and kale salad and shares stories of his own travels and experiences which are rich as someone who fled Laos and lived in Canada with jobs as diverse as Forestry seed collector to IT infrastructure analysis.

It feels good to have finished, to know my beautiful and generous wife is waiting at home and that my flight is only three days away.

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Lillooet from across the Fraser River.

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Looking back the 150 miles to Riske Creek.

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40 miles from Lillooet.

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Riding to Dog Creek.

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Looking back on Big Bar Ranch

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Big Bar Ferry, Fraser River.

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The range road to Gasper Creek.

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The Fraser River

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Farwell Valley Road from Riske Creek.

[stuarttwiss2018trailride]

Day 39. Riske Creek, BC to Lillooet, BC. 196 miles.

A race through ranchland and the Fraser River Valley on some of the best trails I have ever experienced.

180 miles of gravel, dirt, twin track, steep cut roads up the valley side and fast risk taking descents. A few hundred feet of ferry crossing too. This day had everything you could want from trail riding including the west.

The first part of the trail was through First Nation lands and giant cattle ranches on rough grassland dotted with emerald green circles of irrigated grass.

The second part wove up, down and across the Fraser River with its steep shale and gravel escarpment before plunging down into Lillooet.

The Big Bar Ferry got me across as a sole passenger using the flow of the river against its angled hulls to drive the motion. The ferryman in his silvered shades does not need paying.

Just short of Dog Creek and the reservation there I have my best sighting to date of a big black bear who bolted for a field when caught out on the road.

All day my mind was set on riding fast and with focus and that, with the quality of trails will stay in my memory for a long time.