Pick apart my itinerary for a 10 Day trip

Fellow shredders

I will be arriving for 10 days of much anticipated Canadian riding the 16th. See my previous thread for more info if you would like. http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=155373

I think we have pretty much narrowed down our itinerary for the trip. Should we take something off or add something else? We will be completely mobile and camping the whole time, so let me know if we are going astray.

Day 1- Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, WA (flight lands in Seattle)

Day 2- Duncan for Mt Tzouhalem riding (concerned b/c of the camping issue, but just might make it a long day and drive somewhere else to camp)

Day 3- Squamish Alice Lake area

Day 4- Whistler XC stuff

Day 5- WHistler DH day (delayed to give them sometime to fix issues from Crankworxs)

Day 6- Chilcotin Spruce Loop

Day 7- More Chilcotin (hopefully to include Pearson and onto you know what)

Day 8- Pemberton

Day 9-Squamish (university side)

Day 10-Travel and fly home.

We will probably be looking for 30-40km per day and on 6" bikes. I really wanted to hit some Shore trails, but my partner is less excited about it than me. We don't mind driving, and we are pretty seasoned. I don't think there is anything within an 8hr radius that we haven't ridden near home.

Thanks in advance for your help.

I'd dump Day two for a Seymour XC day, which might suit your partner. Apart from that, can I quit work and tag along?

Travel to and ride duncam in one day? No sale

And the 2 way ferry cost for 1 day on tzou. Rad mtn but it will be much easier to hit the shore.

Or maybe substitute ssc for tzou - easier as a day ride, much cheaper (no car needed), on your way to squish, and you get a wicked scenic ferry ride with dolphjns jumping over the boat n shit

I'd dump Day two for a Seymour XC day, which might suit your partner. Apart from that, can I quit work and tag along?

Travel to and ride duncam in one day? No sale

Duly noted. It does sound like a huge undertaking for one day of riding. This was to appease my partner in crime. He saw some video that had him hyped on Mt Tzou.

And the 2 way ferry cost for 1 day on tzou. Rad mtn but it will be much easier to hit the shore.

Or maybe substitute ssc for tzou - easier as a day ride, much cheaper (no car needed), on your way to squish, and you get a wicked scenic ferry ride with dolphjns jumping over the boat n shit

Thanks for the suggestion! I assume that SSC=Sunshine Coast? What would you recommend to ride for a couple of dirtbag Americans? Should I be looking somewhere other than Roberts Creek?

Yes, the Tzou is rad. Also not well marked and if ya'll aren't careful you'l lose all your altitude on the climbing trails.

Seymour and Fromme are better marked, in North Van. Also, Squamish and Whistler are close.

Save Vancouver Island for another trip. 1 ferry = 2 hours sail time, 30+ min drives to get to a terminal/leave the terminal to anywhere you want to be, plus waiting time for a boat, plus the $80 cash each way…plus, if your bikes are on a roof rack, there are good odds a dolphin will land on your car and bend your wheels or maybe just the rack itself. Those things are almost 80 kg (~200 lbs for our American brethren) and a pain to drag off the side of the deck once they hit your vehicle.

I just re-read your first post. Is this a mountain biking trip or a car trip?

You could park your 4 wheeler in Squamish and ride for 10 days without having to hit the same trails. Ditto for Whistler/Pemberton, and North Van even.

With so much travelling around you'll just scratch the surface of each new area. You need time to bro down with the local bike shop bros and learn their ways. Usually all the best rides are not easy to find.

Pro Tip: Bring as much beer over the border as you "can" (see what I did there)

Beer is approximately 10,000 times more expensive up here and can be used as currency when asking about trails, routes, etc.

agreed with 1wd. wow, that's a lot of driving - you'll barely have time to ride, unless you drive during the time I sleep and eat.

30-40 km per day riding or driving? the reality of your plan is that without a guide you'll spend half the time looking for a couple trails to ride in each location, never getting used to each location, whereas each location has many more trails you'll not even find.

and yeah, forget about doing Duncan in a day. you'll waste most of the day on the ferry.

Yeah Tzouhalem is awesome but you need to add it to several days of Island riding, as others have said you'll waste too much time with driving and ferries otherwise.

Save Vancouver Island for another trip. 1 ferry = 2 hours sail time, 30+ min drives to get to a terminal/leave the terminal to anywhere you want to be, plus waiting time for a boat, plus the $80 cash each way…plus, if your bikes are on a roof rack, there are good odds a dolphin will land on your car and bend your wheels or maybe just the rack itself. Those things are almost 80 kg (~200 lbs for our American brethren) and a pain to drag off the side of the deck once they hit your vehicle.

Funny, but effective at keeping us from wasting our time. We will skip that stop and add a day somewhere else. Where would you add the day?

With so much travelling around you'll just scratch the surface of each new area.

Kind of the point. After traveling 4600km's to get there, we wanted to get a taste of it all. We will be up pretty early for driving since we are 4 hours ahead. Plus, I didn't think that anyone was going to show us the secret stuff anyway.

Pro Tip: Bring as much beer over the border as you "can" (see what I did there)

Beer is approximately 10,000 times more expensive up here and can be used as currency when asking about trails, routes, etc.

We plan to be very well stocked with party favors. Hadn't thought about using it as bribes.

agreed with 1wd. wow, that's a lot of driving - you'll barely have time to ride, unless you drive during the time I sleep and eat.

30-40 km per day riding or driving? the reality of your plan is that without a guide you'll spend half the time looking for a couple trails to ride in each location, never getting used to each location, whereas each location has many more trails you'll not even find.

It's funny how spoiled you guys are with the quantity of good riding. I regularly drive 3+ hours each way to get to good trails for a daytrip. Usually, every weekend is spent driving to ride. This trip will be less driving than our Colorado trip last summer.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Spend day two in north van

As others have said you've missed the NS on your list, but if your friend doesn't want to ride any of the 3 mountains (or 5 if you included Eagle [HTML_REMOVED] Burke), I'd add a second day to Pemberton (1 day around One Mile Lake [HTML_REMOVED] 1 day around Mosquito Lake).

Heads up for South Chilcotin, the only place to buy fuel up there (pub in Bralorne) is having trouble keeping a consistent gas supply. Make sure you fuel up in Pemberton or Lillooet which ever way you go. Call the pub ahead of time to confirm they have gas, or take a jerry can with you. It will be expensive up there as they only carry super premium for the sleds during the winter. (The gas station in Gold Bridge closed last summer. No one up there sells diesel.)