Southern Chilcotin (2015)

The Hurly opened last week, so with reports of clear sailing we jumped in the truck early yesterday morning and busted out of Whistler for a day trip. Parked at Jewel, rode up Gun Creek to the Cowboy Camp, then upper Grasslands, and back on the west spruce lake trail to Gun Meadows and back. Still pretty wet on Upper Grasslands, and lots of snow patches and pooling water on the Lake trail. Plenty of evidence of large carnivorous wildlife (tracks), we saw Griz, Cougar, and Wolf tracks in the mud. Gun Meadows is already dry and dusty, but awesome. Quite a bit of blowdown along Gun Creek trail, we cut out what we could with our handsaws, probably 20-30 more. Ran into Dale at the bottom of the Hurly and he said they're planning on clearing blowdown starting June 1. Great to get up there so early in the year!

drool

ps - is that stem an old school axiom or some such?

drool

ps - is that stem an old school axiom or some such?

chromag ranger, 50mm

nice, very nice. still remember riding through that talus patch over a decade ago like it was just yesterday. thanks for the memories

nice, very nice. still remember riding through that talus patch over a decade ago like it was just yesterday. thanks for the memories

so many rocky tech sections along gun creek….and people think the chilcotins is all smooth, buff singletrack! ha!

was looking through my pics again and noticed this one….check out the griz tracks in the mud!

gunn creek is a grizz migration route. certain times of year I see fresh tracks every ride.

heading up soon to have a little look see. thanks for the stoke flip.

Rode out and back from jewel last Tuesday with my coworker almost to spruce. Those grizzly tracks definitely weren't there when we went through.

it's a good reminder to always make lots of noise, shout, holler, be idiots and sing stupid songs…give them a chance to hear you and move away. Such an amazing place, and awesome to see so much recent evidence of lots of diverse wildlife

it's a good reminder to always make lots of noise, shout, holler, be idiots and sing stupid songs…give them a chance to hear you and move away. Such an amazing place, and awesome to see so much recent evidence of lots of diverse wildlife

yep. the only times I end up getting too close I am either head down not paying close attention to my surroundings (it happens) or going way too fast. the rest of the time, I get to see some pretty cool things at a safe distance.

Spent tues in Bralorne, Carl Creek was buffed and loamy. Went to take a look at Aligetti but a new logging slash and deadfall have rendered that useless.
Went for a quick lap on lower cinnebar yesterday and all the deadfall has been cleared out, dry and dusty. Great lunch on the Tyax patio.

Went to take a look at Aligetti but a new logging slash and deadfall have rendered that useless.

Yup it is gone. We did the same thing late last summer.

Only a small portion of the top remains, after that it isn't a fun walk out over logging slash to get out. A small portion of the bottom is still there too, but most of the middle is gone.

^^ I didn't think it was that bad last summer - a couple hours with a chainsaw and it'd be fine. But yeah, climbing over the slash at the top with a bike is brutal right now.

Lower Tyaughton Creek Trail

Large trees down across trail, blocking trail. Cleared lower portion of trail, both steep/wet/horse line and switchback/old double track line to old corral intersection. Trail cleared to 0.5km past first stream crossing (38 trees total). Lots of windfall (pine beetle) from winter, mostly medium and big. If you ride in, take a folding saw as you will need it.

BTW, the steep/horse route is very wet and muddy. If you are climbing up on bike (or hiking), take the left fork at the blue flagging tape. It follow an old double track to a viewpoint, then climbs up to the old horse corral, intersecting the steep/horse/muddy route.

Rode up to Taylor yesterday. Smaller trees had been cleared, still a dozen or so larger ones but otherwise trail is in great shape.
Snow started at just over 1800m. Plenty in and around the cabin, most of it is gone above the Camel Pass turn off.
We went on to Eldorado Pass, a little snow down to the basin, with some trees down, not many. Up to Windy is tacky, except for a couple small snow patches.
I'd be wary of the N facing climb up to Lick from Eldorado cabin for another week.
Descent from Windy to Spruce has another 10-15 trees down, very little snow to slow you down, great dust free riding.
Went out to Gun Creek rd, meadows are bursting with colour, trail is clear.
We were on the fence at Taylor after hiking the bikes through the snow to get there, but the pay off is well worth it.