Riding the Chilcotin's: Air Drop into Lorna Lake

I was again privileged this year to be invited along with a group of hard core riders for their annual Chilcotin MTB adventure. The “signature” ride this year would be a float plane drop into Lorna Lake. We would then ride out over Lorna and Deer Pass and then down the Bull Creek drainage back to our base at Tyaughton Lake and the Tyax lodge.

Anticipation ran high as we all arrived on Friday night and arranged our groups for the flights the next day. The De Havilland Beaver we would be using to reach Lorna Lake is owned and operated by Tyax Air,

and the owner/lead pilot would be riding with us the next day, thereby letting one of his other pilots do the grunt work. The plane will take the pilot, and four riders plus bikes. Our group of 12, therefore needed three flights. The first flight was at 0730hr and seeing as I was one of the responsible parties for breakfast on Sat morning I was up at 0545hr making sure that we were all fueled up for an epic adventure. With the first group out, and the breakfast dish's cleaned, we waited for our trip and eventually took off about 0945hr. The flight in is about 45 minutes in length and I have to say the father I flew out, the more I wondered if it was possible to get back to Tyaughten Lake by dark.

By the time we arrived at Lorna the wind had picked up, and the landing was a bit bumpy. Our pilot professionally put us down and with a little bit of muscle power we managed to hold the plane on the tiny dock as we unloaded the bikes.

He was soon on his way back and we were left in the middle of the wilderness with a long day ahead. Group 2 was waiting for us at the drop zone, and we quickly saddled up and headed off. Group 1 had already left for the top of Lorna pass and would be waiting for us there. The scenery was spectacular and after a short ride we started the first hike a bike up Lorna pass.

A lot of the trail was rideable but with the slope being very loose and the trail quite steep, most of us decided to save a bit of energy for riding later and walked our bike up to the top.

Once at the top of Lorna Pass we met the other members of group 1 and headed off for the first of the days wicked downhills; this one about an hour in length. The trail was super flowy and fun. Once we reached the bottom we started our hike to the top of Deer pass. This climb was quite difficult and required a lot of hike a bike. We reached the summit in about an hour and forty five minutes and stopped for lunch.

It was now about 2 in the afternoon, and I really wondered whether we had bit off a bit too much to chew. The view from the top of Deer Pass included the Big Dog fire currently burning to the north. Since the fire is in the middle of nowhere, there is no real attempt being made to put it out. There was not a cloud in the sky so that the smoke plume really stood out as it climbed skyward.

The climb up Deer Pass was really our last climb of the day and the rest of the day ripped by in a blur. We rode on for another 90 minutes and after stopping for a rest we asked “how much longer?’ Most of us thought hey maybe an hour. We were informed that we had about 3 to 3.5 hours of downhilling ahead of us before we reached Tyaughton Lake. Oh My God, maybe I had better have another goo.

The rest of the day was so sweet. Fast swoopy flowing single-track with the hammer on.

Short rests to exclaim how much fun you were having and then another session to reinforce your thoughts.

By the time we finished back at the lake around 7 pm I was exhausted. It was apparent that everyone else was also as our feeble attempts at partying burned out at about 1030 and we all went to bed.

From my point of view, the riding I experienced on this ride may well have been the best I have had anywhere including our 13000 ft descent to the ocean in Peru this spring. If you get a chance, don’t pass a trip up to the Chilcotin's. The riding is topnotch.

Mt. St. Helens: Riding in awe of nature

For many years, I have had on my list of must do’s, a ride around Mt. St. Helens.



My first trip to the devastation caused by the volcano blowing its top on May 18,1980 was in 1985. (Check out this video) Back in the day, I was looking for things to do on light wind days while visiting the Columbia River Gorge for windsurfing.



When the wind shuts down in the Gorge, the temperature soars, and about the only way to avoid the stifling heat is either to go to the coast, or to move up to higher elevations. Seeing as there are three 10,000 ft plus volcanoes in the local vicinity, getting to elevation is not too much of a problem. My first visit to Mt St Helens definitely made an impression, and I have been making trips back to the mountain about every 5 years since. Seeing the relatively recent destruction on the first trip and now the amazing resurgence of plant and wildlife 30 years later has been nothing short of astounding. A few years ago, I read that it was now possible to ride your bike up to areas that until a few years ago were strictly out of bounds. That ride has been on my list ever since.

I managed to get down to the Gorge windsurfing this summer and after a few epic (see definition of epic) days rippin Doug's Beach on my Roberts Sailboard and 4.0 sails the wind shut down. The heat rose and after a couple of days riding under the shadow of Mt. Hood, I decided to venture a bit farther away.

The ride I decided to do was a loop starting on a lahar

on the south side of the mountain and riding up toward the caldera and across an area leveled by the pyroclastic flow until we reached Windy Ridge, the closest public viewing spot to the caldera. We would then loop back down the Smith Creek drainage back to the starting area and the car. My estimate was that it would take about 5 hrs for the round trip. My son Blake is almost always up for an adventure, and he signed on for the ride also.

The ride from Hood River to the start point was really beautiful as we wound through the forests of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Once at the start point we readied our bikes and made a few chicken sandwiches for sustenance. Several other groups were also at the start point getting ready. Knowing other humans beings are around should something go astray always makes you feel a little bit more relaxed when heading out on an unknown ride into areas that see rarely travelled.

A plan was made with my wife for our pick up, and a second plan made should we not show up by a specific time. One of the other groups turned out to be a couple from North Vancouver who were also doing the ride for the first time so we agreed to keep an eye out for each other.

Blake and I headed out and started winding our way up through the forest

beside the lahar. The views through the trees often took your breath away.

Depending on the way you looked you could see any one of three other volcanoes; Mt Rainer, Mt Adams or Mt Hood. Although none of these have popped their top in the recent past, they are all considered a risk.

Once up through the trees we started riding through the blast zone.

It felt like we were on the moon, with small boulders distributed randomly as if thrown by a giant. We worked our way along leapfrogging back and forth with our North Vancouver friends as we alternated stopping, and taking pictures.


I was astounded that the view that I remembered from my past visits has completely changed. I had not been in the upper blast zone before but had toured through those areas affected by the pyroclastic flows. All the trees knocked down by the force of the explosion and ensuing pyroclastic flow are now gone. I cannot believe that they have rotted away in 30 years so I assume that they have been logged and removed.

We reached the top at Windy Ridge and could see Spirit Lake.



It too looked completely different from passt visits. It is now a beautiful blue clear lake compared to the silt filled or algae filled lake of past visits.

We then headed down the Smith Creek drainage and were treated to a very technical steep descent over sandy soil with lots of switch back.


The pitch eventually evened out and we were treated to some ripping single track until the trail deposited us into a washed out river bed.

The trail truly disappeared and we were left maneuvering our way down the boulder strewn riverbed trying to find the trail on the other side. Thankfully, our Vancouver friends caught up with us as we entered the washout and we had 2 extra pairs of eyes on the lookout. Eventually after about an hour of slogging and/or pushing our bikes through the sandy riverbed we bush whacked into the trees and eventually found the trail out.

The rest of the trail was very flowy until we again hit a washout; this one large enough that it had taken out a road bridge leaving only the bridge supports standing. From our map it appeared that our pick up rendezvous point was on the other side of the washed out bridge. We picked our way through the river bed and forded the river. I was reminded quickly that when up to your hips in fast flowing water while carrying your bike always put it on the downstream side. I almost lost mine, but Blake was smart enough to observe my struggles and quickly held his the right way.

Our ride ended with a vertical climb of about 35 ft up the washed out river bank. We alternating climbing and passing our bikes up one to the other. Once over the top we were relieved to see our ride waiting. Our 5 hr estimate turned out to be way off. As my son says whenever he brings a friend along on one of our rides "Whatever my dad says, make sure you add 50% to the time”.

Put this one on your list of must rides. It is a classic.

Climbing Grossglockner

Hello again from the depths of the Alps.

Today we, my son Blake and I, climbed the Grossglockner, another epic pass in the Austrian Alps.

While Stelvio (Stilferjoch) claims to be the highest pass in the Italian Alps at 2750m, the Grossglockner claims to be the highest pass in the Austrian Alps. It peaks out at 2540m, just 30m higher than the Timmeljoch, that "other" Austrian pass which we rode in the Tour TransAlp. Blake and I rode the pass in the northerly direction, which in retrospect after riding it, seems to be significantly harder than the opposite direction. The major part of the climb is about 18 km long and gains about 1950m in elevation. This results in a "difficulty score" of 288 which is significantly harder than Stelvio at 194.

Blake and I warmed up with a 15km ride along the river leading to the base, and then headed up. The first sign as we started up caught Blake’s full attention. “Achtung, high pass, grades at 12%” Oh, oh, what are we into here? In fact, the average grade going in a northerly direction is about 10%, but there are definitely sections with grades as steep as 15%. Going the other direction the average grade is only 8%.

Thank God for compact cranks as we rarely ever seemed to get out of our lowest gear for the vast majority of the climb. A good portion was spent standing up and mashing the cranks.

Part way up we passed the toll booth and things started to get really crazy. The wind picked up, the temperature plummeted, and snow started to appear all around us. From lessons learned earlier in our adventures we had made sure we were carrying a windbreaker and the jackets came in handy now. But, as we continued to climb, it became colder still until eventually we stopped at a pullout and had a discussion with my wife in the accompanying van. Blake decided to bail out as we had been climbing for almost 2 hours, and he was starting to become hypothermic. From Blakes 13 yr old perspective...

The Grossglockner was an experience. (Notice how I didn’t say good or bad!)

When we pulled the van over to the side of the highway and got out of the car I thought to myself, “Where’s the pass?” I then was informed from my dad that we would be having a warm-up of 5 kilometres or so. So I think to myself, not that bad, right? Well, my dad was quite mistaken. It turned out that we had to ride 20 kilometres, which would be a piece of cake in any other given time, but your attitude changes when you know you’re about to climb THE HIGHEST PASS IN AUSTRIA!!!! So we ride out on the road through the rolling farmlands, which was fairly nice. We saw a waterfall on the way, went through a small village. I was quite happy with the ride so far, until we got to the base of the pass and I saw the sign that said, “12% Grade, 33 kilometres.” And the climb begins...

Instantaneously after you see that sign you’re on a 12% grade, in your lowest gear, and heaving on the pedals; climbing the first switchback of the Grossglockner. I look at the people getting shuttled on buses up this huge pass and can’t help but be a little bit jealous. But I keep spinning the pedals, looking at my PowerTap, and trying to stay above 10 km/h. (sounds easy, actually quite challenging!) We climb for probably 40 minutes until we finally see my mom in the van, stopped just after the toll booth. She tries to convince me to get in the car and quit, but my dad steps in and tells me to suck it up and get moving. We climb for another 20 minutes until we get to a little downhill. At this point we’re at snow and jackets are on. We start on a short downhill, and once we get down to the bottom, the REAL Grossglockner begins. The pass steepens, and there are no more trees around you. All I could think about was having a hot chocolate at the end of the ride. (And it’s supposed to be summer...) We climb for another hour in the snow, until we reach a spot with a huge headwind, and that took everything out of my legs. We ride for another ten minutes until we see my mom, and I have a decision to make; either keep going to the top, or get in the car and get warm. I was convinced that there was still another good hour and a half of climbing, so I got in the car while my dad put on every piece of clothing that he had in his bag. So my dad was off and my mom and I drove to the top. I was disappointed later, because there was only another half hour of climbing, but the way I think of it, I rode 9/10 of the highest pass in Austria, so I was pretty proud.

Out came the arm warmers, the skull cap, and the leg warmers; on went another jersey, and an insulated jacket. And then I headed on up to the top! As I rode on it became increasingly clear that the road had been recently plowed as I had to avoid the snowbanks on the side of the road. The wind increased even more and I must say even with all my clothes I was quite chilly when I reached the top. I could not feel my toes,or my fingers.

The top, or what I believed was the top, came fairly quickly but involved a trip through an unlit tunnel of unspecified length. There was ice on the road, and I was concerned that once in the tunnel, the road might be quite slippery. Kim drove through the tunnel behind me with her lights on which gave me sufficient light to see my way. Once out the other side we were treated to the view of multiple families playing in the snow and tobogganing down the slope beside the road.

The road then cruised along for about 7 km as it made its way over a saddle toward the next pass.

Once over the next pass we were treated to a spectacular view of the surrounding mountains,

before we started the long descent. On the way down, I hooked up with a couple of Austrians doing the out and back from the north side and we ripped the downhill passing cars through the switchbacks.

The temperature rapidly increased so that once again as we hit the bottom we were sweltering in about 28C heat. With all my warm clothes, I presented quite a sight when I pulled over to jump in the sag wagon.

If you are into climbing on bikes make sure that you put this one on your list of must do's.

If you think that your fitness is not up to snuff, do the climb heading in the southerly direction as the gradient is significantly less.

Tour TransAlp 2009: Day 7

Well after the last two days, today, the last day of the 2009 Tour Transalp seemed almost anticlimactic. 100km distance, 1550m elevation gain. Seems kind of easy! Profile here.

The ride started again with a good 33km of neutral start to warm up the legs from yesterday’s abuse.

The course wound through the grape orchards of the Trento wine region and I have to say was very enjoyable. The initial climb: not so much!

Yesterday’s effort took a lot out of a good proportion of the field and it seemed like a great many of the competitors decided that today was a cruise to the finish. Not so the infamous chocolatier Thomas Haas who blitzed by me about halfway up the climb and “won” the prime!

The rest of the day seemed to just cruise by and in no time we hit the final descent to the finish in Arco, only a few km. from the azure waters of Lake Garda. Just what you need, one last wicked twisty descent to finish the race on a high note and then the cruise down finish lane with arms raised in the satisfaction salute.

Congratulations to all the finishers of the 2009 Tour TransAlp, and especially Team Canada, all 26 strong!!!

I think that each and everyone of the participants can claim victory for conquering what many claim has been the hardest Tour TransAlp yet. Results here.

Anyone up for next year?

Tour TransAlp 2009: Day 6

Day 5 may have had the most difficult climb in the race and reached its highest point, but Day 6 was the longest in distance and included the most vertical gain at 3770m. Over the 180 km length, we would climb 5 major passes, several of which have been the site of major clashes in the Giro I’talia. Profile here.

Out of Livigno, we immediately retraced our route back up the Passo d’Eiro and then Passo Foscagno. Thankfully this time it was not raining, and although cold, with the lessons learned from the previous day we were much better dressed. The descent off of Passo Foscagno through the towns of Valdidentro, Premadio, and Bormio was pretty crazy. The train that I was on included about 40 riders and we ripped through these towns at about 55km/hr, dodging tourists, traffic, parked cars, dogs, cats, ferrets, all the while weaving through tiny little streets even occasionally on cobbles. After this ride, I can now see the attraction of road racing; what a natural high!

Out of Bormio, we headed up the infamous Passo Gavia. This is the pass that in the 1988 Giro d’Italia promoted Andy Hampsten to the Maglia Rosa, the only North American to win Italy’s grand tour. The story goes that despite the Italians pleading with him to ride “piano piano” over the climb, he went on an epic attack. Story here. The weather was so bad, -4 C and snowing that Hampsted remembers that “I kept one gear moving because all my other gears were frozen up with ice”

Our climb up the Gavia was not quite so cold but there was fresh snow at the top from yesterday’s storm. The descent included probably the scariest moment so far in the race. About halfway down, while traveling at about 55km/hr we entered a totally unlit tunnel about 1 km long. As could be expected… you could see nothing. Not the walls, not the roof, not the road surface… Oh yeah, not any of the other 10 riders you entered the tunnel with. How there was not a major crash is beyond me…I personally just started yelling “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me, don’t hit me”, hoping that the sound of my voice would “encourage” others riders away from me. When I saw the “light” at the end of the tunnel, I have never accelerated so hard on bike in my life figuring that the sooner I was out, the safer I would be. Absolutely INSANE!

The rest of the descent was not quite so crazy although Passo Gavia does not quite meet North American road standards. The majority of the road is probably a little over 2 m wide, and this often requires that the cars that meet back up to a wider area in order for you to pass. Throw in 1100 crazy road riders descending and you get the picture.

The next pass was Passo Tonale, about halfway through the day, and again as in the 3 previous passes Dave and I summited as the first of our motley crew. Our support team was at the top dressed in “black tie” with a table set out with white linen, crystal and silver. “Supported” we headed down the other side for another crazy 45 km long train ride. On this descent I just decided to hide well back in the group and save my energy for the last big climb of the day. It turned out that this was good planning as again the “Mediterranean” heat started to take its toll on those that had expended a lot of energy pushing the head wind on the descent. In my group, people started popping off the back in droves as we started the slow climb up to Passo Mendola.

Passo Mendola turned out to be the “pussy” of the day. We kept expecting it to rear its ugly head as we climbed, but the farther we went up, the less the gradient became. The descent on the other side was again epic. It seemed we flew through at least 50 full switches as we came down and the central section was blazingly fast and flowy, while perched on the side of a vertical cliff. How they build these roads is beyond me!

The finish arrived and Kaltern put on a great welcome as the beer was cold and flowing well. 6 down, 1 to go! Results here.

Tour TransAlp 2009: Day 5

Oh that Stelvio!!!!

What can you say about a pass that has 49 switchbacks to the top with the last 20 or so up a vertical wall?

What adjective can I use to describe this day? This was the day that we had been thinking about all winter long!

Dread, worry, anticipation, concern, fear, enthusiasm, pain, abuse; I could go on and on.

With the temperature at about 28C, the day started with some serious heat as we left Naturns for a 35km neutral ride to the bottom of the Stilfserjoch, Stelvios’ official name. It seemed the weather had finally changed to the heat that we had expected for the race. Stelvio is about 23 km long and climbs about 1900m for an average gradient of about 8%. By our calculations it was the toughest climb of the race rating a difficulty of 194 compared to Cypress’s measly 76. By all accounts the climb started well with several of the boys attacking off the bottom. Jamie Armstrong flew by me vowing to be the first to the top; Thomas Haas was not far behind. The rest of us settled in for the long climb. The scenery was spectacular and on the way up the first several km. I had the chance to see our descent route from the mountain bike TransAlp three years earlier.

Stelvio is extremely intimidating. The start seems to meander up the valley. At about 10 km in it starts switch backing seriously up the side of the mountain and at about 13 km in you look up and see the “wall”.

The wall seems like an endless number of switchbacks and it literally goes straight up the side of the mountain. You can see it all from the bottom and it really does strike some serious “apprehension/fear” in your heart. Of course, as could be expected, the weather took a significant change for the worse at exactly this time with a nasty head wind and very cold rain when riding/looking toward the wall. Most of us had dumped our “warmer” clothes at the start as it seemed that the chance of rain/snow was extremely slim. We all paid the price now. Thankfully the switches facing away from the “wall” allowed us to warm up a bit before we bit back into it on the switch above. We eventually made it up to the highest point in the entire race (2750m) only to find a bunch of junior ski racers just finishing their morning training and coming off the snow loaded with skis. Slightly incongruous!

Down we went on the other side with the temperature increasing by the minute until at the bottom we were again sweltering in the Italian heat. Almost immediately we started the second big climb of the day, the Passo Foscagno. As we reached the top, a quick look ahead revealed we were still in for some excitement as in the distance one of the biggest thunderheads I have ever seen was hanging over the last pass of the day, the Passo d’Eira. As Dave and I started to descend toward the Passo d’Eira, the skies opened up and the lightning and thunder roared all around us. We both saw one lightning bolt hit a cell tower just off the side of the road and the thunder that followed just about knocked us off our bikes. The rain might as well have been biblical in amount. It just poured! Neither of us had real rain gear, and personally, I just made the decision to just get it over with as fast as I could. The descent off of Passo d’Eira was crazy. The road was a river with dirt and ditch debris sweeping over the road about 2 inches thick. I just thought mountain bike and let the thing go. By the time I reached the finish in Livigno, I could feel neither my fingers or my toes. It felt just like winter riding in Vancouver! The organizers at the finish were fantastic, attempting to deal with many hypothermic riders as they came across the finish.

Although I thought that Dave’s and my ride was cold, the riders behind us had it even worse as the storm moved toward them. Dave and I may have suffered for maybe 20 minutes; many at the back were in the rain for almost an hour or more. Day 5 will certainly be remembered as an epic a ride as could be imagined.

Sella Ronda Bike Day 2009

Hello from Val Gardena, Italy. This might just be the most beautiful place in the world. Today was Sella Ronda Bike Day. The Sella Ronda is a 55 km loop in the Italian Dolomites that includes 4 mountain passes; Passo Gardena (2137m), Passo Campolongo (1875m) , Passo Pordoi (2242m), and Passo Sella (2244m). (Profile here) The roads were closed to all motorized traffic from 0900hr to 1530 hr to celebrate Italian cycling.

At least 10,000 cyclists participated starting from various locations on the route, mostly riding in a clockwise fashion.

We (my son Blake and I) started from St. Christina shortly after 0900hrs and climbed from here to the Sella Ronda, a further 350m of climbing. The weather was perfect, about 12C, sunny with the occasional cloud.

The atmosphere was very relaxed with bikers on all forms of 2 wheels, from mountain bike to road bike, from kids on 20 inch wheels to tandems towing kids in trailers. There were lots of road teams out for (I assume) recovery rides and the occasional hammer head blasting up the road. The descents were quick but not race fast as the various bikes and caliber of riders required a degree of conservatism.

The scenery was spectacular as we basically circumnavigated a dolomiti massif. Many of the restaurants, cafes, and refuges went out of their way to provide exceptional service to the many riders. Blake and I stopped for lunch in Arabba, a town about half way through the ride and grabbed a sandwich to fuel our ascents of Passo Pordoi and Passo Sella.

The same route holds the Maratona dles Dolomites race in early July. The winning time in this year’s race was 2:02:50. Blake and I rode the route in 4:55:00 with a stop for lunch and many conversations.

Any day on a bike is a good day, and celebrating Italian cycling along the route of numerous Giro I’talia’s makes it that much better.