BC Big Trailie Ride 4
Saturday, June 19
Just looking at the route on the map that Manxman had provided had my mouth watering for today's ride. It really looked like it was going to be a fun, yet long day!
We woke up to a misty morning with some light rain falling. Farmerger and I went to find some breakfast before packing the bikes up for the day's ride. We had rode quite a bit of yesterday's ride with Canuck, and saw him filling up with gas just after we had finished breakfast. Unfortunately, he was heading home. The wife was at home attending to their 4 week old baby, and needed relief. Canuck has originally planned to ride the day's route and then head home, but since it was raining he decided to just head straight home (Vancouver, BC). I'm sure his wife appreciated it, but he missed a great ride.
It looked like Farmerger and I were about the last to leave to start the day. We passed the Hitching Post Motel in Mt. Currie where many of the others had stayed the night, but the parking lot was empty as we rode past. Somewhere before D'Arcy we ran into Strompette. She had made the wrong turn (heading to D'Arcy), but had really wanted to just stay on Hwy 99 towards Lillooet in order to skip the High-Line Road. She told us that another group has passed just a few minutes before us, and we ended up catching them just at the start of the High-Line Road running north from D'Arcy.
The High-Line Road starts with a bit of a short steep and rough section, while it gains altitude and then runs along the mountains on the west side of Anderson Lake. It's a beautiful road with spectacular scenery.
Along the High-Line Road
A view of Anderson Lake
A small memorial at a turnout along the High Line Road
Did I mention the spectacular scenery?
Another turnout with a beautiful view
From this point, the road started descending back to the lake and the village of Seton Portage. I was leading the pack, and riding fairly quickly and came across a turn that was a little sharper than expected - had to really hit the binders, and lean the bike over pretty far to make the turn, and I think I may have rode a bit of the side wall of the mountain as I made the corner. Then it was into Seton Portage to wait for everybody to catch up.
A view of Anderson Lake from Seton Portage
As the others showed up, they explained that Farmerger had missed one of the turns and had a little encounter with the side of the mountain. I'm pretty sure it was the same corner that had surprised me earlier. Farmerger was making a few repairs to his bike, so we waited for a little while for him to show up.
As we were waiting, a train passes by
Pretty soon, Farmerger show up but still needs to make a few adjustments. His front forks were a little tweaked, so out come the tools for a few more small repairs.
Soon we were on our way again, through Seton Portage and Shalalth, and then over the Mission Mountain Road which is a fairly steep and switchback-filled road that crosses over the mountain and ends up on the south side of Carpenter Lake.
Carpenter Lake
From here, we backtracked for just a little ways on yesterday's route towards Lillooet.
Along Bridge River towards Lillooet
In Lillooet, we stopped for gas and then ate lunch at the Lillooet Inn Restaurant.
After lunch, it was pavement on Hwy 99 past Pavilion before turning south on Hat Creek Road.
We ended up on a pretty cool trail that was winding through the woods, and passed a local family that was also out for a day of motorcycling fun.
After a short rest stop, we headed on eventually meeting up with Hwy 1.
It was north on Hwy 1 to Cache Creek, and then just a short ride east on Hwy 1 before hitting the dirt again; heading north on Black Valley Road which turns into Deadman Cache Creek Road that makes a nice offroad loop back to Hwy 1.
Once back to Hwy 97, we continued east to Tunkwa Lake Road and then south to Logan Lake.
Today's ride was everything I had hoped for, and kudos to Manxman for planning a great route for the day's ride!
We enjoyed a few beers and some dinner at the Logan Lake Lodge, before hitting the sack to get ready for Day 3.