Pemberton to Alexis Creek, a few days in BC

With help from a few canadians and a map book, a friend and I were able to piece together a few days and a few hundred miles of dirt, quad trails, gravel roads, grassy fields and accidental single track. bikes were dropped, thrown, drowned, and abused. bear bangers, campfires, and wrong turns. The trip was a success.
I'm not a writer and I missed a lot of good photos but heres the jist of it:

so I slept in.
the day was slated to cover alot of pavment on fresh nobbies, and I wasn't excited.
I met Casey in in everett went over gear and packed the bikes and were on the road before noon. the boarder went off without a hitch, traffic was f**ked up in vancouver and we followed a few locals down the sholder. splitting lanes felt great, but we never figured out if it was legal . The sea to sky was fast and empty to squamish, where we met up with my brother and a few canadians and camped at levette lake. we exchanged map books, a hatchet and a pocket chain saw. stove cooked bratwurst and a meteor shower. no photos yet

we broke camp, and burned the last bit of pavement up to pemberton, loaded up with breakfast and pockets full of bearbangers and reviewed the maps.
we passed two bikes on pemberton meadow rd and made it to the start of the dirt in a hurry. the Hurley was amazing and provided some of the best views of the trip, I was too happy to take pictures. when I caught up to casey I noticed a ten foot long orange whip hanging off the back of his h2. this is how he learned to repair tent poles:



we gassed our bikes, 7 one liter fuel bottles, and 1 gallon and a quarter aux tank at gold bridge to get us through the next 2 days:



we were off to mud lakes and our first section of atv trails. short, wet, fast, and fun. the road was 6" higher than the lake for a while:



we set up camp at Swartz lake, split wood, built a fire on the mud, killed bugs and ate potatoes and mt house while looking at maps and talking about bears and testing the bangers out




i crawled into my tent wondering if there were animals in the woods that would rip a person in half to get a starburst or a clifbar out. and then I didnt sleep for a long time. a mouse touched caseys tent and he yelled, then i yelled, then he set off a banger and i waited for morning. suck ass night.

i slept when the sun came up. out of the tent by 8. coffee and oatmeal and on the trail by 9. the trail was a blast. casey didn't waste any time surprising me with a river:
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followed by a steep loose hill:
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I replied with a deep ass mud puddle:
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and then we were lost:
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we went through mud, ruts, and downed trees on the most enjoyable and technical part of the trip
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the gaspard red mt road was fast and compact and closed for everything but industrial use. the fast road was a good change of pace...for a while. then it was boring. the mountains were gone and the roads were flat. we saw a moose.
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we tried to take a shortcut but it was a dead end so we turned around

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and got the hell out of there

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then we found freshly sprayed calcium on the road. supposedly it keeps the road from turning to snot
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it also bakes onto anything hot and forms a crystal
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there are no photos of the next part but we came out near hanceville and burned 50 k of pavement to alexis creek where if swore that i called and confirmed the location of a gas station. it wasn't there so we ate ice cream and bitched about the calcium until a local invited us over for a bike wash, dinner, and a shower. it was a full day and we were listening to stories about our host and hostess year of traveling through south america on a bike, climbing mountains and living a life that anyone would envy. it was a hell of a chance meeting.

woke up at 7 feeling fresh. we packed the bikes after getting route advice from our host. and headed back to hanceville for fuel and dirt. i was cold and the smoke from the wild fires was out in force
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we got off on the wrong route immediately and had to do some back tracking but the road got fun. overgrown grass hiding rocks and sticks.
once we were on the right track there were miles of FAST farm roads through pastures and gates. it was a blast and felt like eastern oregon, except with less people.

for every person in eastern OR, you'll see an arm, leg or some other body part laying in a remote pasture in BC. this keeps you moving fast

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until you have a reason to slow down

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and then speed up again


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and then stop

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more tomorrow...

Wow, some killer scenery there. Very cool!

Love this ride report.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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Good writers, like good impressionist artists, know when to stop ‘painting the picture and let the viewer fill out the rest of the frame. <o></o>
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The pictures capture the expansive size of the country, and your words frame each wonderfully. Your narrative style, fired from hip, stark and bereft of fluff, compliments instead of distracts. <o></o>
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No one needs a picture explained – we know what dirty motorcycles do -- you keep it short, allowing our imaginations to fill in the voids.<o></o>
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Great stuff!<o></o>
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And oh, the calcium chloride is used to keep the dust down. <o></o>
A dusty road is a disappearing road, and CaCI2 is hygroscopic – pulls moisture out of the air – and helps to keep the fine clays in place and cuts down on the amount of loose gravel, potholes and eventual blade work. <o></o>

Unfortunately the shit is harsh on aluminum. <o></o>
If left in continuous contact, will etch and eventually cause surface pitting. But then, you knew that -- I see you were diligent about rinsing the bikes off at every opportunity!<o></o>

Great pictures and loved the pictorial narrative perspective. (Didn't know I could string three Big words together.)

Looked like a fun trip.

Bob