Day Tripping and Camping in B.C.

Discussion in 'Ride Reports - Day Trippin'' started by gunnerbuck, Sep 12, 2010.

  1. gunnerbuck

    gunnerbuck Island Hopper

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2005
    Oddometer:
    6,722
    Location:
    N.V.I, B.C.
    I'm going to put together photos of some of the 2010 Adventures we've had... Most of them come from Vancouver Island while on dayrides and short camping trips....

    Our riding season was a long one this year if you could brave the cold...
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    A stop to explore old coal mine ruins
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    Some hardcore riding in winter
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    The cold penetrating the brain...

    A trip to the North beaches..
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    A winter ride to Tahsis..
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    Fog on Muchalat lake
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    Tashis
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    Yarder graveyard
    #1
  2. gunnerbuck

    gunnerbuck Island Hopper

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    A day of checking if the passes are open..
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    The odd washout
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    Schoen Lake

    Our first camping trip in Feb.
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    Tsitika Camp
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    Still snow up high
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    As far as we go
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    Johnstone Strait
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    Steelhead for Supper?
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    Stop at Vernon Lake
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    So nice we decided to camp here
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    Try again
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    #2
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  3. gunnerbuck

    gunnerbuck Island Hopper

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Trying the passes in May
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    Cambell Lake bridge
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    Tahsis Ride
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    Trail to Myra Falls
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    Campsite near the falls
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    Roberts Lake
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    Rugged Range
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    Rugged Mtn and glacier
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    Pinder PK
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    Elephant view
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    Merry Widow Mtn
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    NI Ride
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    #3
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  4. gunnerbuck

    gunnerbuck Island Hopper

    Joined:
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    Location:
    N.V.I, B.C.
    Chilcotin/ Cariboo

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    Pemberton Slide
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    Mud Lakes

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    Yalacom
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    China Head
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    Fresh Burn
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    Camped above Fraser Canyon
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    Big Bar
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    Hi Bar
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    Farwell Canyon Chilco River
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    Camp at Red Lake
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    The Flat



    More to come from the fall rides...
    #4
  5. 06Klr650

    06Klr650 RidingCountry.com

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2010
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    125
    Location:
    Mansfield Ga
    Beautiful area.........thanks for the pics :thumb
    #5
  6. GaDualer

    GaDualer n00b

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    3
    Awsome pictures!! Looks like a great location.
    #6
  7. Holaday

    Holaday Man of Leisure

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2006
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    859
    Location:
    North Van. / Nelson BC
    Wanted to get up into Mud Lakes, Big Bar, Farewell Canyon this summer but was put off by all the fires. Looks like I should have gone anyways. Thanks for sharing. Met you on the Anderson Highline 3 yrs ago this Sept. I was on the black BMW GSPD just out of Darcy.
    #7
  8. Hamon

    Hamon I just like riding

    Joined:
    Dec 10, 2007
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    Location:
    BC, Canada
    Sweet pics. I'm definitely gonna have to hook up with you guys for a ride at some point.

    Travis
    #8
  9. LumpTheBeezu

    LumpTheBeezu Been here awhile

    Joined:
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    Oddometer:
    183
    Absolutely stunning photos!! Aren't you guys lucky! Thank you for sharing. :clap
    #9
  10. gunnerbuck

    gunnerbuck Island Hopper

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2005
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    Location:
    N.V.I, B.C.
    I remember that meeting on the highline, do you still have the same bike?

    We waited for the fire situation to settle down before we went, not much to see when everything is cloaked in smoke.... Even some of our rides on the Island were effected by the smoke from the interior fires...
    #10
  11. Holaday

    Holaday Man of Leisure

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2006
    Oddometer:
    859
    Location:
    North Van. / Nelson BC


    I was riding the Beemer to the Baja in Oct 08 and the driveshaft went on it on day 3 of the month long trip. Bought a KTM 990 S off Flea Market here and kept going. The hole story is in my sig line below. We went to the Kootenays this summer instead of the planned trip to Bella Coola because of all the smoke.
    #11
  12. gunnerbuck

    gunnerbuck Island Hopper

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Let us know when you have a window of time and maybe we can work some kind of trip out... We'll camp out even in mid October if we get some dry weather....
    #12
  13. Thorne

    Thorne Sherpa-ing around

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    Location:
    Lone Pine, ON, Canada
    Thanks for sharing your photo's:thumb
    #13
  14. yamalama

    yamalama wet coaster

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    north vancouver bc
    good stuff.
    thanks.
    #14
  15. GB

    GB . Administrator Super Moderator

    Joined:
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    72,225
    Enjoyed your pics and report, thanks for posting :thumb
    #15
  16. BusyWeb

    BusyWeb Adventurer

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    99
    :clap :clap :clap
    #16
  17. katanarama

    katanarama riding > posting

    Joined:
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    Vancouver BC
    awesome, awesome photos!
    #17
  18. achtung3

    achtung3 Long timer

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    Central Coast California
    Beautiful places you guys been to!:clap :clap :clap :clap :clap :clap

    Thank's for sharing, now I need a dual sport.:umph
    #18
  19. Backcountryboy

    Backcountryboy Been here awhile

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2005
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    Location:
    Vancouver BC
    Wonderful photos. How did you get so close to the Pemberton slide?
    #19
  20. gunnerbuck

    gunnerbuck Island Hopper

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2005
    Oddometer:
    6,722
    Location:
    N.V.I, B.C.
    The day we went up there was some machines carving a track through the debris... They were kind enough to let us past to try continue on... We didn't get much further but good enough for a few pictures.... There is a gate at the bottom end and it is likely locked most of the time now...

    Here are some pics and a report from a 2008 solo ride home from the Yukon :
    <table id="post7337229" class="tborder" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr valign="top"><td class="alt1" id="td_post_7337229" style="border-right: 1px solid #575757">

    I left Watson lake and headed south for B.C Via the Alcan, the weather was good but I could see some dark clouds on the Horizon.....Further along I could see these watch for bison signs after I crossed the border and remember thinking it would be cool to see one. Not long after I could feel electricity in the air as the sky blackened so I pulled over and put on the storm gear.... After a short time underway again I could see some black shapes apear on the roadside green and pulled the camera out for some pictures... By this time it was in full storm mode with lightning flashing.... I snapped some pics of the first herd as I rode past and continued on through the rain.. Further up the road I could see a big herd of bison almost blocking passage through which made me a slight bit nervous... I came up on them and they wouldn't move off the road, even with a few horn blasts for persuasion so I rode down the centreline right in between them, cows,calfs and monster bulls a wisp away.... The whole thing felt sureal like a Steven King movie, Empty Hwy, thunderstorms, burnt out cars and black beasts blocking the road.. [​IMG]
    The first herd I encountered
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    I was nervous of this big boy
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    Wont even lift his head to look[​IMG]
    A hot car at one point.
    After 1.5 hours of riding in the storms I saw the Liard Hot springs sign and decided to pull in and dry out for the night. The lady at the booth said the campground was full but let me camp in the playground which had a nice grassy area for pitching the tent.
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    I met a KLR/V-Strom couple at the campground and joined them for a much enjoyed chat while sitting in the hotsprings... I ended up with not much sleep that night because my sleeping bag was a bit damp....

    I was up early and on the road for the most scenic part of the Alcan as well as some wildlife shots....

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    <hr style="color:#575757; background-color:#575757" size="1"> gunnerbuck screwed with this post 07-08-2008 at 07:38 PM
    </td> </tr> <tr><td class="alt2" style="border: 1px solid #575757; border-top: 0px"> [​IMG] [​IMG] </td><td class="alt1" style="border: 1px solid #575757; border-left: 0px; border-top: 0px" align="right"> [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG] </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table id="post7337839" class="tborder" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="thead" style="font-weight:normal; border: 1px solid #575757; border-right: 0px"> [​IMG] 07-05-2008, 02:35 PM </td><td class="thead" style="font-weight:normal; border: 1px solid #575757; border-left: 0px" align="right"> #6 </td></tr> <tr valign="top"><td class="alt2" style="border: 1px solid #575757; border-top: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" width="175"> gunnerbuck <sup></sup>
    Island Hopper

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    Joined: Nov 2005
    Location: N.V.I, B.C.
    Oddometer: 4,217


    </td><td class="alt1" id="td_post_7337839" style="border-right: 1px solid #575757"> In the Muskwa area I ran into a band of sheep that offered some good poses..
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    After fort Nelson the HWY became less interesting and the watch for Buffalo warning changed to Moose and I came across this...
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    Would hate to hit one of these..

    About twenty minutes after passing the road kill I had a very tense moment, A cow moose with a calf in tow rocketed out on the HWY in front of me.... I had little options, if I would of braked I for sure would hit them so I pinned the throttle and shot across the other lane onto the gravel median and cleared the cows nose by inches. My closest near miss of the trip so far left me a bit shaken...

    The thunderstorms started again and I once again felt like the star of a Stephen King movie.... After 1 Hr things dried up and I made my way through Chetwynd on the way towards Prince George with plans to ride untill dark. About a 1/2 HR before P.G. the sky went very dark and I looked for a spot to throw up the tent... I rode down a grassy track off the HWY, found a flat spot and quickly set up. I piled the gear and myself into the tent just in time as the winds started off one of the most intense thunderstorms I've seen in years.
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    Camp under darkening skies

    After another lousy nights sleep I headed to Williams Lake for breakfast and decided to get off the HWY for a spell and go cross country... I headed for the Chilcotin cowboy country...
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    A lot of this area is a very arid semi desert like and provides great riding...

    On the way to the Big Bar Canyon Ferry I was coming up on a corner at a good clip and applied the rear brake to scrub off some speed, nothing. I ended up running off the road into a drainage ditch, missing some boulders, up out of the otherside of the ditch, back in the ditch, then onto the road, back into the ditch and then up the otherside a second time before I got stopped.... This was the best save of my life but I now had no rear brake in the steepest country of the ride.....
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    Brakeline popped at the join...

    With a new more conservative riding style I made it down the canyon to Big Bar Ferry and up the Other side...
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    Road up out of the Canyon is steep and sandy

    From there I took the trail up to the China Head mountain summit at around 7000 FT..
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    It was after that on the way down the other side where things went sour... I was using engine braking and the front brake to keep control and on the steepest sections I would shut the engine off and use clutch action for a rear brake... On the last very steep section I rode past a cut off tree which stuck out far enough to hook the left side pannier and throw the bike and me hard into a gravity assisted crash... I did a major faceplant and banged my knee on a rock. I shut the fuel off on the bike and picked it up to survey the damage.... It had a scratched mask and tank + bent pannier frames but no other damage....As for myself I had some dings on the nose and maybe a bit of knee cartilage damage but otherwise pretty good shape... I didn't take any more pics after that as I switched to survival mode and being more concerned with getting off the mountain in one piece.. I came onto some logging that took me down via some 40 KM of very steep roads cut into the side of a deep gorge {no barriers} until I hit a main road at the bottom.... I made it into Pemberton on reserve {no gas in Goldbridge} and stayed the night at a friends place where I was able to do patch up work... The next morning I rode to the V. Island ferry and made it home by 7PM that evening...

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    Just a few scratches on the tank/mask/fender is all, after 4 yrs the bike is no longer pristine....

    All in all what an adventure......
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    #20
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