Canada's Best Kept Secret: 500km from the nearest paved road, solo in Northern BC.

[L.B.S.]

Bullshit! You do not have a boat, paddles, camping gear etc., packed on that bike.

























...I hate you

My big ol' touring bike with lots of "real estate", looks like the leaning tower of Pizza, with just my sleeping bag and tent on it! Auugh! How do you get your's so awesome packed looking!?

Beauty pictures, and what an adventure! Thanks for sharing!

[Dan Alexander]

[Crooked Creek]

Originally Posted by hardwaregrrl

So Ben....do you guys leave the tree up year round???? I'm really sick of city life, 2 people gunned down 1/2 mile from my house ...

That's not even our tree . We were at my sister's place so I got her to snap a quick pic for the Christmas letter while were were all happy and fully clothed. It's the most recent shot I could find with the whole family. We're not really into posed photos...

Sorry to hear about the shooting.

People are people everywhere though. Kwadacha (Fort Ware), which I was going to ride through on the way back, is home to only 266 people and has had it share of murders in recent years.

Which reminds me, if I forget to mention it when I get to the part about Germansen landing, ask me to tell the story about the murderer that I chatted with there .

Originally Posted by L.B.S.

You do not have a boat, paddles, camping gear etc., packed on that bike. How do you get your's so awesome packed looking!?

I'm learning a new secret technique. It's pretty complicated, but the gist of it is not bringing stuff that you don't need .

[Crooked Creek]

After fueling up at Crooked Creek (and checking to see if my much needed tent pole had come in the mail; it hadn't) I cheerfully endured a brief stretch of pavement (as there is only one bridge over the Smoky River) in order to get to Grande Prairie.




I guess I could have broken out the packraft and tried to float the Smoky with the bike, but I was already a day late leaving and didn't have the time for such shenanigans.

This is my boat, by the way:




Anyways, at the intersection 4 miles north of GP, I climbed up a dirt hill to take a pic and say farewell to the flat lands.

[L.B.S.]

Originally Posted by Crooked Creek

Which reminds me, if I forget to mention it when I get to the part about Germansen landing, ask me to tell the story about the murderer that I chatted with there .

Circa 1977, my Dad had a gold mine just North of Germansen landing, and I rode my XR75 all the way there from Fort St. James. (with Pops in the chase truck giving me heck at every refueling, for going too far ahead of him )

I laugh now, at how close it really is to the Fort, but back then, it seemed to be a never ending adventure trip, off to the ends of the earth.

[Crooked Creek]

Originally Posted by L.B.S.

Circa 1977, my Dad had a gold mine just North of Germansen landing, and I rode my XR75 all the way there from Fort St. James. (with Pops in the chase truck giving me heck at every refueling, for going too far ahead of him )

I laugh now, at how close it really is to the Fort, but back then, it seemed to be a never ending adventure trip, off to the ends of the earth.

Sweet . On an XR75 that is a proper adventure!

[Crooked Creek]

So even though I had a lot of ground to cover in little amount of time, I couldn't resist taking the scenic route. I have been wanting for a while to check out the town of Tumbler Ridge. It's a community that's only two years older than me, but has a fascinating history and is full of dead dinosaurs, waterfalls, and mining roads to explore. My kind of place. Check out more about it here.

Anyways, to get there, I took that route that Google will never take you.


View Larger Map


Leaving the highway just before the giant beaver at Beaverlodge, I took the 722 to the metropolis of Elmworth (population:9.)

Not much for curves.




But she's a beauty none the less.




I didn't bring an Alberta map, so I ended up winging it south and west (and hitting a couple dead ends) on the gravel, but I eventually hit Township Road 700, which led me to where I wanted to go.




I don't think there was even a sign at the border, but I am pretty sure this is Hiding Creek, meaning we're in Beautiful British Colombia now.



The water's not muddy here, like back home, but stained red with tannins.

Eventually, there was a sign.




Which confirmed that I was indeed where I wanted to be.




The road splits here.




The left fork goes on a long dead end traverse southeast almost all the way back to the Alberta border.




But I took the right fork, heading southwest towards the heritage highway.



I know that my final destination was supposed to be north, but this way I snuck in an extra 200 km of gravel for pretty much free.

[Wake]

Looks awesome man

great trip!

[squonker]

[L.B.S.]

Really enjoying this!

[Gale B.T.]

Way to go Ben, extra pot of coffee ready for this also pot of tea for Squonker

[Mercenary]

I used to go to Elmworth all the time when I worked for Ferus. We had a CO2 plant out there. I'd stop in at that little store for snacks right across from the school all the time.

Some of the folks I worked with mentioned that you could make it all the way to Tumbler Ridge by following those roads past Elmworth but I never had the opportunity to check them out.

Keep it coming my friend!

[IKIGAI]

Recreation Sites



There are nine Recreation Sites in the Tumbler Ridge area. All sites are accessible via two-wheel drive (though access to many is via gravel road), within driving distance of Tumbler Ridge, and are free of charge. These sites include:

• Flatbed East on Highway 52 south of Tumbler Ridge – 6 sites
• Foot Lake (also called Boot Lake) on the Hourglass Road east of Tumbler Ridge – 12 sites
• Moose Lake north of Tumbler Ridge off Highway 29 – 8 sites.
• Redwillow River – on the Red Willow FSR south of Tumbler Ridge – 5 sites
• Stony Lake – on highway 52, south of Tumbler Ridge – 12 sites
• Thunder Creek – on highway 52, SE of Tumbler Ridge – 2 sites
• Wapiti Crossing – on the Wapiti FSR south of Tumbler Ridge -10 sites
• Wapiti River – south of Wapiti Crossing – 7 sites
• Windfall Creek – on the Sukunka FSR west of Tumbler Ridge – 2 sites

http://www.visittumblerridge.ca/Your...6/Default.aspx

[Crooked Creek]

Now about 2/3 of the way between the Hiding Creek FSR and the turnoff to the Heritage Highway, you cross the namesake Red Willow River.

Not surprisingly, it also has that characteristic copper tinge.








This was not my first time here. Usually there isn't enough water run the Red Willow, but last July we got a bunch of rain so a couple friends and I ran the river from here all the way back to a farm out by Elmworth.


All the info we had found said that the Red Willow was an easy run, but in high water there are a few spots that will keep you on your toes.









Most of those spots are just before and a little bit after the falls.




Which are not the easiest portage themselves...




We thought we were all done the rapids, when we found this ledge.

[Crooked Creek]

Not far from the Red Willow bridge, the FSR connects with the Heritage Highway.




It's a highway, but the gravel kind.




And the mountains are starting to come in view .




As I stopped to take this shot and stretch a bit, a young Newfoundlander came by in a lifted pickup, tunes blaring and a girl on his arm. You could tell that he was happy to be alive. He stopped to make sure I was okay (looking over the bike and probably wondering what I was doing way out here) and let me know that there was a Grizzly grazing in the ditch a mile back.

I take that as my cue to hop back on the bike and see if I can catch a glimpse of it. I arrived in time to see the bushes sway as said Griz waddled into the brush. Didn't get my picture, but I was excited to see that bears were out even in the afternoon heat.

Eventually road the turns to pavement and starts carving through the foothills. We don't have many corners where I come from, so I was enjoying waiting until the last minute and then leaning the bike far more than necessary through the turns.

On one such turn. I found the Grizzly I was looking for.

It was a young feller, probably a 2 or 3 year old male, and he was standing right beside the road. Yep, standing. I almost got a picture of him peering at me over the brush on his hind feet from about 8 feet, but I was a fraction of a second too slow.

Too bad. It would have been a good one.

But I continue on, resolving to be faster on the draw next time. After a while, I pull off the highway to check out Flatbed Creek.






Now I wasn't going to go all the way to Tumbler Ridge and not explore any mining roads, so at the first promising looking one, I decided to see what I could see.



As you'll find out, I got a little more than I bargained for...