Video: Cruising the Chilcotins

After hearing so many stories, as well as seeing various videos, we decided that the Chilcotins would be the place for our last trip before Winter set in.




We departed from Whistler around 6:30am and hit the road towards Pemberton, the journey in total took around 4 hours due to the majority of travelling taking place on rough service roads. After passing a sign saying we had now entered Grizzly country, we knew we weren't in Whistler anymore.

After a few wrong turns and some very friendly, helpful locals giving us directions, we finally made it to Tyaughton lake and the start of our ride. The climb up to the peak consisted of a steady cruise up fire roads, weaving across the mountain side. To say it was easy would be a lie, but with the right climbing gear (a granny ring), it could have been taken at a very steady pace, leaving some energy for the descent. Around halfway up we stumbled across Taylor Cabin, which was ideal for a quick lunch break. With plenty of history, alongside enough supplies to get you through a night out in the wilderness, it was a perfect place to stop.



With a little more climbing we were out into the open, snow surrounding us and a hike-a-bike situation on our hands. Luckily for us, it wasn't the worse place to push up, with views that belonged on a postcard left, right and centre. The one thing we hadn't seen yet was a Grizzly. That was until we weren't far from the summit, then we spotted a fully grown Grizzly bear around 100 metres off, luckily for us he wasn't bothered by us at and continued on his own way.


After our close encounter with the bear, we thought it would be best not to stick around and drop in to the descent. Looking down from the summit, all you could see for miles was a thin bike trail snaking across the ridge lines, and down towards the lake that we had been at earlier that morning. Just as we expected the riding was amazing, just like any backcountry video we had ever watched. It started out on loose gravel, cutting between patches of snow. Slowly but surely, it crept back into the trees where we got to hit some loamy turns and off-camber roots. Following on from the woods was a flat-out section where brakes weren't needed if you were brave enough!

With around an hour of the best descending we'd ever done, we made it back to the fire road to start our long climb back to the truck. Luckily for us a kind local couple gave us a lift back up to the top, and saved us hours of pain. Back to Whistler we went.

Video and words by Josh John / @JJJJJOOOOSSSSHHH
Photos by Michael Vout