Epic Ride Up McNutt

An epic ride up McNutt in the late winter meant a LONG haul through snow but the views were so worth the effort.

On March 1st, 2010 I looked up at the local mountains and saw a clear view of the peaks and a thin layer of high cloud... to me this means no rain and epic views. I raced home, grabbed my bike and the appropriate gear (food, water, GPS, clothing etc.) for an epic ride and headed up to the Woodlot. Be warned, YOU WILL GET LOST if you don't have a good map and or a GPS and know how to use it. There is a labyrinth of skidder and quad trails all over place up in these hills.

Story inside!
A few years ago I found a unique route that links The Woodlot and McNutt, so today I decided it was time to do this epic ride for the view from the peak.

For the first 3 hours of the climb things were good: the ground was damp and the trails were clear. Then I hit snow. First it was only a little on the ground, then it increased in thickness as I gained elevation. Being the stubborn person that I am, I carried my bike when it started getting too hard to push through the snow. In the end I carried my bike over 4kms of the ride up the hill on the snow.


What would normally take only one hour took me 4 hours. But as I said before I am stubborn and determined. I'd been to the top a few times before, about 20 years before on a rigid XC bike so I knew what to expect from the terrain, but if my memory serves me correctly I last made my way up to the top in the summer.


The view from the top is quite spectacular. There are views to the south of Mt. Baker and to the immediate west of The Golden Ear as well as a view of the Fraser Valley and the North Shore mountains.



I took as many photos as I could as quickly as I could, because I knew that if I didn't start heading home soon, I'd be hiking out in the dark. Even though I always ride with enough emergency supplies to spend a night or two in the bush, it wasn't something that I wanted to test today.







As quickly as one can descend in the snow, I made my way down. Once I was on solid terra firma it was 5pm and I was loosing light pretty quick, so with a fully head of steam I ripped down the skidder and logging roads back to my vehicle as fast as I could.

-View the route in Google Maps

-View the route in Google Earth

At my car I asked myself: Was it worth it? Hell yeah! Would I do it again in late winter? Hell No!!