The Four

Four Days, Four Riders, Four Seasons.

"The tingling sensation in my big toe still hasn’t subsided...I guess it’s a daily reminder of how stupidly awesome our first bike-packing adventure was."


The Plan:

Fly to Lorner Lake, cache food - ride north to Graveyard Cabin, via Graveyard Pass - Camp - Return to Lorner Lake - Camp - Ride to Spruce Lake, via Deer Pass - Camp - Ride out to Tyax Lodge via Lick Creek.

The Reality:

Upon arrival, the wind at Lorna Lake was too high to land the plane. Time to re-jig the plan...

The Plan II:

Fly to Spruce Lake, cache food - Ride North to Manson Creek - Camp - Ride to North Lorner Lake via Graveyard Pass - Camp - Ride to Spruce Lake via Lorner Pass & Deer Pass - Camp - Ride out to Tyax Lodge via Lick Creek.

The Reality:

Driving rain coupled with a sudden drop temperatures prevented our freezing bodies from getting to Manson Creek. The previous five creek crossings may have played a hand in that! With tents tented and fires firing, we called this little spot on Paradise Creek our home for the evening. Waking up to snow meant consulting the map...again. Maybe our adventurous task just wasn’t meant to happen.



The Plan III:

Ride to Warner Lake via Deer Pass, which may or may not have 2ft of snow on the trail - Camp at Warner Lake - Ride to Spruce Lake, via Gun Creek - Camp - Ride out to Tyax Lodge via Lick Creek.



The Reality:

Unsure how clear the pass would be, we ruled out Graveyard Cabin and opted for Deer Pass instead. We knew there’d be snow on the climb, but its South-facing descent coupled with the rising temperatures assured us there was fresh trail ahead. Once at the snow line, we followed Mountain Goat tracks and aimed for the saddle that is Deer Pass. Luckily the tracks followed the actual trail and after nearly three hours of hike-a-bike and post-holing through 2ft of snow, we made the pass. This was an adventure...right?








After an incredible descent through the high alpine snow fields and sub-alpine forest, we dropped into the valley. The final 3km push to Warner Lake campsite took us close to two hours. Exhaustion was getting to us all.





Warner lake is one of the most incredible places I have ever camped. It also snows there too.





Departing Warner lake took a little longer than expected, due to some unforeseen circumstances...such as waking up to snow and a leaking hydration bladder inside my tent. Unsurprisingly, everything that spent the night outside the tent remained dry, whilst everything we had carefully dried out and packed inside the tent was now saturated. More time to enjoy the scenery I guess.


30 minutes into our delayed departure, Rob decides to take it upon himself to take the first crash and first flat of the trip. Unscathed, we continue on...or at least until Tom decides to one-up Rob by throwing himself OTB and down a scree-slope, tearing his brake lever out in the process. Three zip-ties later and his rear brake is working...sort of.




Arriving at Spruce Lake was a momentous occasion. Our cached supplies had lasted three days and we could finally enjoy the cold beer, sausages, mash and gravy that we’d been promising ourselves since we embarked on this trip.





We departed Spruce Lake early as we knew there was a long day ahead of us. Sticking to the plan of ascending Windy Pass and over to Lick Creek, we were on our way...for a half hour. Then the pushing began. The trail to Windy Pass was a damn steep hike and it was obvious we were feeling weary from the previous few days, but soldiered on, keeping a watch for more mountain goats.







After discovering that the incredible descent of Windy Pass wasn't our final (as expected), we began yet another hike through snow to the top of Lick Creek Trail. A must-do trail for any self-respecting biker. Our first multi-day bike-packing adventure was complete, we learnt a lot, we didn't cry, we didn't see any bears, we had a damn good time!



NOTE - Sorry on the lack of actual riding photos, it's too fun to even think about pulling a camera out.

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