Cheakamus Challenge

Well the Cheakamus Challenge went off on Saturday.  The day started great in Squamish (after a slow drive through contstruction on the Sea to Sky), it was fairly warm and a very light rain was starting to fall.  Great conditions for riding.  This day called for shorts and a bright green Steed Cycles jersey with Steed arm warmers.

Last year I did not put a big ring on my bike and rode 

with a bash guard.  That was a mistake as the opening rode section was fast and I basically spun out and was left nearly at the back of the pack before we even hit the trail.  I did not make the same mistake this year and what a difference it made.  I was able to hold about middle of the pack (that is good for me) all the way through the rode section.

As you start climbing up above the Cheakamus Canyon I get reminded of why I love this race.  The views are awesome.  The race pretty much follows the Cheakamus Canyon from Squamish to just before Whistler and you get to see some views that you would never see from the car ride up.  For the 2nd year in a row I even got to see the Whistler Mountaineer come up through the canyon (maybe they plan it this way, I am not sure).

About half way through the race the rain picked up and it got colder with the elevation gain.  The trails were in great shape though.  The Sea to Sky trail is starting to come together and there was a new section that had just opened prior to this race.  The nice smooth single track felt great and was a pleasure to ride, it really flowed as the trail rolled between Brandy Wine and Loggers Lake.  At this point I am feeling great and am well ahead of my last year's pace.  I push until the 2nd feed station where I chow down on bananas, coo

kies and Coke.  Less than an hour to go and 2 big climbs left.

Up the Cheakamus, up the microwave tower road to Tunnel Vision and then back up Kadenwood to finally come ripping down into Creekside.  I am wet, cold and loving it.  30 minutes faster than last year and the burgers and beer are waiting.  

Chilko Challenge Day 3

It was cold the night before day 3. We woke up with a good layer of frost on our tents and grass. There was a dog that had followed a group of riders through all of day 2 (someone had to take a 2 hour car ride to return this dog to its home ranch) and it barked half the night.

Day 3 was supposed to be the short day, 4-5 hours. We were to ride down the rode to the lake and follow a trail that circumnavigated the lake. There were 3 significant river crossings and we were told to be prepared to get our feet wet. In fact we were told to be prepared to get wet up to our chests.

After a hearty breakfast put on by the fantastic hostesses of Bracewell's Lodge we were on our way. Steve, one of the organizers, went off first because he said he had a surprise for us. When we got to the lake, instead of having to walk through a rushing glacier fed creek they had arranged for a barge to take us all about 1 km up the lake. There was even time to do some fishing.

Back on the trail we rode up a forest access rode to a ribbon of freshly cut single track. The trail popped us up on the Whale Back which gave us a great view down to the north end of Tatlayoko Lake, and a glimpse of how far we had to ride that day. Back down into the single track and we popped out again at the biggest river crossing of the day. A chest deep outflow river that we had to go through twice, once to carry our bike and again to carry our gear. The day was the warmest we had during the entire trip so the conditions were perfect.

The rest of the ride was on fairly fresh single track. The organizers spent 30 man days clearing this trail in time for the adventure, and I must say they did an excellent job. We spent more time on the bike on day 3 than on any other day and most of the trail was smooth with gentle climbs and descents for almost 40 km. 8 hours later (so much for a 4-5 hour day) we finished with a 1 km walk along the north beach to the finish line. The finish line consisted of a creek that we had to cross. We waited for the 4 of us to regroup and crossed together.

24 hours of riding in 3 days, some of the worst conditions I have ridden on a bike, some of the worst weather I have been out in and some of the best single track I have seen in my life. The 3 days were absolutely epic and I can't wait for next year.

Chilko Challenge Day 2

Day 2 was our long day. It would consist of huge climbs, long alpine meadow rides and fantastic views. The initial weather forecast called for sun and clound, but the day started with beautiful sunny skies. Looking at the weather at the start of the day I re-evaluated what I was going to bring - neoprene gloves, nope don't need those. Goretex pants, gone. Wow could I have made any worse decisions.

The peak that you can see to the right in the picture above is Tullin Mountain. This is about 1/3 of the way that we would be travelling today. The day started with a 12 km road ride to get to the trail head. From here it was almost instantaneous hike-a-bike for over an hour.

Shortly after we started climbing the clouds opened up and it started pouring rain. By the time we all stopped to put our jackets on we were all soaking wet and as we were soon to find out, jackets on top of wet clothes is not the best way to stay warm. We got to the top of the first ridge and got blasted with the wind. We hunkered down as best we could and grabbed a bite to eat. After some deliberation with the other 12 riders that made it this far we decided that it was best to turn back. There was about 27 km to go at much higher and more exposed elevations.

About 5 minutes into our decent back to the start line things started to go our way. The sun came out and dried up all the rain (and the itsy bitsy spider....), so we figured what the hell, we're already up here, let's go back up. We had even heard talk of a fire up on the ridge. We climb back up over the ridge and down a small descent into an alpine meadow and we smell smoke. Our hands and feet are freezing , our clothes are soaking wet and we could not get to the fire fast enough. I paused to take a photo of an epic view of Chilko Lake and then ran over to the fire.

That fire ended up being one of the biggest highlights of the entire trip. Shortly after we left and started into another 400m climb the rains got worse, the wind was worse and the temperature dropped. We opened up into an open range cow pasture and 2100m and into 50-60 km/h winds. It started snowing and we could not find the trail across this meadow. At this point my hands did not move, I could not feel my feet and I was really starting to get cold. Me and Brandon could not keep up with Kim and Steve, but we put our heads down and hiked our bikes for over and hour across the open alpine. As it turned out, losing sight of Kim and Steve was one of the best things that could have happened. It forced me to get out my GPS and get us back on track. Up here somewhere was a small lake and a cabin with a fire burning. It was torture on my hands just trying to get my GPS out of my pocket and turn it on, I literally could not bend my fingers.

We grouped up with 4 other riders and worked out way to where this cabin was supposed to be. Finding this small cabin in the woods was one of the best sights I have seen in a long time. Back to Kim and Steve though, we got to the cabin and they were not there. I was able to get them on the radio and find out that they went down over the wrong ridge line. They were now 20 minutes behind us, and were freezing cold.

We all survived that adventure and decided that we were going to take the emergency route down from the cabin to the lodge. This consisted of a now wet cow path full of sloppy cow patties - dinner anyone. When we stepped outside, there was not a cloud to be seen, son of a bitch. We had come this far and were now somewhat dry and warm so we soldiered on. We only had another 200m of evevation gain and about 3 hours of riding to get back to the lodge. It was one of the best decisions we could have made.

The views were absolutely epic and the single track was awesome. We finished the ride with almost 1000m descent down perfect single track. It was close to 45 minutes of descending.

Back at the lodge most of the group was ahead of us as they all decided to take the emergency route down. We tried not to gloat too much about the epic single track and views, but we had to rub it in just a little bit.

Chilko Challenge Day 1

The Chilko Challenge is a mountain bike adventure with 50 of our closest friends that we had never met before. It took place in the Northern Chilcotin mountains on the at Tatlayoko lake and on the Potato Range. The event was 3 days, 140 km and thousands of vertical metres of bike riding and hike-a-bike. It took incredible vision, guts and effort by 2 local riders to make this event happen.

The trip almost started with disaster, my partner had some family issues he had to deal with wo I was left solo. In this event no partner means no riding. Lucky enough the group from Steed Cycles was riding as a threesome and I hooked up with them. I actually even ran into them in the Tim Hortons in Williams Lake.

Day 1 started with the group of almost 50 raring to go, until we hit the first climb. The first 10 km had riders climb and hike a bike 1100 metres. We had glimpses of Tatlayoko Lake to show how high we had climbed.







We finally got to the open meadows for some sweet single track. The meadows took us to a ranching cabin where we grabbed some food. From here it was going to be 25 km of mostly down hill riding, well at least when there was a trail to follow.





We followed a ridge line down and the views were epic. This section was super fast and flowy, definetly worth the climb to get up here.






Day 1 ended 5.5 hours later at the Chilko River Lodge, where all our gear, a warm fire and great food waited. Oh yeah, and lots of beer.