Ride Chronicle: Floatplane Biking from Warner Lake

What an amazing gift Isabelle gave me for my birthday (back in March) this weekend. Terry, she & I left early Friday afternoon in Phil's truck (thanks Phil, wish you could have come!!) headed for Tyax Resort on Tyaughton Lake. The reason being that Isabelle booked a floatplane mountain bike trip for us from Warner Lake back down to Tyax Resort.

We got to Pemberton on good time, had a great meal there and then headed for the Hurley Forest Service Road to get through the pass to the resort. It was a heck of a trek, as you can see by the video below.

The photos (link below) show the forest fires that were occurring at the same time too.

We arrived around 9ish and set up camp, then hit the sack as we had an early morning Saturday.

We woke up on good time, about 7a, so that we could eat and get our things together for the plane. We loaded up our bikes into the plane, and off we went into the sky! The plane was a 1961 De Havilland Beaver built in Toronto we were told, and it was so loud! The take off was smooth as butter, as was the flight and the landing. Two others and our guide had gone up on an earlier flight and we met them at the trail head.

Note: The Sopranos' theme by Alabama 3 called 'Woke Up This Morning' is used as the theme tunes for this as that is what the pilot had playing in our headsets!
The ride itself was epic. Such amazing singletrack, the photos and videos don't do it justice!! I can see why The Collective boys filmed some of 'Seasons' there. Simply awesome! It was a 6.5 hour ride, my goodness that was the longest ride I've done in a long time, and in fact ever.

Sunday was a lazy day. We spent it on the lake, paddling around and exploring the shore. Dinner was great; imported Vij's Indian curry, mmmmm.

Monday we had to book it back through the pass as the main highway through Lillooet (the way we planned to return, even though it added time) had been closed due to forest fires. Even the pass was only being kept open for a short time due to the fires on the Valley side. Check out these shots to see how close we were coming back, craziness!!!