Summer is finally appearing on the wet coast.

On Sunday night I saw the weather forecast and Tuesday looked like a beauty of a day. Tuesday to Thursday’s are my days off at Harbour Air Seaplanes; so, Tuesday would be perfect for the first of many fly and rides. I decided on a ride in the Chilcos which is just north of Whistler. Solo riding is not really an option so I went thru my list of possible ride partners. Number 1 at the top of my list is our roomie in Squamish who is an awesome technical rider and former mountain bike guide. Perfect! I contacted Craig and he was in.

We loaded up the Cessna with our rides although I was worried about my Epic being in close contact to a Trek, yuk. I still have trouble looking at all of Craig’s Treks in our garage. Typically our garage is an all Specialized party with one Kestrel road machine. I use to be a big fan of Kestrel so I scored a machine for my partner a few years ago from the the original owners. Anyway, Trek is now part of the picture in our home…grrrr.

The flight to the Gun Lake strip is about 45 minutes. The flight is extremely scenic. Craig was busy scouting future rides in the upper Squamish Valley.

Prior to landing at Gun Lake we circled the planned route of riding from the Gun Lake strip up to Spruce Lake. All good – no snow on the trail.

My Cessna has some bush tires so landing on the dirt strip where ATV’s like to do donuts is a non issue.

Bikes were built and off we went.

Bridge crossing into Spruce Lake Park:

We gave ourselves a turn around time of 2 1/2 hours of ride time once we crossed the bridge. Prior to getting to the bridge it was a a nasty 30 minute climb up a fire road. The goal was to make it to Spruce lake which is a nice flowing uphill climb. We would eat our packed sandwiches at the lake then cruise downhill back to the plane. Get in a great workout then get rewarded with a downhill on some sweet single track.

Within a km from Spruce Lake we were blocked from a local resident – A monster Grizz!!!

My riding partner:

Reward time:

I sure hope there is another sunny day on next week days off.

Bye for now: