Work has been slow lately – I am low man on the totem pole so not much flying in the DHC-2. The good news is that with all my spare time I get to bump up my fitness and plan for my Fly and Ride trips.

This past trip involved a bit planning. I had heard thru friends of friends that there was a ranch in the northern Chilcotins that welcomed planes to land on the property. The beauty of the Chilcos is that if there is a ranch then there are tons of horse trails to the alpine. I managed to track down the owner, Alex Bracewell of Bracewell’s Alpine Wilderness (www.bracewell.com). I mentioned to Alex that I would offer him some beer in exchange for letting me land on his property and some tips on where to ride. Alex response “Beer is good”. Okay this was going to be easy.

I once again recruited my Squamish roommate Craig for the trip who was more than willing to buy Alex’s beer as I bought the fuel for the trip.

We loaded up EGY (my Cessna) and off we went for Fly and Ride #2 of 2010.

As usual the flight to mid-BC was incredible.

We found the Bracewell Ranch and circled a few times to check out the landing:

I decided to touch down just prior to the road so that I would have a nice roll out on the gravel road. It was a no brainer for EGY.

Alex met us at the plane. All I can say – awesome guy! He was psyched to see the beer and even more excited to tell us where to ride.

Did I mention the Ranch is at 4200 feet? Well the beauty of this is that Craig and I were almost immediately riding in the alpine. The downfall is that most the loop that Alex suggested would be a great ride would still have too much snow. We decided on an out and back that would be dry. There was a bit more hike a bike than I like but I have to say that all the nasty up was quickly forgotten on the ride back to the plane. The views were incredible.

Lunch time:

Craig took a bunch of video and is in the process of editing it.

Stay tuned for the video!

Peter