July 2020, British Columbia Canada

After 15-16 days of riding from Lillooet I met up with Darren, a friend from Prince George for a resupply and to explore the area on bike, foot and maybe by canoe. We first got in touch talking about the Canol Trail and he’s been involved in clearing and maintaining the Mackenzie Trail and knows a lot of the little gems of British Columbia.

we weren’t able to leave until well after noon after all the packing and organizing but after 2 ~400meter climbs (the second one being a mosquito induced uphill pedaling frenzy) we found a nice spot with a fire ring. The bright side of the extremely rainy summer here is that there are no fire bans yet.

The road was faint and quiet, we crossed the first of the two bigger creeks and it had a bridge, always a cause for celebration

We found a 5 star camping spot, which was quickly demoted to 1star “emergency camp” due to the huge griz nearby.

We passed an abandoned mining settlement (more on that on the way back), another bridge and decided to continue in order to be as far away from that bear as possible tonight.

there was machinery left to rust further into the alpine

I had thought there would be better camping at a chain of lakes further up but the lack of vegetation and mordor-like mountains would have made for a gloomy camp. We set up by the road further down.

It was time to see where the road ends. Darren took off on foot and I took my bike. Even when bikepacking it’s always really nice to go for a bike ride.

There was more machinery further up but also an interesting fairly recently dropped surveying gear. I had thought I heard a helicopter 3 nights ago while camping at the lower Taseko Lake and thought it would be odd a helicopter would go out so far.

At the top we could barely get a glimpse at the endless coastal range and I realize that even if I were to travel all the roads and trails in the area there was so much more hidden behind impassable (for a bike) forests and deep blue lakes.

and from the top we could see the only reason this road exists

Darren walked back and I rode back but in the end when you count all the photo stops, we reached camp at about the same time. With that big bear roaming one of the few appealing campsites and the bear piles at the mine camp site we decided to stay here and ride it all back tomorrow.

it was hard to find logic or pattern among the high altitude mining roads

There were sometimes reminders of the real world but I am so much happier here. Few months of lockdown and covid protocols in spring really left me a little depressed and anxious which in turn made heading out a little more difficult. There was just too much uncertainty but against all odds I found that my small following and support here and via youtube never diminished due to the lack of updates or the challenging economic situation.

but in a funny way I am watching the plane slice through the sky happy that I am not there. but kind of wishing that I could be so I can return to Patagonia.

on the way down we can finally get to look around the mine in all it’s glory, rusting and rotting among some of the most beautiful places in Canada.

But who knows, maybe in another life I would have been a miner here. Maybe I would have been the person in charge that gets to decide whether to dump all of this here or to keep an active mining claim in order to avoid an expensive clean up? But like many other delicate topics in the area it is never so black and white and I will not be touching on those in either the journal or the video but I think it would be a fair game for when and if I can put some of these experiences in a book.

SEE THE WORLD - precious minerals edition

By chance we got to spend a great few hours in the shade with Doug and Janice and even in the time of covid, we found a way to cheat the system and wash hands, hand shake and wash again. The social distancing could use a bit more work but the whole province had about 400 cases when I left in July.

It started as an idea not to ride the same road all the way back but with some back and forth on the inReach we were able to arrange a boat ride across the mouth of Taseko river.