Lorna Lake plane drop July 31

Chilcotins

Following an uneventful drive over the Hurley pass we awoke early to a slightly smoky sky. It's always a bit nerve wracking when you set out into the back-country, how many spare parts, how much water and what is the snow level like. We had a great crew morning of; Charles, Steve, Johnny, Paulo and myself all pretty hardened bikers.

The flight to Lorna was uneventful scenic and filled with excited banter. Charles was on his first float plane drop of many to come, I'm sure. All the equipment was unloaded and the adventure began.

First hurdle a small knee high creek, Steve and Paulo took of their shoes and socks, why i don't know as their would be plenty of puddles and crossing throughout the day, just wear you darn 'wool'. Up and over Lorna pass, this is a great warm up for the calves and though we had considered Elbow, the snow looked impassable on the flight in, but Lorna serves up some amazing scenery, a sweet singletrack descent and today a ton of mozzies, yuck.

Needless to say this adventure would be defined by the bugs, not bad up high, but in the boggy valleys, grrr and nobody had any bug juice to speak of. So we dashed up the sub-alpine to clear the tree cover and the swarms of bugs, but that is where all the beauty lies.

Many breaks later, a ton of photo's and we crested Deer pass, snow was not a problem on either of the passes. Cruising down the south side of Deer the trail was dusty and disintegrated to powder in some parts but was as usual a mind blowing experience.

The bugs on the south side weren't nearly as bad, so we enjoyed the meadow, flowers and though smoky the amazing views. No sighting of any wild life, but sometimes that can be a bonus. We took the Lower Spruce meadows exit to Gun Creek and arrived at the truck in 7.5 hours. All in all a pretty smooth operation with nothing but sweet views and awesome singletrack. My Garmin 500 GPS registered about 44 k in total, but with hikes etc, who knows, great ride and a great weekend.

Back in the city now planning Crankworkx and the next big ride.
Dre