Kick back and watch our ‘Escape to the Chilcotins’ vid.

You can drive to the Chilcotins, deep in the BC backcountry, but it’s a 3 hour leg from Whistler, and half of that is on gravel roads, so you’ll probably get a puncture and you’ll definitely need a new set of fillings when you arrive at Tyax lodge.

The much more civilised option is to fly there, by float plane, and land in the lake right outside the lodge.

From Tyax, the same 1961 De Haviland Beaver can fly you and your bikes into the surrounding mountains, landing in Lorna Lake’s cobalt blue waters.

Then it’s a question of riding back on some of the best wilderness singletrack on the planet.

All the trails here were formed in the 1900’s, when prospectors came in search of gold and precious metals. They arrived in their tens of thousands, all hoping to find a fortune, but mostly left empty-handed. Fortunately, they left this network of 18-carat trails as their legacy, and that’s something we can all enjoy…

octissuedps

If you want read more about this trip and see some fantastic photography from Sterling Lorence, get hold of a copy of the current issue of mbr!