Lillooet - Relay Creek Wheelin' Trip (1 Viewer)

[Glenn-BJ74]

Bill and I were wheeling last week - here is my version of the story...

Day 1 Monday- Hale to the Big Structure Well Bill Wilkinson and I decided to head for an Indian summer wheeling trip to take advantage of the warm weather we have been enjoying this September. I had to finish painting my house over the weekend so we headed out on a bright Monday morning. Coming from the Island I had to hit Blaine first to pick up some Cruiser crap (PTO u-joints) and a heavy duty silver 10’ by 18’ hay tarp I ordered to fit my new aluminum roof rack I had made by a marine fabricator on Vancouver Island. After the wet Chilcotin trip last July, I decided to get a roof rack and an easy to deploy canopy system to keep the sides and back of my rig dry.
After picking up the cruiser booty I crossed back into Canada at the Aldergrove crossing and headed to the Tim Horton’s in Mission to meet Bill at noon for lunch. The plan was to head up Harrison West FSR and see the Hale Creek shelter project that was constructed the previous weekend. Just a few kilometers before the Hale Creek turnoff we heard the faint but familiar banter from Matt and Robert who had spent the weekend at Hale Creek. After avoiding a head collision with Matt (this has scarred us before) we stopped and exchanged greetings. We then parted company and headed to the turnoff and down the descending trail to the beach.
We arrived at the shelter about 3:00 pm and met Kim and his famdamly and Brent and his daughter. They were packing up Kim’s military trailer and cleaning up after the weekend construction flurry. As you can see the shelter is built like a cruiser – with a strong robust frame constructed of huge timbers--

P.S. The excavator operator stopped by in his boat to show off the shelter to a couple of guys from Norway. He thought that the exposed roof edge could be lifted by heavy wind which comes off the lake in winter. The third picture is a metal roof edge flashing that is available that might prevent the wind lifting the exposed outer roof edge.

Bill and I were to take the honor of being the first post-construction campers at the new shelter. In the morning we did some brushing around the outhouse (once we found it hidden in the bush) and the surrounding signs, and we erected a Mickey Mouse sign to the outhouse. I also cut off some of the sharp branch stubs from the timbers, which I though could be safety hazard to small children and partially and fully inebriated campers.

 

[kim]

Thanks Glenn, that is a fine point that has been raised.

This shall be rectified.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Day 2 Tuesday- Glacier Lake

After a great sleep and hearty breakfast we pushed north up the Harrison West. The Harrison West is a dynamic road, subject to slides and periodic closures and is always different every time I drive it. The road was in good condition with some 20 percent grades and narrow sections. By now the congestion and stress of the Lower Mainland was receding as we concentrated on driving and snatching glimpses of the lake’s edge and mountain peaks as the road snaked its way along the lake’s edge. At the top of the lake we stopped at the dry land sort to have a quick lunch. The buildings and bunkhouses were all abandoned, with doors wide open offering a great invitation to vermin and vandals. This is first time I have seen it unoccupied. From the log sort we headed to Sloquet Creek Hot springs to take a gander. Although I have been up and down the Harrison West and In-Shuck-ch FSRs many times, before I have never stopped at the Sloquet Hotsprings. After a few chats to some Californian tourists and a single dirt bike rider we left.

From there we proceeded north on the Lillooet West FSR up the west side of the river to check out Glacier Lake. Once we found the unmarked turn-off, we headed west up the Snowcap drainage over a thousand cross-ditches finally arriving at Glacier Lake. Glacier Lake borders Tweedsmuir Park and is part of native land claims for the In-Shuck-ch.
We were looking for another ‘invisible’ Backroads’s campsite which was suppose to be located mid length on the lake but we ran out of trail near the west end of the lake. We turned around and at the extreme east end of Glacier Lake we found a little shady site called -- ‘Campo Mucho Relaxo’. There we spent the night among the tall timbers with a fantastic view up the remote glacial-green lake. During the early evening I heard a moaning sound, which I initially thought be a small animal in distress. The sound was coming back along the trail we had come in on. Upon investigation I found it was a tree that was leaning on another, which must have been an internal creak within its stem that was creating a moaning sound as the wind moved it to and fro. This was a very eerily sound - perfect for scaring little children (and some more grown up).

We hit the sack at about 10:00 pm and I was awoken about 2:00 am by Bill pacing around his truck and opening and closing his doors. I found out latter a mouse had invaded Bill’s rig and was under his dashboard and I am sure Bill was imagining the little rodent chewing up his wiring and hiding his nut stash for the winter in the heater vents. Bill said he will leave that story for another time.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Cruiser Crap

A picture of some Crusier Crap and a budget minded trailer and RTT bed set-up we saw along the way.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Day 3 Wednesday- Old Acquaintances on Anderson Lake

The following morning we packed up and headed back to the Lillooet West FSR and turned north past the In-Shuck-ch community of Batiste Smith and north to the Tenas Bridge to cross over to the east side of the Lillooet River. On the Tenas Bridge we saw a drift net fisherman and of course we had to stop and to talk to him. Tim was his name and he was fishing for sockeye. Well it was not long before he insisted we have a sockeye for dinner.

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[Glenn-BJ74]

Day 3 Wednesday- Old Acquaintances on Anderson Lake..

We left Tim and than continued north past Lillooet Lake Estates and had lunch at the Driftwood Bay Rec site. After a quick bite we went to Mt Currie for a diesel stop. At the gas station we chatted up the locals and had a coffee before heading to D’Arcy. In D’Arcy we stopped for ice cream, talked to the Pepsi delivery man then headed up the picturesque Highline Road. The Highline road is one of my favorite roads which runs along the high bluffs of the north side of Anderson Lake – it has awesome views I never get tired of.
Just past McGillivray Creek we stopped to talk to a couple in a Tundra who were stopped by the roadside watering some sunflowers at the entrance to their property. After a minute or two Bill realized they were long ago acquaintances. They live full-time at the Ponderosa property on the north shore of Anderson Lake (middle picture). We chatted for a while, all the time hoping they would invite down to their several hundred acres of Anderson Lake water front property where they had small hydro power -- but that did not happen. After that encounter we continued to Seton Portage and over the mountain to Carpenter Lake and around the east end and along the north shore of the lake. It was getting late in the day and we wanted to find a campsite. To our disappointment we found many more Backroad’s campsites on the north side of Carpenter lake that do not exist. Eventually we went up Marshall Lake Road and camped at a little gem of lake called Carol Lake, which was easy and wide 2WD access. That night we savored our grilled sockeye which we was caught just a few hours earlier. With a camp fire ban we had to cook it on Bill’s grill.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Day 4 Thursday- Relay Creek Hunters

From Carol Lake we continued up the Marshall Lake road, past Marshall Lake to the Mud Paradise FSR past the Tyaughton Rec Site and on a circuitous route to the Relay Creek FSR. I don’t remember the convoluted trail system to get to Relay Creek, but I faithfully followed the GPS track from last year and found our previous camp site between two creeks. We arrived fairly early so we decided to head up the Relay Creek FSR to the end near the South Chilcotin Provincial Park. At the top of a climb we got to little drilling core camp and bumped into a 5 or 6 hunters and struck up a conversation with a couple of them. One of them had a HDJ 81 so we had lots to BS about.

Apparently they come up Relay Creek all the time to hike and hunt. During the conversation the weather was turning to rain and hail and after a while we decided to get back and set up our camp before the weather got really bad. We got back to camp and set up our rain canopies. Before dinner we deployed the on-board shower and washed away the bush grime and pulled some fresh duds. We got a nice little fire going and grilled the rest of the sockeye on the wood coals. It rained during the evening and the water on top of the canopies turned to sheets of ice by morning. It was cold and by 5:30 am it hit minus 8. I had my North Face bag inside a larger Dacron bag and I was ‘roasty toasty’ all night long. Normally that North Face bag is cold at freezing, although it’s rated to 17 below (don’t believe it). In the morning with frozen fingers warmed by the fire we packed up our rigs. The cruisers were tough to start at 5,000 feet and minus 6.

Once the rigs were warm we decided to head down to a lower level and check out the 2010 Meager Creek land slide up the Lillooet River valley.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Day 5 Friday- Capricorn Side

We headed down to Carpenter lake past the burned out Mowson Pond camp site we had stayed previously and proceeded to Gold Bridge to have lunch and call the ladies at home. Bill and I scarfed down the Gold Bridge burger before thrashing our rigs’on the unforgiving washboard of the Hurley FSR. Warning - that road is unkind to solid front axle leaf spring trucks.

At the bottom of the Hurley, we pulled an abrupt 180 right past a several Road Closed signs (scares the tourists so the logging trucks can drive faster) and proceeded north on the Upper Lillooet FSR. On the way we encountered a logging truck, hauling out of Pebble Creek, which was in the middle of the road as I rounded a corner. That woke me up enough to pay closer attention to the road and to quit fiddling with my onboard electronic distractions. We camped at the Upper Lillooet Rec Site near the previous, Meager Springs Hot Springs turn-off, which was obliterated due a slide on August 6, 2010.The first picture shows the previous road and bridge alighment through the trees.

In 2010 there was an enormous landslide from the melting Capricorn Glacier, which was reported to transport over 40 million cubic-metres of sand, rock and debris into a 300-metre-wide, two-kilometer long wall down Capricorn Creek and into the Lillooet Valley below. By the look of it moved up the adjacent drainage then flowed downstream into the Lillooet River. The Meager Creek FSR and road access to the Meager Creek Hotsprings is gone. More info:The Tyee – Stunning Photos of Massive Meager Slide

At the abandoned Upper Lillooet Rec Site we picked out our site and continued up the Upper Lillooet FSR to continue our explorations of the area. We drove past the Garibaldi Pumice mine to see the waterfalls of tributaries of the Lillooet River and river itself as it flows through a narrow rock canyon. After finding a few I was met with road closures and since it was getting late I headed back to camp, to meet Bill who had left a little earlier to set up his camp. We set up out canopies, ate dinner and listened to the rain during most of the night and the roar of the Lillooet River.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Day 5 Friday- Capricorn Side

More of the Upper Lillooet Valley --mountains and several of the canyons and falls. The middle shot is downstream and bottom shot upstream.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Day 5 Friday- Capricorn Side

More shots - volcanic evidence - pumice everywhere, tributary water falls

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Day 6 Saturday- Moose Encounter

We packed early in the morning and headed south on the Upper Lillooet River FSR. Along the way I had a dramatic Moose encounter - this was scarry. I was boogying down the Upper Lillooet River FSR doing about 50 ,with Bill close behind, when a Moose with a huge rack jumped out on the road, not 5 feet from my left front fender. The huge animal stumbled momentarily, regained his balance looked at me and ran down the road at full tilt. I hit the brakes, ass end coming around and when it was apparent we were not going to collide – I coasted while I watched this huge critter run for his life. Had I hit that animal, I would have probably broken his legs and badly damaged my truck. We were grateful that did not happen, because that would have spoiled an otherwise perfect September wheelin' trip.

After recovering from that incident (see picture of my cat who was with me) we proceeded down to Pemberton to air up and onto Squamish for lunch at Boston Pizza. After that I caught the Horseshoe Bay Ferry for Nanaimo and Bill went back to Vancouver.

Overall another great cruiser trip to be remembered.

 

[Granite Grinder]

Nice write up Glenn, great distraction from an otherwise boring day staring at my computer

 

[AJAEbj42]

Thanks Glenn!

 

[bj70_guy]

Well that sounded like fun!

How about a shot of the new rack? Whatcha planning on putting up there, or is it just a very elaborate tarp holder?

 

[Cruisin']

I thought that was you guys. I saw 2 nicely appointed BJ74s between Squamish and Whistler on Saturday morning as I was on my way up to Whistler for some DH mountain biking. Sounds like you had a great time. I love fall wheeling trips!

 

[hybric4x4diesel]

i wish that i can tag along next time, glen, thanks for the nice write up.

 

[wrongway around]

yes nice work gentlemen love that loop and from the island .im quite surprised you saw a moose with all the hunters up there.was that just around the pumis landing area,as if he were coming from the back of gun lake heading to meager .point of interest too is. meager creek hotsprings is untouched and preserved for the hearty, i would not enter during rainy weather though.looks like a great cat also.

 

[LanceCruiser]

Nice trip and write up. Thanks.

 

[Glenn-BJ74]

Well that sounded like fun!

How about a shot of the new rack? Whatcha planning on putting up there, or is it just a very elaborate tarp holder?

Maybe a small kayak, chain saw on long trips, and other bulky light stuff. I intend to put in the bush cables from the rack to my moose bar (bull bar in Oz) and maybe a rear area light for camp setup.

I will post a write in the tech section.

 

[kim]

I thought they were Roo bars in Oz.