Our seemingly endless rainstorms broke yesterday, and we now get at least 3 days of sunny weather, so of course I couldn't resist the urge to get out today. None of the usual group were available, so it was a solo trip, but I filed my route plan with them for safety.
I chose to go a bit further afield today, to an area I last visited with my daughter and a 4x4 buddy a year ago. On that trip, we ended 30 km off pavement at a locked gate, but I had studied Gaia, and located a possible alternate route that appeared to go much further, that looked like it might cross a pass in the N/S mountain range and drop into another valley to the east, and a different route home, without back tracking. Those kinds of routes are rare around here, as most logging roads go to the headwaters of a watershed, and end there.
I got a late start, leaving home at noon, and headed east up the Fraser Valley, then north up the Fraser Canyon. The sky was bright and clear, but there was a brisk wind blowing fall leaves and dust devils through the valley, but once in the canyon, it dropped to a mild breeze. I found my turn off about 2 hours from home, and climbed steeply eastward up the Uztlius Creek valley, going from a few hundred feet ASL at the highway, to about 5000 ft at the pass, 30 km in. Along the way, I encountered just one ATV and 2 4x4s, so I had the road pretty much to myself. At the 4000 ft level, 30 km in, I hit the snow line, and for the next 30 km over the pass and down the east slope to the Coquihalla Hwy I was in snow that got as deep as 6" in places. There were a few deer and coyote tracks, but not nearly as many as I had expected to see. No big game was seen, but I did bag the only grouse I saw. The route I found on Gaia proved out, but did give me pause when I was in sight of the Coquihalla, when I came to a washed out bridge on the narrow trail. It was now late dusk, and I certainly didn't want to go back 60km in the dark. I stopped on the slope down to the creek, with my headlights shining into the water, and determined that the slopes of the banks were not too steep, and the water was only about 18" deep, so I made the crossing, and was at the highway in 10 minutes, and headed home on the fast 4 lane route. The day out was great, even though no big game or squatches were seen.