'Chilliwack's Greatest Hits', of gravel roads

                                        

The route, 228km and 5410m. Big Day. 

When this whole Covid pandemic first hit we were told to take it easy and maybe not go mountain biking. You could crash and end up in the hospital taking up beds and health care. Well, I do crash a lot on my mountain bike, so maybe it was smart to spend some time on my curly bar bike. I have a Norco Threshold cyclocross bike and I've got some 38cc tires and a home made bar bag on it. The bar bag makes it a legit gravel bike.... Anyhow I started riding the gravel bike more and more and ended up doing a lot of exploring on the roads of my youth. Some of the logging roads I used in this route I haven't seen for 15-20 years and many of them have changed a lot. I was actually having a ton of fun checking out all the old roads. Then I got the idea that it would be cool to ride all the best logging roads in the Chilliwack river valley all in one day. So the 'Chilliwack's Greatest Hits' was born.

The first part of the ride had me go up some city gravel trails through the suburbs on the way to the base of Extrom gravel road and then up through a bunch of paved roads to access Chilliwack Bench FSR. After 18km on the Bench road it was up to Chilliwack Lake. Michael VanDenHam joined me at this point to give me company for a while. That was kind of nice to have some company, even if it was Michael... 

   

Ryder lake fields in the morning fog/smoke

Miguel Van Dam on the way up to Chilliwack lake. 

Chilliwack Lake FSR is a real beauty. You can take the gravel road/path to the very south end of the lake and its truly a huge lake stuck in the mountains. On the way back to the north end of the lake we climbed to the top of Paleface FSR. Its crazy nice gravel road with a very steep section in the middle. The high point on paleface is 1400m. 3/4ways up you could take the trans canada trail to Hope but not on this ride. The views at the top of paleface are rad.  

South end of Chilliwack Lake

Snack break at 1400m on paleface fsr

After Paleface fsr it was off to the campgrounds at Chilliwack lake to refill some bottles and ride the TCT over to the base of centre creek fsr. MVDH went home at this point and I was left to ponder the meaning of life all by myself. Centre Creek FSR is maybe the highlight of this entire route. Its 8km out and 8km back. It climbs 600m and the east side of Mt Rexford feels like its going to reach out and punch you in the gut. The mountain views are insane up there, Centre creek is worth doing just on its own, really special place up there!  

Me in a very dark place. 

Climbing at the top of Centre creek

    

extreme gravel riding

After Centre Creek it was about ticking off some little stuff. I did Middle Creek FSR and Slesse FSR. Both are really nice gravel roads but nothing special. Before I got into Middle fsr my bike sounded like it was going to explode, my chain needed some oil in a bad way. I was getting tired at this point and was like 160km in and my brain was functioning at a lower level than normal. I actually stopped at a random sketchy rogue campsite and asked them if they had any lube. I dont recommend doing this anywhere in Chilliwack. The guy gave me a block of coconut oil and it saved my day. 

                                             

End of the road. Slesse FSR

Onto the final parts of the ride. New Borden FSR is a savage climb. 5km out and 5 back. It gains around 600m. The smoke really started to roll in at this point and my legs really started to feel smoky as well. The day was getting later and after sweating buckets all day then going down and not moving I started to get really cold. I didn't bring a jacket with me cause it was 27c all day and I was hot the whole time. At the top of Borden Rob Bruni joined me for the final. Bruni is a super keener, he used to play semi pro hockey in his younger days and only discovered bikes a few years ago. If there was anyone I would want to finish this thing off with it would have to be Bruni, you could be in the worst state ever and Bruni would be yelping how great bikes are.   

Top of Borden, smoke rolling in. 

The last part of the ride was the most entertaining for sure, mainly cause I was half dead. I just had to do Tamihi FSR. This is an amazing road, 15km out and 15km back, 1100m of elevation, no crazy long sustained climbing but a couple of punchy ones that bite but wont kill you. At the bottom of the road I was a little chilly and was genuinely worried about coming down and freezing to death in the dark. Thats when in the middle of the road there was a hoodie type jacket thing, it was basically a miracle that I found it. So I stuffed it up my jersey and rode an hour to high point and put it on, warm fuzzy blue! On the way back down it was getting dark very quick. I was so pumped to have Bruni in the dark with all his yelping how fun this was as we crawled down by brail in the pitch black. We didn't have any lights with us, but I did have an Iphone and a bar bag. I turned the phone flashlight on and stuffed it into my bar bag and we rode the paved road home. So dumb, but we did make it. When I got home my wife wondered where I got the jacket from, she said I look like cookie monster.  What a great day!  

                                                 

Bruni and I at the start of Tamihi FSR

                                        

Close to the end of Tamihi FSR

                                        

Cookie Monster...

The ride was so good! Its been almost 2 weeks and I still hate bikes. I'll ride again one day but a big day like this really beats a guy down. My bike worked great, no flats, no real issues of any kind. Cheers.   

The bike, Norco Threshold, Nobl tr28 wheels, DIY bar bag with bear spray.