Mountain Biking the Northern Rockies
Yukon Road Trip – Aug 21st – Sept 10th
On our way out from Toad River we stopped to drive through another river just to check out access. Gotta get some use out of the Toyotas. Stone Mountain Provincial Park is pretty much the Eastern edge of the Northern Rockies along the Alaska Highway, 140km west of Fort Nelson. There are 5 trails here, two are ridable – Flower Springs and Summit trail.
The next three days we drove back to Vancouver from Fort Nelson. We would have stopped at the Fort Nelson Museum but it was closed for the season. We then continued on to Prince George through Hudson Hope in the Peace River through the area that would be flooded by the Site C dam. Then finally continued back to Vancouver on the TransCanada after stopping at Williams Lake for a quick ride (would be sacrileage to not ride in the Puddle given how good their trails are).
River crossing, just for fun!
We ride here
Well signed at least.
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
Ride on Flower Springs Trail
We take the trail down to Summit Lake, a Thunderstorm then unleashed upon us.
Summit Lake trail isn’t rideable, even if it was dry!
Flooding near the end of the Lake.
We then ride up the trail to Summit Peak, you can’t ride once you get into the scree, but until then the trail is quite nice.
The views don’t suck.
Tricky part of the descent
Chillin’ at the lake, this is the campsite, it would be quite windy. It was closed for the season when we were there.
The Booming town of Fort Nelson
Fort Nelson Heritage Museum – some really cool stuff here.
Drive to Hudson’s Hope. Lots of signs about the Site C dam. This are would be particially flooded by the dam. Maps can be seen here.
WAC Bennett Dam, and the reservoir Williston Lake. Built in 1961, it is one of the highest Earthen Dams. This dam along with the Peace River Canyon dam just downstream produces 3,425,000 kW of electricity. The WAC Bennett dam is pretty much at the headwaters of the Peace River which travels through the Rocky Mountain Trench to the Mackenzie River system, and the Arctic Ocean.
The end of the Great Northern Route just before Prince George.
Prince George was our last stop before our drive back to Vancouver and the end of our trip.