Gold Bridge Loop - 24 & 25 Sept 2011

[mararmeisto]

Never been to Whistler up the Sea-to-Sky. Never driven the Duffy Lake Loop. So I'm going find out this weekend. Who wants to come?

Itinerary at this time:
- depart Van/North Van about 7h00 or 8h00 on Saturday (there might a Tomahawk breakfast first)
- meet up at Pemberton ~10h00 for departure into the Pemberton Meadows and beyond
- overnight camping at some carefully chosen abandoned campsite on a map Falco found in a second-hand store
- down the Fraser Canyon on Sunday

My dad's found a couple of geocaches along the route, so we'll be stopping for those. There's a couple of big lakes up in there, so swimming/fishing might be in order (a quick dip only because I don't imagine the water will be too warm any more). And whatever else we can get done driving along an unpaved road for 180 km.

[delicat]

I should be good to join you, it's such a nice country up that way. And with the cooler nights, camping with a small fire will be a perfect fit!

Are you planning on doing some offroad our mostly FSR?

Cheers,
Mr. D

[Slimdog]

Great country up there. To bad the hot springs road got washed out this year. Tons a places to stop and camp.

[claude]

great campsite at Gun Lake

[mararmeisto]

great campsite at Gun Lake

Wow! Somebody from Gold Bridge. Make sure you're out on your front porch and we'll wave as we go by.

Or come along for a bit of the drive. How is the road? Still dry?

[claude]

yes I live on Gun lake. it's wet out here, rain all day. The hurley is in bad shape, lots of washboards.
Bring so gas, there no gasoline or diesel here, the station closed up last long weekend until may
For more info check our site http://www.hurleydust.com

[FalcoColumbarius]

yes I live on Gun lake. it's wet out here, rain all day. The hurley is in bad shape, lots of washboards.
Bring so gas, there no gasoline or diesel here, the station closed up last long weekend until may
For more info check our site http://www.hurleydust.com

Good to know, do a little refuelling in Pemberton or Whistler. Really good pies in Goldbridge, ain't that right Delicat ~ at least the last time we were there.

Isn't there always washboard on the Hurley (when there's no snow)?

Falco.

[jessef]

more potholes than washboards after the rain. sis blew a tire on mon.

air down !

[sasquatch-hunter]

Went up Poison Mtn/China Head once. Beautiful country.

[delicat]

For those interested in briefly joining us we'll be having breakfast at the Tomahawk in North Van tomorrow Saturday 24th at 8am... 3 trucks so far coming for the drive. Feel free to join for the full loop!

Cheers,
Mr. D

[FalcoColumbarius]

Whoa! Like WOW!!

What a beautiful Drive. And we found two pots of gold as well. Not to mention all the other magic we encountered!

Falco.

[jessef]

It's an awesome drive.

Briefly saw you guys pass by in Whistler (visiting family) but wasn't out to wave.

[mararmeisto]

We're back to civilization - although we really weren't gone all that long.

Oh yah, none of us are quite sure what Google is driving, but Goldbridge to Lillooet is NOT a five-hour drive. Not unless they were driving an M1 Abrams tank.

Anyways, the route was:

• -Sea-to-Sky Hwy to Whistler;
  -Hwy 99 to Pemberton;
  -through the Pemberton Meadows to some road that went up;
  -up and back and around and then into Bralore;
  -past Gold Bridge to Gun Creek Campsite (BChydro sponsored - read, free);
  -along the north side of Carpenter Lake through the valley to Lillooet;
  -down the west side of the Fraser River to Lytton;
  -Hwy 1 back to Vancouver.

It was a good drive, but we probably could have taken another day in order to stop more and enjoy some of the sights. My dad only found one geocache, and then stuck both hands onto the ground and got a palm-full of catcus nettles! We saw one car that didn't make a switchback (my dad's got that picture so I have to wait until he sends it to me before I can post it). And David wanted me to go even faster until we got to the washboard section AFTER he'd re-inflated to 45 psi - then he was a little quieter.

I'm sure the Whipsaw is a bit more technical, but this was a good drive just the same. Next trip is going to be an Island trip - maybe the long way out to Tofino or something.

[claude]

Where did you guys camp ?

[delicat]

We camped at gun creek, pretty nice and free spot. When we left from there in the morning it was crazy the amount of fallen rocks on the road. Made for a curvy drive. A bit further down the reservoir the creek was filled with hundreds of salmons, neat to see.

It was a crazy road at time, especially between Lillouette and the cable ferry. Reminded me of when I was travelling on these mountain roads in Columbia and Ecuador...

Cheers,
Mr. D