Jim and Theresa crossing the first bridge.

It started off fairly cool, but it didn't take long
before we stopped to peel some layers.

Ian and Leanne on the early stages
of the 13 km climb. Ug.

Roy, Leanne & Hussein cruising up the hill.

It didn't take long before we were looking down on the Panorama ski area,
but we still had quite a few km's to go.

Ian and Jim checking out the view while waiting for the crew to regroup.   It did rain for a while at this point but soon quit.

There were lots of water falls along the way.

Theresa making her way around the creek.

Hussein, Leanne and Mike weren't really walking. They had just stopped to check the view! Yeah, that's it.

Mike and Theresa.
Climbing and more climbing.

Not only was the temperature dropping with the elevation, we were soon encountering more and more snow. It wasn't far beyond this point that the snow became too deep and we abandoned the trip. We still had the afternoon for another ride.

Ian & Jim

Theresa & Carol

The decision was made to head back down and here Roy is navigating his way through the snow.

Here the group is quickly having some lunch. It was a bit cold to sit around for too long and some of the group had already headed for the bottom.

It was a chilly descent down until we reached lower elevation. Here are some of the riders crossing a creek.

Hussein.

Theresa and her BIG pancake sandwich courtesy of Roberta.

It was a confusing start to the day. It was looking like we had one group going to Panorama, one to Thunderbird Mine and one to Baptiste Lake. But by nature, baaaaa, we all ended up going to Baptiste lake.

Here's everybody in some stage of readiness outside the hostel. Good: a cool grey sky.

Armed with maps and guide book descriptions we headed off for the trail head. This was an exploratory trip and there were a few moments of confusion as you'll see.

Here Mike is leading the gang up an old trail. It all started well...

...until we came to the first split in the trail.
Too many Chiefs and not enough Indians.

There was a little route finding to be done as well as some bush-wacking.

Some where along the way part of the group felt they had found a better route but the rest of us stuck to the herd mentality. We still managed to take a few wrong turns, well you can hardly call them wrong when you have no idea where you're going in the first place. We managed to have fun anyways.

Here the gang is regrouping by a corral. Going along with our herding instinct we seemed to be on the right track.

We eventually made it to the lake where we enjoyed our lunch with some excellent views. Probably the highlight of the trip for most I'd say. We had lost three more people on the other side of the lake, but somehow they managed to find us! Apparently the four that had split off had reached the lake before us and had already headed home.

Here are Esther and Roberta on the home stretch

Here we are at the trail head of Toby Creek Canyon.

Roy is already enjoying the ride.

It was a day of flats and repairs. Bob starts it off with a flat tire and Kim had two more. Brian claims he has a tube with eight patches on it. What a hero.

While we were waiting for flats to be repaired we had the opportunity to take some pictures. The trail was so fast and fun that there was no time for action shots. There were a few tricky sections over the rocks and a few places where the trail was very narrow and the consequences very real.

Can't beat the views on this trail.

Here Roy is riding a narrow section of trail. There are a few places where there is very little between you and the valley bottom.

MOVIE: Lida, Kevin and Roberta riding the narrow trail up towards the trestle.

Roberta climbing the ladder up to where.

Kim is standing.

The yellow arrow is showing the old road leading up to where the trestle crossed the river. The road carries on through the trees on the other side.

Kim, Roberta, Bob, Bryan
Kevin, Roy, Lida, Steve, Andy

Andy and Kim riding the berm.

It doesn't look that difficult until you see what's on the other side. Or better said, what's not there.

Looking down Toby Creek.

The final repair was Andy's rear derailleur. A screw had come undone and he lost his rear guide wheel. Five of us spent quite some time scouring the trail up and down only to have Andy find it right in the middle of the trail and not far from his bike. It could have been a long walk out.

Hey, how come he got the big piece?

Of course some people got wetter than others. While Steve was riding through the ONLY big puddle on the road, he stalled in the middle, clipped out on one side but fell to the other side. The puddle was big enough to soak Steve almost from head to toe.

REALLY sorry there is no picture of that performance.

Then Roberta got a sunglass bite when she lodged her face on the ground. A stick jammed in her spokes, stopped her bike dead, but she kept going. The bruising is just coming out nicely to add to the swollen nose and crossed eyes.

Not to be outdone, Theresa performed an over the handlebar dismount while smoking down a steep slope with a root on it. She got a knee bite to add to her collection of bruises on her knees.

Kim. Well Kim was just being Kim. Those beautiful legs...
It bites hey Kim?