Returned to Vedder Mountain today to complete the ride I started last week (but called due too time constraints) along paved roads, gravel and eventually singletrack technical mtb trails back to pavement.
8:30am saw me leave home and ride up and over a col on Sumas Mt. before descending to the Sumas Prairie below.
A stop in the small town of Yarrow for coffee and then up the Columbia Valley towards Cultus Lake. Turned off at Parameter road and began the long ascent up the east side of Vedder Mt. on a forestry service road.
This is a popular MTB area and the forestry road acts as access for the technical trails. Mixed Gravel and dirt for a slog straight up but then, at long last, the road levels off with a view of the Columbia Valley below. This is where most traffic stops except the occasional dirt bike as the road eventually turns the corner at it's southern end and then begins to return north high above the Sumas Prairie.
This shot shows the Sumas Prairie below and Sumas Mountain beyond. I started the day on the other side of it.
All the grinding pays off with km's worth of downhill cruising along a gradually narrowing road.
The road goes on for km's and gradually narrows from double to single lane.
Beautiful scenery far from the crowd and a coyote crosses my path as I stop to take a pic by a small waterfall.
On my frame bag you can see my bear spray which I will feel happy to have in just a few minutes.
A few minutes later I see a fair sized black bear slowly walking up the road towards me. He's about 100yards away and I stop to try to snap a pic but I only have my phone so it's not much.
After snapping a pic I decide I should let the bear know I am there so I call out "Hey" in a loud manlike bark.
It works!
He looks behind him and starts to lope directly towards me. Wrong way bear. I try to snap a couple of more pics and then reach for the bear spray while calling Hey! HEY! Crappy photo below but one can see him getting closer by looking at the bush on the road to his left.
Dramatic moment over, he finally looks at me and bolts straight uphill (note to self: never try to outrun a bear uphill).
Now I face an awkward decision. Return for km's back up the road the way I came or travel through. With spray in one hand I pass by the bear who is about 50 feet off the road up slope in the trees looking down at me. I think I should snap a pic but then think.. nah... It may realize I am really two big drumsticks and a side of ribs on a pedal bike.
The road ends more or less and I turn off onto the Duck Farm Loop trail which turns at times into technical DH singletrack. I didn't snap a pic as I was desperately trying not to die during those moments.
At last I hit the pavement and returned the way I came back across the prairie to a well deserved Starbucks coffee. Approx. 70 km's with 6 hours of riding.
