This morning we caught B drawing on her wall:

Last night, we ran into one of the park staff who mentioned that there is a plank trail called Water Lew in the park!  I’ve always wanted to ride one, so we rode 3 miles and 800 feet of vertical from the campsite up an access road to reach the trailhead.  It was steep getting up there, so Trish and the kids did a good bit of walking the bikes up.  The plank trail was fantastic:

After riding the plank trail a couple times, we walked our bikes down a connecting path to another trail which had lots of great jumps and berms.  There are beautiful birch groves here:

About a half mile from the campground, Trish and B took the beginner route and M and I took the intermediate route.  M and I reached the campground in minutes, and rode back up the beginner route to meet B and Trish.  When we got back to the junction where we started, I realized Trish and B had not taken the trail, but rather had rode off down a service road.  I was pretty worried, as they had a considerable head start, and if they turned of the road, finding them would be impossible and they would be lost in the woods.  I asked M to ride back to the RV and wait there, and then I rode down the service road looking for them.  Every time I came to a turn-off, I had to look for a muddy spot, checking for their tracks to figure out which way they went.  After riding for several miles, I found them.

Worried about having left M back at the RV, I told Trish and B to make their way back on the service road, and I would ride back, get M and the truck, and drive back to meet them.  What happened next involved a bear, I’ll let Trish tell the story here.

It’s safe to say that by the time we got back, the truck was thoroughly broken in:

In the end, we rode or walked about 10 miles.  The first mile in the route below is a bike computer glitch, but the rest is correct:

Leaving the bike park at 6:30pm, we dumped tanks in Houston, BC, and drove on to overnight at the Safeway of Smithers, BC.  WiFi was great until a storm knocked out power to the Safeway and the surrounding buildings.  See the trip map for today’s drive.