For those unaware, Pemberton is a town about 30 minutes north of Whistler in the beautiful British Columbia. The Sea to Sky highway connects Vancouver, Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton in one of the most picturesque drives imaginable. But Whistler is as North as most people make it!

Coming from Kelowna (read more about that adventure here, Kelowna Vibes and Kettle Valley Rails, Week 3.5), we decided to avoid the heavily trafficked city of Vancouver and take the north route through towns such as Merritt, Cache Creek and Lillooet. This still is considered the Sea to Sky, with the highway ending just north of Cache Creek.

The highlight of this drive is cruising beside the gorge that is created by the Fraser river. It creates a windy and twisty route that highlights the impressive B.C. terrain. For everyone either in or heading to B.C., go and explore! There is more than just Whistler to see!

Arrival in Pemberton

We arrived in Pemberton late on Tuesday, May 24th and spent the next day exploring the town and doing the usual errands. This was our first longer stay at an Airbnb with a planned 33 nights in the town.

Pemberton held our interest due to its proximity to many attractions of the area. Not only was it near to Whistler, but it was a short drive to multiple alpine lakes, great hiking and awesome gravel routes.

Gravel Bikes Galore

Becca and I rolled out on the 26th to explore the Sea to Sky highway, along with the Sea to Sky trail. The Sea to Sky trail is a gravel walking and biking path that spans 180 km from Squamish to D’arcy. The trail is currently incomplete, with some sections of the trail utilizing the shoulder of the Sea to Sky highway. But work is constantly being done on the gravel path itself, with the goal for a complete trail in the coming years.

We travelled through One Mile Lake and out around Nairn Falls on the trail before hopping onto the highway and travelling south towards Whistler.

Talk about elevation and scenery out here! Just in the first couple kilometres of the ride, we rode past a lake, a waterfall, and had a view of multiple different mountains. There will definitely be more on these locations in later blog posts, as we took a few friends there during the stay in Pemberton.

After reaching the motocross park south on the Sea to Sky, we ventured back towards town and explored a portion of the Pemberton Meadows before hitting a couple green (aka, the easiest) mountain bike trails on our gravel bikes.

We kept the pace easier here, wanting to instead get an idea of the lay of the land and figure out some gravel routes to ride later on!

Rutherford FSR Exploring

Along the route, Becca and I rode past an FSR just south of Pemberton called Rutherford Forest Service Road. This road had a big sign out front that said ‘avalanche warnings,’ with chunky gravel running beside Rutherford Creek and out into the wilderness. I definitely did not see any red flags here!

After our first ride exploring the area, I ventured out on the bike from Pemberton to Rutherford the next day (May 27th). What I didn’t realize setting out was how difficult, and entertaining, of a ride this would turn out to be.

Rutherford Climb

Rutherford is just a massive climb. The whole way. Up, up, up. The road hosts a few dams and is used mainly for logging, making the road less than optimal – even when placed under the category of ‘gravel road’. And when I say chunky gravel, it was a mix of buried rocks sticking out of the ground, and loose but smaller chunks up top.

But that was not going to turn me around. The scenery was incredible, with Rutherford Creek winding beside the road, and Ipsoot, Rhodendron and Peterson Mountains creating 360 degree views around the FSR. Waterfalls and creeks tumbled down the side of these mountains to meet up with the creek below, and with the late snow melt, the water was in full force.

And to top it all off, I was alone! Purely alone, no cars, no other bikers, no tourists. Just myself to take in all these sights. Talk about breathtaking (both the views, and the climb).

Warning: Numbers and Ratios ahead. I ended up climbing 1200m over 30km, a ridiculous ratio of 40m of elevation per 1km of distance. For reference, a usual ride that’s seen as a lot of climbing around Ontario is anywhere from 10m to 20m of climbing per 1km. My aunt let me know her eyes glaze over when reading these parts about numbers, so I figured a viewer discretion warning is now appropriate.

I reached 1050m above sea level and ran into snow on the road, something I was not prepared for. Being the end of May, the snow should have already melted at this elevation. But it forced me to turn around and head back down the mountain.

Side note, Rutherford is known as a snowmobiler’s paradise. It runs right into the mountains, and you can see the tracks in the above picture running up the snow into more alpine lakes and more adventure. I was jealous I could go no further.

Rutherford Descent (Into Madness)

The descent was as eventful as the climb. With the ride being out and back, I was dealing with a fast downhill section all the way back into Pemberton – if I would’ve made it that far.

As I mentioned previously, the route was filled with chunky rocks. On the way up, the route is slow enough to avoid these rocks. On the downhill, it’s the opposite. Flying down the gravel route, I hit a larger rock sticking out of the ground and popped my front tire!

All of a sudden, the isolation of the ride came crashing down, and thoughts of bears and cougars filled my head. Along the route I had already passed multiple bear droppings on the road, but had gracefully ignored these signs as “I have my bike, I can travel fast and get away from a bear.” Well, my safety guard of my bike was now useless, and an unprotected feeling crept over me.

I changed my front bike tire over the next 5-10 minutes, hopped back on my bike, and rode 3 seconds before realizing that NOT ONLY my front tire had popped, but my back tire also popped at the same time.

I ride with a spare tire, but not two, so I opted to call Becca, sending her my location and asking her to roll out with the Subaru to save me.

So, does Pemberton have Bears?

I was about 8km away from the Sea to Sky highway, so I decided to start walking towards it, talking to myself out-loud to avoid the creeping thoughts of bears in the woods surrounding me. Well, what seemed like a self-fulfilling prophecy at this point, after about 1km of walking I found a black bear on the road.

Luckily I saw it from afar and was able to keep my distance, but I was not able to continue my walk towards the highway. I travelled back up the road the way I had come and resided myself to sit and wait for Becca, trying to keep an eye out for anything else coming up the road.

Thankfully, Becca was the next thing to come up the road. I quickly loaded the bike and we skedaddled from the area! The bear had relocated, phew.

Between the climbing, the scenery, and the wildlife, this ride will remain a vivid memory of my time spent in Pemberton. And it was only the third day in the town. I was hooked.

Cheakamus Lake Hike

The next day, Becca and I ventured to Cheakamus Lake. Cheakamus Lake resides just south of Whistler. This lake sits around 850m of elevation above sea level, but thankfully it was not frozen unlike other alpine lakes we have visited. I was actually able to dip my feet in, and it was rather refreshing after the long walk!

The hike itself was about 16.6km, and we completed it in 3.5 hours. Overall, the hike was pretty flat but very rewarding for the views. Surrounding the lake include views of Cheakamus Mountain, Overlord Mountain, and Castle Towers Mountain, all quite impressive as a backdrop to another stunningly blue lake.

And to fit the theme of this blog post, we crossed paths with another black bear towards the end of the hike. This time we were more prepared with bear spray, and we gathered up a group of 7 people before crossing the bear’s path.

The bear seemed to be just curious, staring at us from a pond in which he was eating dandelions from. It looked cute, but the pond was maybe 5 metres away from the trail. Slightly too close for comfort, so as a group we made our way by and departed the trail.

It was a slightly longer hike, but I’d recommend this hike for any tourists to Whistler who don’t want to deal with any mountain climbing or more intense hiking.

That’s just the start of our stay in Pemberton, and there is so much more to come. Next week I’ll get to a few more hikes and one of the scarier bike rides I’ve ever completed in the Meager Valley region of BC. More on that later!

Thanks for tuning in!

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Jeremy Smith