Canada's insider blog

You’ve heard of fly-in skiing, even fly-in hiking. But fly-in mountain biking? At Tyax Wilderness Resort, it’s exactly what you think – but better.

“I can’t tell you how many times people have stepped out of the plane, unloaded the bikes, smelled the flowers, it’s still early, the lake is like glass and they say, ‘You know, this would be an awesome day if it ended right now. But I’ve got 40 km of single-track riding ahead of me.”

That’s Dale Douglas, who created these tours. They start at Tyax Wilderness Resort, an hour’s drive from Whistler, BC. They wind down through the South Chilcotin Mountains – pine-forest and red-rock mountains hemmed by glaciers. It is Grade-A British Columbia backcountry.

Douglas is a BC boy who great up in North Vancouver. He’s a former professional mountain biker and a pilot. “I guess I combined my two loves,” he says, to create what may be the only fly-in mountain biking operation in the world.

But not everyone wants white-knuckle riding. That’s why Douglas and colleagues at Tyax created the “Sky Camp” – a multi-day alpine safari at even more remote Crystal Lake. Canoe. Swim. Take a sauna. Then retire to walled tents to sleep beneath down duvets in hand-hewn log beds. That’s when you wonder: How long would it take for the boss, neighbours and mailman to miss you if you never returned home?

The Tyax Wilderness Lodge opened May 14. Mountain bike tours and Sky Camp run from June 1 to Sept. 30. Bike rentals are available at the resort on Tyaughton Lake, near Gold Bridge. From Vancouver, it’s about a four-hour drive. Best time to go: when the wildflowers are in bloom, usually in August.