After 3 hours of driving across all types of landscapes we arrived at Spences Bridge. A small village of around one hundred people lost in the wilderness, 30km from Lytton, the nearest ‘city’. We stayed at Baits Motel on the banks of the Thompson River, a lodging that thankfully offered a bar/restaurant, which would eventually become our only food source for 3 days.
We were obviously not there by chance and although less popular than the William's lake spots, there are many freeride faces in this gravel landscape. After a day of scouting and laying-out the lines, we finally begun to ride and shoot in this rather atypical and hostile land with its unforgiving heat, drought and rattlesnakes… This was a first for William who had never ridden this type of terrain before. Unlike the majority of trails and bike park tracks it was impossible to shuttle Quinn and William once they got to the bottom. So, it was up to them to carry their bikes back up for each descent, leaving less room on each descent for error from both sides of the lens. Another factor that couldn’t be overlooked was our distance from any medical facilities, as the nearest hospital was 45km away. This factor obviously always adds extra pressure when it comes to taking risks. At the end of the day after having ridden two different spots the fatigue set in, especially after 2 weeks of shooting and ten days of Crankworx for William!
|