The plan was to leave a car at H Bay, ride trails and gravel down the sunshine coast to Powell River, hop on the ferry to Comox, ride back roads to Port Alberni and later, Lake Cowichan of course camping along the way. After Lake Cowichan was where the unknown started, there is evidence of a road over a higher pass that connects you to the Nanaimo Lakes watershed, if this pass 'went' the trip would be in the bag. After the pass its simple rolling down towards Nanaimo, to the ferry, some beers and of course, our awaiting car at H Bay.
My companions on this trip were Pat Valade and Dave Kallai, both very competent bikepackers and awesome guys. Our goal was two fold: Stay on gravel and dirt for as much as possible and to swim in every lake in easy distance from our route. Just great.
Packed for the car ride to H Bay from Squamish.
Dave and Pat at our first stop, at the 'SUPER MAP'
The entire trip was highlighted by some great coffee stops, especially on the first half and of course, lots of swimming. . Here Pat makes his way into one of our favourites in Sechelt.
This Cinnamon bun was a real treat, crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside, like me.
The trails and gravel on the sunshine coast were superb. We did a mix of the Sunshine Coast lower trail, the Sun Coaster trail and some excellent gravel roads, it all went according to plan.
The salmon berries were out in force!
A few small hike a bike hills but not too many.
The gravel was great.
Really great.
Like, really really great.
We had a section that was an 'unknown' on this route, getting from the higer trail back down to a mainline logging route, this 'connector' worked but was maybe the only ugly section of the S Coast section, only ugly if you don't like a bit of mud and swamp, I happen to like mud and swamp so it was fine.
Lots of heavy machinery just laying around everywhere. My favourites are these giant feller bunchers.
Gas station pit stop.
We arrived in Powell River after a night at Saltery Bay campground. It rained some during the first day and we were keen to dry out and recharge for the rest of the trip. The AM brought sunny patches and a nice little pavement section to get us into town. Things were going well.
They continued to improve upon finding what I think is the best commercially available breakfast sandwich in the known universe at 'Base Camp' coffee, if you find a better one please tell me as I need to visit it.
Due to a miss-reading of the ferry schedule, we had about 4 hours to kill in Powell River. This was a mixed blessing, our day will now go into the night in terms of riding to get us where we needed to go but there was a plus side: more coffee!
The evening beverage of choice for this trip was 'Alberta Premium' and juice crystals, I call this 'mountaineers lemonade' and it goes down real easy after a day on the ol open groad.
Eventually we caught the ferry and made it to the Island and around Lake Comox.
This section has a lot of ups and downs but it's not too bad at all and the views are just great.
Some really nice gravel after Comox Lake towards Port Alberni and some of the more 'remote' feeling sections.
We stopped for dinner at a great little spot on the river and had a good chill and water fill up. We all brought boil in bag food and shared one titanium jetboil stove. From here we would keep riding to make up for our lost time.
We rode into the evening and reached Sproat Lake around 9pm, this was a really great day. To our joy, there was a shower house at the campground and we all enjoyed a hot shower, a rare luxury on the open groad but one we were certainly happy to indulge in.
The next AM we cruised the 7km into Port Alberni and loaded up on trail snacks at the gas station, this will be our last chance for the rest of the trip so we loaded heavy and rolled into Timmy Ho's for a second breakfast. Bike packing and Timmy Ho's goes together like bikes and the open groad.
I love these welcome totems in Port Alberni
Off to Cow Lake!
Pat sometimes unclips and shakes his legs out while riding, it looks pretty cool.
I was hotter then spring break 89' so rode this entire day sans shirt, it was hot and clear and just a joy to be out in the mountains in fine weather with a couple of great guys.
The section from Port Alberni is fast and beautiful but filled with the gnarliest drivers, they really speed past you in top gear not slowing down at all. It would be dangerous if you didn't hear them coming for so long.
Halfway along we spotted a couple of lakes on the map, to our surprise they were perfect, cold and clear. Within 2 min I was in there bobbing around and just having the best time. Nothing better than a swim on a hot day on the open groad.
After the lakes there is this very random section of pavement, it was a nice change from the rough gravel that characterized the morning effort.
When we got to Cowichan Lake we were hit with a real party vibe, the campgrounds are filled with partiers and families, speed boats and floaties shaped like unicorns, we couldn't help but catch a little of the mahalo spirit.
After checking in with the camp host, I slyly asked if she had a side hustle selling beer to bikepackers fresh off the open groad? She responded 'well I don't have beer but I could sell you some of these ciders, they are my favourite!'. We bought a six pack from Karen and were on our way to our beachside campsite. Dave made a fire and soon enough we were blissfully enjoying the scene and fitting right in. That was just great. Later in the evening, Karen sent someone to ask if we needed more 'beer' - how nice is that? Thanks for the great hospitality and evening. We needed to be up early so were in bed around 10.
Pat filling water from Lale Cow.
Early AM on the E side of Lake Cow, the light here was very special.
We made our way up Shaw Creek, this was the 'unknown' section. I had some intel that it went on ATV's and just the night before, Vancouver Island bikepacker, Vik Banerjee (VikApproved) sent me an email saying he had done the section days before - it went and was great!
This was maybe my favourite part, long easy roads in the early AM light. Later there was a bit of hike a bike and pushing but mainly easy travel.
Broken spoke in the middle of nowhere, this is fine.
After the pass it was easy cruising down to Nanaimo Lakes, this section was fast and efficient and included a lot of pavement. In no time we were in Nanaimo cruising around for a place that sold cold beer. To our incredible fortune, we discovered Patty's Palapas at the Wharf downtown, we mowed down some tacos and nachos and washed it all down with some cold beers. What a great finish to a great trip.
Thanks to Dave and Pat for the great outing, their good nature and for a very memorable few days on the open groad.
