They call this wild camping?
My day 6 - official day 4
Walbran Valley to Flora Lake
July 14
42 miles, 2852 ft
Today we expected over 5000 ft of climbing so wanted to get an early start especially since the first 8 miles were the reverse of the wonderful downhill yesterday. Nicole cleared the spider webs for us and the uphill really wasn’t as bad as we expected even given the lose baby years. We managed to turn on our new route in about one hour and fifteen minutes. As we’re getting ready to exit from behind the Mosaic yellow metal gate we noticed that the truck parked on the other side was running. At first we were reluctant to stop but the security guy was super friendly and offered us candy. Due to anti logging protests the gates is manned 24/7. He was well setup with Starlink and showed the map that they are responsible for.
Miles went by faster than expected and nice to be on a logging road as opposed to the super chunky overgrown double track
Only one logging truck, going to get his load of trees, passed us but the truck ahead of him warned us and we waited off on the side of the road.
28 miles into the day, we reached Nitinat Lake. There was garbage piled all over town and the houses had large brown bear proof garbage cans. We stopped at their general store and took a leisurely lunch. Temps reached 80 degrees and it felt hot so it was nice to hide out from the sun and eat an apple and drink a cold coke.
I was able to get cell service and had a quick chat with Justin. We caught up on each others day to day.
The main and only road out of town looped us around the north end of the lake which is ocean fed and a major surfing Mecca. There must have been about 50 kite and wind surfers but pretty far from us.
As I said the only road means that there was actual traffic. Although maybe only about 10 cars went by in the 10 miles before our turn off to Flora Lane, ech one created a major dust storm. The road was freshly graded but still bumpy, can’t imagine what it looked like before. The miles were monatoneous and with the heat, slight uphill, we’d just about had it. More climbing and climbing and no hiding from the sun. The Flora Lake Recreation Site brought us much joy! Gorgeous lake and 5 incredible sites to choose from. We expected fellow bikepackers there but they left much after us.
I pulled out my wet tent to dry and then quickly changed and jumped in the water. We had a perfect access beach. I took a brief swim and rinsed off while the rest of my group setup their tents. They went in shortly after and we hung out on the beach, filtered water and chatted.
Mosquitoes swarmed us while we sat around the picnic table cooking dinners. I had another one of my mom’s home made delightful freeze dried meals. Georgia cooked freeze dried crème brûlée which was surprisingly delicious. We took and evening walk, chatted with fellow bikepackers, cleaned chains and then hid out from the mosquitoes in our tents. The tents are a little more dispersed tonight but as I type this on my little phone keyboard, it’s 8:30 pm and I can hear snoring coming from two tents.
The total feet climbed was much less than advertised.
1 swim in the lake
3 food bags hung in the trees away from bears
7 bikepackers
1 guy travelling by motorcycle camping near us
1 Clean outhouse but no view (3 stars)
