Trail miles (day 0/1)

We started our day with a steep climb out of our Goldstream campground for a quick wake up of our climbing legs. Today was spent on trails, all 47 hard packed, champagne gravel trail miles. I could have done without some of the 18%+ grade climbs through the Spoke Wilderness area. Lots of moss covered trees and ferns everywhere we looked. We moderated our speed down steep switch backs and the punchy rollers kept coming but once we reached the Cowichan valley trail we were on a railroad grade all the way to Cowichan Lake. We stopped to chat with day riders and saw several bikepackers. This was a wonderful connector with the Mill Bay ferry back to Victoria. Fun to hear about different routes around Lake Shawnigan.

We stopped to take photos of Trusses named after their mile markers dating back to 1914 and looked down to the river far below us for nice swimming and fishing holes.

I was a bit confused when a rider coming towards us advised us to slow down because there were goats ahead. We were puzzled only for a moment until we saw three goats on a walk with their two humans.

After a dusty climb out of town, Pete and Nicole greeted us in a sprawling Lakeview campground full of humans, kids on bikes, campers, trailers and golf carts driving on narrow paths connecting some of the upper sites. Showers were almost hot but the burger in town was delicious. We secured provisions for a long day in the saddle tomorrow and spent a good portion of our evening talking about our bikes and comparing bag setups but with a bit of rain coming down we were in our tents by 9.

47 miles

3 goats

5 friends reunite