Cowichan 8

Over June 13-15 I rode the Cowichan 8 bikepacking route. It's the first bike camping trip I've done on my own, and in fact the first camping of any sort I've done on my own.

Andrea heroically dropped me at Tsawwassen for the 1pm ferry, and I got started on the Lochside Trail at about 3pm, headed for Goldstream park. I brought a bread pudding from Bench, one of the densest foods known to science. Although Lochside is flat, there was quite a savage headwind most of the way, which made it much harder than expected. I stopped at Harvest Rd after an hour or so for a veggie burger and fries. Harvest is infested with Brewer's Blackbirds, which is weird as you never see these birds in Vancouver.

On along Lochside, then the Galloping Goose at the switch bridge. They're both pretty mundane trails, and I eventually got into Goldstream at about 7pm. It felt harder than I had expected and I was worried about the next day, which was much longer and I knew would start off with the hardest climbing of the whole route.

I rode around trying to find my campsite, which was walk-in site 144. Eventually I found it, and couldn't believe how horrible it was. It was right on the road, and tiny, and right next to all the other walk-in sites - 140, 141, etc. And the surface was sharp gravel. I was about to start putting my tent up when I realised it was the parking for the walk-ins, and the actual site was a reasonably lovely site along a trail from there.

Next day was the heart of the route, the longest, most difficult, but most interesting day. About 90k, 1100m climbing. Also, I knew there was no water for the first 40k and no food for the first 50k. I still had half the bread pudding, now a little squished, and three Hornby bars. And two litres of water.

I got started at about 9am. After a climb out of the campground on Humpback Road, there's a gentle couple of kilometres, then after the suspension bridge it really starts going up.

The steepest bit is the first bit, and I was fully prepared to push for about 300 metres, which I did. After that things are a lot more reasonable, and I climbed through the forest. At first I yelled out "hey bear", then started talking to them, then eventually singing Christmas carols at them. It seemed to work as no bears came near me. At about 10:30 a cyclist passed me while I was taking pictures of columbines. He was the only person I saw for about 3 hours.

The top was lovely, with more open country, Scotch broom in flower, and windy trails.

At the end of the Sooke Hills Wilderness trail, probably only about 13k in but 2 hours after starting, I finished the squished bread pudding and continued on the Malahat Connector, which is about 8k long, features lots of delightful downhill, and connects to the Cowichan Valley Trail, from which we're on rail trails the whole way.

After about 4 hours, I made it to the Kinsol Trestle.

A little less than an hour grinding along the rail trail and I was at the Glenora Store and Cafe, for pizza and coffee.

Next stop, Lake Cowichan. The trail follows the south side of Cowichan River and is very beautiful, lush mossy rainforest with the sunshine filtering through.

We cross the Cowichan River, and back again on the 70.2 mile trestle:

And into Lake Cowichan for a miraculously reviving milkshake at J&V's diner:

Then back along the north side of the river, and I arrived at the Stoltz Pool campground just before 7. The camp operator was as lovely as advertised, and the walk-in sites are beautiful, so I spent a peaceful evening watching nighthawks swirling over the trees that line the river.

Day 3 was for heading home. On the way out I was talking to an old guy cruising aroung the campground on a mobility scooter. He asked where I was going that day, and I told him Swartz Bay, and that if I was lucky my wife would pick me up at Tsawwassen. "Well", he said, "it's the least she could do".

I avoided climbing back up to the trail by riding the road into Duncan. Was going to go to a cafe for lunch but it turned out the farmer's market was on that day and it is huge. I bought strawberries, and a falafel burger from a food truck called Digable Roots.

Only three strawberries bounced out of the basket. I then rode back to the Kinsol Trestle where I ate the burger, and it was AMAZING.

Boring ferry chat. There are two ferries you have to catch: the big one from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen, and before that, the little one from Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay. There were Swartz Bay ferries at 4pm, 5pm, and 7pm. I really didn't want to be on the 7pm ferry. There were Mill Bay ferries at 1:50 and 3pm. If I caught the 3pm, it would probably (maybe?) get me onto the 5pm ferry. But if it was late or I was too slow, it meant I'd have to wait 2 hours for the next one at 7. So I decided I'd really like to get the previous one, at 1:50pm. And having spent too long at the farmer's, I had to hammer it (by my very slow standards), which I then did.

This was a shame as it meant I couldn't get coffee at Shawnigan House, or baked treats next door at Oma's bakery, or more coffee at Bru-Go's at the Mill Bay shopping centre. And most of the riding was on roads. I made it to the 1:50 ferry with time to spare, and a guy with an ebike twisted the knife by telling me he'd just come over from Brentwood to get coffee at Bru-Go's and it was great.

Still, the ferry took longer than I expected, and I didn't have long to get to Swartz Bay for the 4pm ferry. So it was hammer time again, and I was just thinking I'd made up enough time to relax a bit, that I got lost in Sidney. In the end I made it to the ferry with 10 minutes or so to spare. Andrea and G were in Tsawwassen to meet me, and I was done.