Day 8: Chilliwack Lake to Hope via the TCT

I woke up early ready for the day. And took a early morning shot of the calm lake.

In the spirit of not backtracking I decided to use the route that my GPS planned which starts on a forest service road that was closed and to the TCT (Trans Canada Trail).

After about 5 mile I realized why it was closed there had been a rock slide. But, after some creative bouldering me and the LHT made it on the other side and it was smooth sailing for a time and the views were stunning.

Things started to turn there and instead of heeding the warning signs I continued on.

I then realized the error of my ways when I discovered that 1800ft wasn’t the elevation gain but in reality it was 3200ft of through hiking over a mountain and down the other side into Hope. which wouldn’t have been a problem but when your hiking and pushing a bike loaded with 70lbs of gear it gets quite exhausting.

This is about the time I wish I reconsidered my decision to go on as conditions deteriorated and I was trudging through 4ft of snow with the bike. Then I lost the trail in deep snow and started to wonder if I was going to make it out. It got pretty dangerous.

After a few miles trudging through this I finally made it through to warmer climates.

After a few down hill tumbles and one end over end flip surprisingly both me and my bike are in good order and all my packs survived. There were a couple of casualties: Broke my helmet, lost a water bottle as well as my bear spray. Luckily I didn’t run up on any bears but I sure saw lots of fresh scat!

I was so happy to see the forest road and the little town of Hope BC (fittingly named because I was hoping).

So after 31.5 miles and 11.5hrs of combined hiking/biking I got into Hope BC weak and werry, my achilles is killing me and besides the general ache I have a lot of new scraps and scratches. I have decided to hotel it and recover so I will be here tonight and tommorrow and off to Princeton on Tuesday.

The decision to continue was a stupid one and thankfully it didn’t end badly (either dead or broken). I will be scrutinizing any more of the TCT routes that might be in my way and definitely turning back if things get dicey.

Well that’s it for me time to recover. Until next time