September 6
65mi/105km
4300ft/1310m elevation gain
What a day! We woke up with no fog and no rain, and a dry tent. It feels like weeks since we’ve had a dry morning. Back on the forest service roads, there was essentially no traffic. I think we only saw one car on the dirt roads today. The trees are so tall that although it is sunny out, we are often in the shade, except when we go through clear cut areas. Still, it was a warm day.
We realized we were slightly light on food so we went slightly off course to hit the village of Woss, which has a cafe and gas station. We had to ride a short bit on the highway which was quite unpleasant with no shoulder. Sadly, the cafe was closed because it is Sunday. We met two cyclists there doing the “Tree to Sea” bikepacking route from bikepacking.com. We’ve followed some parts of that route today ourselves. We also met a hiker doing the Vancouver Trail, which I’m not familiar with, but still sounds cool. We grabbed some snacks and drinks at the gas station and took a break at their picnic table.
After lunch was climb after climb. We stayed on the dirt roads which zig and zag across the highway. The climbs were steep, with frequent sections of 9-12% grades. The worst one was 15-17% and chunky. We had to push on that one. Surprisingly, we didn’t see a bear today, or much of anything new in terms of wildlife. Saw a Ruffed Grouse and a Northern Flicker, which aren’t new on this trip, but new for this area. Tons of slugs around.
