Training Log Archive: Carbons Offset

Day 5
Mostly retracing what we rode on the first half of Day 1. Everyone was getting a little sad to be done. It was a great trip. I thought the route might just be railbed and be a little boring but it had good variety.
Had lunch on the trail just 7 km from the car, enjoying still being in the woods.

Stopped at the Rambo bridge on the way out of town for photos. Saw some locals and asked them about the Othello tunnels. They said it was passable. Gave it a try and are glad we did. Beautiful, and nice to change up the route back to make it feel more like a loop. The first and last tunnels had chain link gates that were locked. We hoisted the bikes up and over the 6 foot high fences and enjoyed having the place to ourselves. So pretty, so fun and it felt adventurous. The closed gates only made the adventure seem more cool ;). There was no rockfall hazard or blockages; maybe they wanted them closed for Covid. After lifting one bike over the last gate, we realized it was only dummy locked so we were able to roll the rest of the bikes through the gate.
Continued up to a great camp spot we noted on day 1, complete with a little waterfall for showering up. Stopped early when we got here and enjoyed the shorter day. However, when you stop early there is nothing to do but think about eating. We knew we would finish tomorrow early afternoon so we went through all the extra food until we were stuffed.

Day 3
Chilliwack Lake to Hope
Down to the little village near Cultus Lake where we hit a pub for burgers, fries and cokes. Then ice cream treats from the convenience store next door.
To Cultus Lake which was pretty and would be a cool place to chill out for a day on the beach. The TransCanada trail goes right along the beach. We should have searched for somewhere to camp by the lake for the night. Instead it meant riding through Chilliwack and then being surrounded by private property or native reservations (they had signs asking you to not enter due to Covid) so we had to keep pushing and it made for a long day. As we got closer to Hope we tried a couple FSRs but couldn’t find somewhere to camp. Continued to Hope and hit the trusty Subway. Yum. Then got spots at a campground for just $10 per person and the unlimited hot shower was worth all of that.

Day 2
Silver Creek to Chilliwack Lake
It rained a little last night and that helped clean the air a little. Smoke wasn’t very bothersome today or for the rest of the trip.
A steady climb up to the pass by Paleface Mountain and then it immediately turned into a fantastic loamy singletrack descent in a big beautiful forest. Tight switchbacks and some steepish descending, you’d be pushing your bike if you came the other way.
Passed through a nice campground in Chilliwack Lake Provincial Park where the facility operator let us fill up from the filtered water tap in her office.
Found a nice forested spot to camp with generous flat space for the two tents and a river that wasn’t too cold for washing up.

Day 1 of Coquihalla Pass bikepacking trip with Carbon, Big Fish and Little Fish.
Parked at Brodie Siding, one of the trailheads for the TransCanada trail. Camped there the night before. Tried the zero sleeping bag and was a little cool so decided to bring the new Zpacks -7C bag. Thermarest developed a quick leak. Slept on Carbon’s Z foam pad; nowhere near as nice. Packed the broken thermarest anyway, in hopes of maybe fixing it.
Didn’t fit the tent in the saddle pack on Day 1 but decided I would carry it in my backpack because it is so light (Zpacks Duplex).
A fun ride today with a mix of old railbed (KVR), gravel FSRs, Transmountain pipeline route, singletrack (sometimes we opted for the hiking route where the trail split) and 5 km of Coquihalla highway pavement. Cool to see some tunnel and bridge remnants from the KVR.
James got a flat just before the Othello tunnels due to a staple from the highway and discovered he had tubes in his wheels despite what he thought. Kept pinching the tube trying to remount his tire on the rim. Also almost couldn’t remove the axle he uses to attach to his Bob trailer. Went through a couple of tubes with pinches during mounting, then patched with the little clear stick-on patches and we were good.
Sadly the Othello tunnels were closed due to rockfall so we took back roads to Hope. Subway at Hope was delicious. Then continued a little further out of town to find somewhere to camp. Rode past a lot of properties that all said No Trespassing, then past a lot of shanty town camper set ups that people were living in.
Found a place to ourselves but got a visit from a Jeeper at 3 am who got partway in and then got stuck. Watched secretly for half an hour until he got free and left.
Smoky today, you could feel it a little in the lungs and didn’t want to ride too hard. It got a bit better at the top of the pass but got worse as we descended toward Hope.
Used one of the clear stick-on tire tube patches to fix the little slice in the thermarest and it worked perfectly. I will always carry a pack of these for patching down jackets, goretex, tents, and more. They are great. Not just a temporary fix to get you home, I think this is the permanent fix for my thermarest. Nice to sleep on the comfier thermarest again. Glad I brought it.

C • Cool trip 3