Day 14, yummy breakfast and outstanding views!

Wednesday 20th July, Adra Tunnel stealth camp to Hydraulic Lake campsite, 65.5km and 395m climb, 27 degrees

An early start today to miss the heat. We packed up our stealth camp near the mouth to the Adra Tunnel and kept climbing steadily up to Chute Lake. So much for off grid, there is a lodge there so we treated ourselves to a second breakfast. Pancakes for me and breakfast burger for Gordon. This also enabled us to top up our water supplies from their tap so we didn't have to treat and filter from the lake. Nice! We carry a steripen, filter and tablets so always have an option.

From Chute Lake the climb is very gradual and the trail condition improves further as we head toward Myra Canyon. We stop for lunch just short of the canyon as we had contemplated camping early. The options were limited so after a pleasant chat with 3 bikepackers going the other way (one of whom was 6 years old) we felt pretty inspired so decided to push on. Just as we are about to leave we were asked if we had any tools so stopped to help adjust a kiddy seat for a family.

After our good deed we headed into yhe canyon. It was stunning. 16 trestle bridges, two tunnels, cliffs, gulches and apparently a bear that we missed. Most was in the shade too so it was very pleasant riding. Some interesting history too. After the railway closed, in the early 90s a group of volunteers restored the trestles and opened to section to the public. Less than 10 years later, most were destroyed by a forest fire. Luckily for us the BC government footed the bill to have them rebuilt. It must have been heartbreaking for the original volunteers though.

After the 12km traverse through the canyon up to a high point of 1280m ASL we stopped briefly to chat with our friends who we helped with kiddy seat. They fed us full strength Cokes so although we thought we'd stealth camp again sites were relatively sparse so we pushed through to a basic BC rec park on a lake. A stunning sunset finished a long but lovely day. Gordon is exhausted but enjoyed the day. A quiet one tomorrow.