Day 30, the perfect stealth camp!

Day 30, 5 August, 46.2km, 502m climb, Kootenay Forest Service Road stealth camp to Kootenay River Stealth camp.

We had a slow start despite getting up at 6. It was cold and wet with low hanging cloud and drizzle. This was the first day we used any of our winter kit having lugged it for over a month without using it. We knew we'd use it sooner or later!

Today was all about gravel and forest with little else until the end of the day. Although we were following the Kootenay River,  the road was just that bit too far away to actually see it. 

After about 40km we started looking for a campsite. We'd passed into Kootenay National Park at about 37km so knew it was going to be a bit tougher to find a good site. I'd spied a side road on the map so we decided to check it out. We snuck through a keep out gate and found ourselves in a quarry with a track exiting on the far side so we followed that down sensing it would come out at the river. Sure enough, we've landed in a beautiful spot right next to the river with plenty of tent possibilities and a place to hang the food well away from the tent. We don't go anywhere without our bear spray at the moment, not even the loo!

We have not seen any signs of bears down here so hopefully we will be left in peace. We did watch a bald eagle fly down the river searching for food - an amazing site! We also had 3 rafts go past loaded to the gunners with gear so obviously on a multi day trip.  Given we are probably camping illegally,  we tried to hide but not with much success! Oh well! Just as well we had finished our naked wash!

Back on the main road tomorrow which we are not looking forward to hugely after 2 days of seeing a sum total of about 10 cars and riding happily up the middle of the road whenever we felt like it!