Holland Lake to Swan Lake
Strava: 88.5 km, 974m, 4:56, 235 shifts, 46.4 kph max
I slept well after the jet skis quieted down around 21:30. We were up at 6:30, oatmeal for breakfast, and on the road by 8. The gravel started after less than 10 km. The track sort of paralleled the road but snaked up and down, sometimes singletrack, mostly pretty smooth.
We kept going non-stop until 40 km for lunch. I had a couple of cheese sandwiches plus a Snickers bar, then a nap. When Andrew arrived we were all asleep again. It’s a hard life.
A giant ant crawled onto my face and woke me up. As I slapped it I heard Wytze and Andrew laughing quietly, Wytze guiltily holding a long weed. So we had to get up and ride. The next 40 km was frankly a little boring because the trees were always obscuring the view. We just tinkled along, small ups and downs, didn’t see any bears and eventually came to the junction where we left the track and headed eight km off route to Swan Lake. An easy day of cycling today.
We got to the Trading Post before 3 and realized how hot it was. We had dropped below 1000m maybe for the first time on the whole tour. The sign on the highway said “Lock up your brakes for huckleberry shakes!” so naturally that’s what I ordered first.
We decided to camp despite the almost silly price of $34 per tent. It was the perfect location for us and had food and supplies. We pitched our tents in the beautiful tree-shaded back yard by a stream and a small lake. Showers were ok, low tech but warm eventually. We did laundry in the washer then ordered a first pizza and got soda and beers. Things were looking up!
The laundry dried in the hot sun really fast. I had an afternoon nap and then it was dinner time. We went with two pizzas and a bottle of white wine, plus the leftover two beers from before. For dessert Andrew and I had huckleberry huckleberry floats, that is, huckleberry ice cream in huckleberry soda.
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