Day 12 — Cortes Loop - Summer Island Hopper

August 3, 2025

Day 12 — Cortes Loop

Marilee here.

Two things stood out for us about Cortes Island on our previous cycling visit a few years ago: the hills, and Hague Lake. Time softened the memory of the painful climbs and teeth-juddering descents, but the image of Hague Lake in my mind just got better and better as the years passed. A white sand beach, marvelously warm soft freshwater swimming. I couldn’t resist adding an extra day to this trip to make sure there was time to revisit Hague Lake.

But to really appreciate the special joy of a lake swim after two weeks of ocean plunges, first we had to work up a sweat on those hills, doing a circuit of the island.

Cortes wins the “bumpiest island” award for this trip (and we haven’t even been to Texada yet). The hills are non-stop, just like they were 5 years ago (why did I not remember them this spring when planning the trip?), but what has changed is the condition of the road. Potholes were sprinkled liberally and unpredictably, making descents even more interesting.

It seems that residents are mad about the road conditions — there were notices at the grocery store and the community hall inviting people to sign petitions and attend meetings to try to get action on road repairs. And when tom and I stopped at a crossroads to gather strength before yet another hill climb, a man emerged unexpectedly from the bushes and started chatting, and soon enough the conversation turned to the roads. Maybe roads are the Cortes equivalent of real estate in Vancouver— the topic you inevitably end up talking about, no matter where the conversation starts off.

Anyway, according to this long time local, the roads are getting cut up by heavy equipment building giant mansions for millionaires on the east side of the island (so also a real estate rant — maybe they’re inescapable in BC?). He told us he was thankful to have bought 10 acres of island land “when it was still affordable” and then mentioned that he could remember horses being used for transport on the island roads. Which made me wonder if he was actually a ghost of some nineteenth century pioneer in Blundstones and a ball cap. Then he gave us immensely complicated directions to get to a secret jewel of a lake that involved multiple logging roads and a two km trail that we could “probably” get the bikes down. We thanked him but didn’t attempt the hunt. Instead we went to Hague Lake, which was packed, but for good reason — it lived up to my memories. We both had a great swim and washed off the sweat and grime of the ride.

At Squirrel Cove, out lunch stop mid-way around the island.

Squirrel Bay also had a food truck, with hand cut fries deep fried in tallow. Totally hit the spot

Government marina at Squirrel Cove — it had no useful outlets to charge phones, I checked

After our swim we pedaled into “town” and sourced some power outside the post office. Staying at small provincial campgrounds has made keeping devices charged an ongoing daily challenge.

Found an unguarded outlet outside the Canada Post

We ended the day with dinner on the beach and a sunset swim (for me). Tomorrow we head back to the mainland!

Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 503 km (312 miles)

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