July 5, 2007
Day 6: To Port McNeill
I got on the road at 9:45 after a long conversation with the other touring cyclists. On the road I saw two female touring cyclists heading south. I'm going north/west and inland starting with a 280 meter climb. The road climbs up to 435m later in the day.
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The road had no shoulder at first but it did have a shoulder for most of the day. There were no towns and no services until Woss.
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No ocean views today but I had views of nearby mountains on Vancouver Island.
The road passes very close to Nimpkish lake but I could hardly see it through the trees.
After passing the village of Woss I started looking for roadside campsites. I found one that had a stream nearby, but kept going because I wanted to get at least 20km past Woss. I didn't find any other suitable campsites after that.
I continued all the way to Port McNeill, arriving at 10:15PM. It was well past sunset but I could still see outside. Port McNeill has no campground and two expensive-looking motels. I got a room at the Haida Way Inn. My $100 room had concrete block walls. Hardly what I would call a good value.
Today's route was mostly going west but I had very little headwind. The headwind was only noticeable near the top of the bigger hills. The area is very sparsely populated so I wasn't surprised to find very little traffic on the road. The scenery is pleasant and unspoiled but not really inspiring. Much of the time I was merely riding through a corridor of trees. The weather was sunny with a high temperature of 22C (72F). The temperature dropped significantly near sunset so I wore a jacket and gloves for the last hour or so.
Today was a hard day with long distance and significant climbing. Ten hours actual riding time! I'm very tired but tomorrow will be an easy day to Port Hardy.
Distance: 136 km / 85 mi
Climbing: 1141 m / 3770 ft
Average speed: 13.6 km/h / 8.5 mph
Maximum speed: 55 km/h / 34.4 mph
Today's ride: 137 km (85 miles)
Total: 520 km (323 miles)
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