“I think this has got to be a road.”
It was the fourth time we said that, each time was a bit more hopeful and hopeless than the last. Expected home hours before, we were now just trying to find a way to connect back to a road that we knew would be there… it just wasn’t.
Eariler in the day, we set out from our meeting spot in Burgoyne Bay. There would be a lot of going up in our future, up to the highest peak on Salt Spring. Mt. Bruce. After bushwacking a bit (another harbinger of things to come), we found a long stretch of fire road that led higher and higher into the mountain.
The road to Mt. Bruce could be the steepest and gnarliest climb on Salt Spring. I walked for half of it and still managed to get a top ten on Strava. The views, however, are well worth the pain. Coming up over the top, we waited on a platform for the rest of our party to arrive. Dylan, Steve and I started riding together a few weeks before, and this was our first big gravel foray. Somehow, Dylan got separated from the rest of us and ended up in a pile of snow somewhere. Eventually after some late-March sunshine and a bar or two, we started back down to the second part of our journey.
As part of the long descent into Musgrave Landing, we stopped for a quick re-fill at Steve’s friends’ house. Thankfully, because we would be needing that water in later parts of the ride. The area around Musgrave Landing is almost like it is not part of Salt Spring at all. This is truly where the weirdness that this island is known for resides. Signs for Cousin Eddy’s Miss Behavin Station and lots of Private Property signs kept us on the main roads, but even those were a quick gravel descent to the ocean.
Musgrave Landing itself is a small collection of houses at the bottom of the hill. This was my first time visiting the village (if you can even call it that) and I will definitely be back. After stopping for a look, we set off on what would be the defining factor of the ride: finding a connecting trail between Musgrave and Mountain Road.
By all accounts, the trail does exist. However, we were unable to find it. We spent at least two hours bushwacking and hauling our bikes over trees, through salal and nettles, over creeks and down cliffs. We were about as far away from any trail as we could be on the island, and probably as far away as civilization as possible. After hours of checking phones to see where we were on the map, and figuring that the road has got to be here somewhere, we eventually wound up in a back yard.
That’s when I saw I had a flat tire.
Quickly fixed, we got back on the road and rode the 20 km back to Terra Cognita, but for me those last kilometres were the hardest I’ve done on a bike.
The guys promised that most of the time they didn’t just bushwack for hours on their rides. I believe them, and will be out riding again.
Because why not?
Strava here: https://www.strava.com/activities/2256367141