Weather is still good. Yet the tourists have mostly headed home.
I’d always wondered if it was possible to cycle logging roads — then bushwhack to the trailhead of Della Falls on Great Central Lake.
As expected, it’s nearly impossible. I never made it. 😀
But I’d wanted to do a gear check on my old Ghost touring bike in any case. Della Falls was an excuse to get out into the wilderness.
The only official campsite in the area is Lowry Lake. Very nice. But I passed by too early in the day. So ended up wild camping 2 nights.
Logging is horrible on Vancouver Island. Very few people see the vast swaths of clearcut hidden away from pavement.
BUT they certainly make the island wilderness accessible for anyone on a good bike.
I ended up camping 2 nights. The first on a sand bar in the Ash river. There are more bears than people in this part of the island. I thought I’d keep myself well clear of any animal trails.
The second night I pitched on a quiet lake where I’d stayed twice in the past.
My meandering route ended up looking something like this.
I did Markha Valley independently. But for Kuari Pass I finally signed on with a guided trek.
The hiking infrastructure in India is not well developed. Getting to and from trailheads often a headache. Next time I go to India I’ll likely sign on for trips guided by IndiaHikes.
So far, he has pulled together over 1,000 trails across Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir.
It shows 600 passes, 700 high-altitude lakes and more than 10,000 reference points. …
It allows hikers to see elevation profiles and download GPS logs onto their phones rather than having to carry multiple, less detailed paper maps.
“The map has more trails than anyone could ever cover in a lifetime,” he says.
“It took me months to plan a long traverse across the Himalaya. With this new digital map, you have all the information in a single place.” …
Everything is open sourced, so can be accessed with any Open Street Maps viewer or mobile app (for free). Other hikers can add information to it and help the resource grow. …