Day 86: Schoolhouse Bay Campsite to Bay of Many Coves Campsite (1705-1734)

Thursday, February 23

Sara and I were going to try to do a 30-kilometer day today, so we wanted to start early. I've either been holding off a cold or bad allergies, so I was exhausted when my alarm went off and told Sara I probably wouldn't be ready to go until 7:30. She was still ready close to 7 when we had planned to leave, so she left a little after 7. Once her tent was packed up the sandflies were attacking her, so it was silly for her to wait. We'd meet up sometime before lunch.

A little after 7:30 I tuned into my news and politics podcasts and hit the trail. The path was mostly downhill from Schoolhouse Bay and it eventually went by a few houses and vacation rentals.

There was a short detour to see a big tree, so I decided to take it. I was hoping there was going to be a view with the tree but there wasn't, so I'm not sure if it was totally worth it. Either way it was only a 15 or 20 minute side trip.

I passed a group of kids with day packs that may have been a school group and saw a few other day hikers that must have been dropped off by a water taxi.

Sara was waiting for me at the junction for Endeavor Lodge around 10:30. She'd probably been waiting about a half hour. After eating some snacks and looking at the map and notes for the day we hit the trail again.

On the TA app I saw that there was a bar and restaurant by Camp Bay Campsite. We wanted to get to the next campsite for the night, but we figured we could hike fast enough to get some lunch there.

Sara and I made it to Miners Camp, a private campsite on the trail. They had a little cart with items for sale. Sara had been craving L&P and they had some so she was really excited.

Shortly after that we ran into two nice DOC employees working on the trail. We told them how nice we thought the trail has been. There's so many toilets (with toilet paper - a bit plus), picnic tables and benches. It's amazing! And we asked them about the bar and restaurant and how long they thought it would take to get from there to our campsite for the night. It all sounded doable.

We got to the restaurant. It was pretty expensive but we were hungry so we got food there anyway. We wouldn't be able to eat anything but our backpacking food until we made it to Havelock. As we were figuring out how to take the road to get back on the Queen Charlotte Track without backtracking, we met a couple from Arizona planning to walk to the same campsite.

We filled up our water bottles because we heard there might not be water in the trail until tomorrow afternoon. It was a steep uphill walk to the intersection with the trail, but once we were back on the Queen Charlotte Track the picnic tables and scenic lookouts returned.

After about three hours we made it to the campsite. I finished setting up my tent as Sara arrived and we talked for a bit. A weka had come to investigate us but we didn't let it get any of our belongings. The couple from Arizona arrived and we talked with them while we ate dinner. Then we moved our tents closer together so we could talk while staying snug in our sleeping bags and avoiding the sandflies.