Day Two : Williams Lake to Bella Coola, BC.

One of those “gotta do it” rides. I’ve heard about it forever, the Bella Coola Highway, the notorious Hill, one of the most treacherous roads in BC. So yep, I had to do it.

Hit the road and It’s about 455 km on the way to Bella Coola. The first stretch is typical BC, rolling hills, plateaus, ranch land, and long valleys. The road itself? Nothing crazy. Just your usual twisty northern highway. Not quite mountains yet.

But when you hi The Hill, it gets real. That’s where the reputation comes from.
It’s steep, narrow, kinda gravel (sometimes kinda hard pack-dirt), and full of tight switchbacks. Did I mention steep 12-13% grades. No guardrails. Sheer drop-offs for hundreds of feet. You can read more on it at dangerousroads.com , they hype it up pretty good. I won’t downplay it. It’s definitely sketchy in spots. But if you’ve ridden bad roads before, you’ll know what I mean when I say: it’s not a total death trap, but you better be paying attention. It would be pretty sketch in the rain I’m thinking ..!!


Eventually rolled into Bella Coola. Honestly? Not much here. It’s a tiny town, a couple tourist stops, some local sights. bear-watching tours, adventure guides, just the basic tourism gig.

Since it was still early and I had time, I figured I’d test out the camping gear. I haven’t camped in a while and had no idea if I had what I needed and would all work.?Weather looked good, so I figured, why not? Found a very cool little campground, set up the tent, even fired up the stove, cooked some dehydrated food, just to see what worked and what didn’t.

So yes, there were a few glitches. A couple minor things I need, but that’s why the “dry run” can grab stuff in a bigger center. But in a pinch, yeah, the camping setup will do. Not sure I want to do a lot of it, but it’s fine for the odd night. Nothing wrong with sleeping under the stars, especially with friendly people around.

And of course, the bike always draws people in.

A guy named Miles came by — he’d ridden two up on an 650 VStrom into Copper Canyon and all over Mexico, and even two-up through Vietnam with his wife. Great stories.
Then another guy stopped and said, “Nice bike.” Introduced himself , his name was Juan. Very familiar accent. I asked where he was from “Puebla, Mexico.” That started a whole other conversation.

We swapped numbers. He made me promise to look him up when I was there. Later, he brought his wife over and we talked more about travel, about Mexico. Just a really cool connection. That’s the kind of thing you don’t get behind hotel doors. Campgrounds are social by default, little moments like that just happen.

Shut it down early. Another bonus of camping — people tend to quiet down, and you actually sleep.

So tomorrow I’ll poke around Bella Coola a bit in the morning, then ride back out. I’m definitely heading back toward Williams Lake. The only other way out of here is by boat and I’m not taking the ferry to Port Hardy, that’s for another time.

That’s my day. Great ride. Great people.
Which is .. AllPartOfTheAdventure