Williams Lake to Lac La Hache: Cariboo Ride

By Dave Briggs · Published 2009-09-09 · Last updated 2026-07-18

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The route from Williams Lake to Lac la Hache in BC Canada was a tough day of cycling due to strong headwinds and hills. I ended up camping behind a fruit and veg shop for the night!

Tough cycling conditions from Williams Lake

(Blog post written: Sep 09 2009)

The day's cycling was, to put it mildly, pretty damned horrible. Endless dips and hills, traffic, broken glass on the side of the road and a monstrous headwind left me doing not much more than 11 kms an hour.

I'm a positive person, but its pretty hard to stay motivated under those circumstances. It was only 66kms from Williams Lake to lac La Hache, but at times it felt twice that!

Arriving at Lac la Hache

Fortunately, my day changed on reaching Lak la Hache. I pulled over to a fruit shop to buy some snacks, and got talking to the owner Lionel. As the conversation went on, a beer was produced, and a gladly accepted offer to put my tent up behind his shop made.

Originally from South Africa, he emigrated to Canada thirty years ago, so he was interested in the stories I had from when I cycled to Cape Town.

I asked him if he missed South Africa, and my heart went out to him, when he replied honestly - 'Who would think I have been selling fruit in the middle of nowhere for thirty years? In hindsight, no, its probably not the best decision I made.'

Lionel was a great guy, and it was good to talk the afternoon away over a beer whilst he did the hard work of selling fruit. The gas station/store was mega too, as it had all the cyclists basic food needs at discount prices. Life is giving a lot recently.

Dave Briggs
Dave is a UK travel writer living in Athens since 2015. With 20 years of firsthand travel experience and over 80,000 km of bicycle touring across six continents, he's been blogging at Dave's Travel Pages since 2005. Every guide is based on places he's actually been.

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