Friday, June 27, 2008

British Columbia (Past Cassiar)

Past the Cassiar, things completely changed. Where there would have been miles (or kilometers) of wilderness, there is either farmland, ranch homes, or woodcutting factories. Most of the communities we came accross in the first few days were all woodcutting villiages. It smelled GREAT. Fresh cut wood is a great scent to wake up to, or whiff as a big semi passes.

It became difficult to find a place to pee though. Haha! Normally, we could just go on the side of the road, but past the Cassiar, there are two problems: Either there is just too much traffic to get any privacy, or you are peeing in someone's yard. Haha, that is no good. The rest areas or gas stations can be a little far and few between. Sometimes 20 miles apart, so we had to really plan ahead when we would pass them.

The Cassiar

British Columbia may have had some of the most surprises of the whole trip thus far. It was certainly incredibly beautiful. The Cassiar Highway started out with very rough, winding roads with lots of pot-holes and poor repairs. There were many 100 ft. patches of gravel every few miles, and even some greased down dirt roads.

Our first day on the Cassiar Highway took us over mostly rolling terrain as we neared a mountain pass. Towards the end of the day we started climbing up into the Canadian Rockies yet again. The water from runoff and springs was a beautiful teal/blue color. Sharp titanic mountains surrounded us on either side, and when we would yell, we would hear sometimes five or six echos! It was cool. We passed several lakes that looked like lagoons in the Carribean, but were frigid cold. We stayed in Good Hope Lake down by the lake at a spot that the locals often camp out. The view was incredible as the sun set.

The next day had us climbing again toward the summit. It leveled off at the top for a while, and we came accross "Jade City," which is not actually a city at all, but a Jade store where they design and make all sorts of Jade things. We stopped there because we needed food, and the store in Good Hope lake never opened up. They only had snack foods, but it was better than nothing. Several people came and talked to us, including a very attractive girl from Vancouver. These nice old folks also talked to us for a while, and then gave us $120 to help us on our way!!!

As it turned out, it really was a HUGE help a few days later... But I digress. The afternoon took us downhill a looooooong way. I was pretty easy going. I think we were "snowed" on that day. I'm pretty sure it was just snow blowing off the mountain we were by though cause there weren't any serious clouds nearby lol. In the evening we had some trials. We got rained on a bit, and also had 20 miles or so of that oiled dirt road stuff. On top of that, we had climb after climb after climb. Finally after a downhill stretch, we made it into Dease Lake city.

We didn't get out of Dease Lake until afternoon the next morning because of updating this page haha. We had a HUGE mountain to climb, and we didn't stop pedaling till we got to the top. It was 4100 feet high!!! It wasn't incredibly steep, but it was a workout. We could both feel that we had improved our strength and endurance over the past weeks since we didn't even have to stop. Past Gnat Summit, there was a lot of up and down terrain, but we made a descent at the end down into Iskut. Wow, that place looked really cool. I don't think we even took any pictures though because it was too big to try and photograph. The mountains just jutted WAY up all around us, and there was a great big lake right in the middle.

The next day we finally saw some bears! I saw a cub, and Mark saw the mom. It was way cool. The cub was right up next to the road, but down an embankment in the grass. It bolted off into the forest as soon as it saw me. The ride that day was filled with steep little climbs over little change in elevation. It goes without saying that we had lots of headwinds, but it was particularly frustrating that day. Coming into Bob Quinn Lake though, the wind stopped, and the ecosystem changed. We were suddenly into a rainforest climate! The trees were very tall, and thick to boot. The branches of many trees were draped with yellow green moss. The forest looked very old. In addition to that, the highway changed. It was a brand new, super smooth, broad shouldered road! It is the nicest road we encountered in BC! Also, it runs the rest of the way down the Cassiar from there!

The next day was bad. We got hit with rain hard. After only 30 miles (at least we went that far) we had to take shelter at the Bell 2 Ski resort. We used that $120 that those nice folks gave us and got a cabin for the night. We thawed out in the jaccuzzi for a while and slept in nice warm, queen-sized fluffy beds. It was the first day that we actually had time for leisure.

The next morning I was a bit bummed out because we had taken a huge chance by staying at the resort. The whole reason we stayed there was to avoid the rain since there was no kind of civilization for another 50 miles or so, and yet in the morning, it looked like more rain. Luckily though, when we actually got onto our bikes and started riding, the light rain stopped. We did 77 miles that day through easy terrain. It turned out to be mostly downhill or flat the whole day. We saw four more bears along the road. One of which was a full grown blackbear. It bolted off into the woods when it saw us, and I'll tell you what: those things are QUICK. I don't even know if you would be able to react fast enough to grab the pepper spray if one charged at you. Fortunately, they usually either just freeze and try to act like they are not there, hoping you didn't notice them, or they just make a "B line for the tree line." We stayed at a rest stop that night, 20 miles North of Kitwanga.

The next day, we came to the end of the Cassiar Highway, and with it, we reached the end of the remote wilderness that we had known all through Alaska and the Yukon.

Vancouver!


Wow. We actually made it. The adventure is not over yet, but we are entering "Act II." We have joined up with our dad here in Vancouver, and tomorrow we will ferry over to Victoria to officially begin part 2 of our trip to Mexico.

It is very strange to me to look back on the map and see how far we traveled. It feels like we have been on our bikes forever, yet the path seems short somehow. We are staying in the comfort of a friend's home here in Vancouver, but certain habits simply have taken over. I was offered a big fluffy couch to sleep on, yet I opted for my Thermarest, and considered setting up my tent in the back yard... but then I found out they had dogs, and my allergies would have been on the fritz.

Yesterday (and technically the day before...) was interesting. On the 25th, we started pedaling 170 miles away from Metro Vancouver. We weren't even supposed to arrive here until today, which is the 27th. As we rode on through the day though, the incredible scenery and the excellent weather put Mark and I in a very good mood. It was difficult to navagate on the new route we had chosen because I wasn't able to check the route beforehand to find places that we could stay. When we reached the end of our mileage quota for the day, we weren't really anywhere near a campground. I had been thinking about this for a while at the end of the day, but I tossed it out to Mark almost jokingly: "What if we just didn't stop riding today? What if we just kept riding through the night until we got to Vancouver?" I think he had also been wondering the same thing, and he took me seriously. We decided to go for it, and as the highway led us directly West toward Vancouver, we rode off into the sunset-- true Chromoly Cowboys.

After the steepest climb of our whole trip, and after being spooked by some suspicious parked vehicles in remote areas, (not to mention some vicious dogs that were apparently unleashed,) and two RedBull's later, we made it to Pit Meadows, which is a part of the Vancouver outskirts... 150 miles from where we started that day. Technically, since it was 3:30 AM of the 26th, it was a new day, but in cycling terms, the day doesn't end until you stop peddaling and set up camp. 150 miles (241 kilometers) in one ride is our new record for sure.

We went to sleep around 3:45 AM, and I set an alarm for 7:00 AM. We both woke up at about 6:30 AM though because it was getting so bright, and also because the city had begun to bustle around us. We had "camped" in a fenced off area at a baseball field. There were thick bushes on one side, and a large steel storage container making corner with that, so we had a little privacy in our little corner. The baseball field was located right in a buisy part of town. It was right by a McDonalds, a handful of other stores and restaurants, and the Lougheed Highway ran right by it. The highway, which was near silent in the early hours of morning, became a torrent of raging traffic when the sun came up.

If it wasn't that that woke us up, then it was the fact that people were showing up at the baseball field for something. It sounded like there may have been some construction going on nearby.
Either way, we only had maybe 3 hours of sleep before getting up to try and meet up with our dad. We needed to contact him to let him know that we were actually in town because he wasn't expecting us until late that afternoon. It took us a while to try and find our way around without a map, especially since we were trying to get directions over the phone without any idea of the scale of the map our dad was referencing. It turned out to be relatively close by, and we only had to ride for about two or three hours.

We finally arrived at our friend's home, and another friend came to pick us up to show us Vancouver and also so we could grab some food. It was really cool, but I was a Zombie most of the time because I was so tired.

Vancouver is a huge place. It is a REAL metro area. Salt Lake City is like the movie set of a metro area compared to this. The city just keeps going and going and going.

For the first time in over a month I was able to sleep as long as I liked, guilt free. I think I woke up at 10, but I'm not sure. Anyway, we are planning on taking it REALLY easy today, and using it as a time to catch up on some relaxation, and also a good oportunity to update this page.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Yukon


I really don't have time now to post details, but we made it through the Yukon territory! It was ROUGH. The wind was killer the whole time. We had headwinds most days, and the gravel sections were no good to ride on.

We are on day 3 of the Cassiar Highway, and it is BEAUTIFUL. They weren't kidding when they said it was the scenic route. The road isn't even as bad as people made it sound... at least, not that bad for bikes. We are able to easily dodge the potholes and such, and actually, the dirt/gravel sections aren't too bad.

Time to go!