A New Country

     I had never left Canada before in my entire life, so crossing the border into the USA now was the first time that I had been in a new country. Crossing into the US now also felt a bit weird due to the fact that it felt like our countries' relationship was deteriorating. While I was crossing Canada, I heard numerous people tell me about how they would refuse to go to the US anytime soon. Also I'd been told that there had started be some weird cases of how foreign people had been being treated lately in the US as well, including Canadians.

While there were some causes for concern now, combined with me being in a new place for the first time to get me worked up, I still wanted to try to keep my focus on adventuring and exploring. While I haven't had these experiences myself yet, I've heard from so many other peoples experiences about how great a place and its people can be no matter how bad of a reputation that country may have. And I want to travel to many of these places as well, this can even easily be seen from the rough map I drew a couple years ago (background of the site and in my About Me page), that has me passing through a lot of different countries with a lot of different reputations. The US now was no different than many of these other places that I wanted to experience some day. While some of the people may be different, I was sure there were still lots of good people that I could meet while travelling there. There was also what I would be able to see to get me plenty excited. I had two main things I wanted to see while in the US. The first would be on the coastal route I had planned, being the great redwood trees. The other thing which would be further along was the Grand Canyon. Add in the fact that I planned to travel along the Pacific Coast on a well known and travelled bike route, which I had been looking forward to, got me even more excited. On top of that, Jared in Montreal had recommended me to checkout the Hoh Rainforest in Washington if I was in that area, so I had another thing that I would soon make it to, to look forward to. So I was heading to the US with mixed emotions but for the most part was ready for the adventure.

In the USA now

Before I could start any of that though, I first had to make it across the border. When I was pulling up towards crossing, a guard waved me over and told me to head into a building to get checked out. In there, a nice guy asked me some questions like what I was doing, my plans and stuff of that sort. I had heard beforehand about a couple things about the border, including not being allowed to bring produce across. Since I knew this, I brought up the fact I had a couple things still on me I hadn't eaten yet. He said technically I couldn't have them but it would be fine. I'm thinking maybe because I brought this up on my own, he took me as an honest person and didn't bother asking a few things I thought he may. There were no questions on drugs or weapons (which I didn't have unless you consider bear spray a weapon). Not only that but no one really looked at my bike at all. My panniers could've been full of nothing but guns and heroin and I would've made it across the border that day.

Now that I was across the border, I was officially started on a new country and it was pretty easy to tell too. While you come across some Canada flags in Canada, there were US flags all over the place here. Not only that, but there were also Trump signs to be seen as well. Most were 2024 signs that just weren't taken down, but I even saw a 2028 Trump sign at one point (which doesn't even make sense since he's not allowed to run in 2028). There was one other thing that I didn't figure out right away but it wouldn't take me too long to figure out. I was surprised how long it was taking me to get to places based on the distances that signs were saying about how far away towns were. Soon I figured out that was because distances now were in miles and not kilometers, which was especially strange.

One of many

I also didn't realize that they called highways interstates, so ended up travelling on one to start out when I would've rather been on quieter roads. I'd get to Ferndale before stopping for the day. The newness/weirdness wasn't quite done yet though. Most of the businesses and stores were different than I was used to seeing and I wasn't even sure where to go for groceries. When I did find a grocery store, everything inside was also different, whether it was brands I wasn't used to or just different packaging that had me not recognizing things. One final thing was also obviously that money was now in USD, which considering the prices, now meant that everything was more expensive than in Canada. I did end up celebrating the fact that I was in the US now by eating out in Ferndale. I spent the evening in a park and just felt so weird knowing everyone around me now was American. Ever since crossing the border earlier in the day, everything just felt so off but I knew it was just because everything was new and I'd get used to the differences here in time.

Well this is a new one

I'd get back on quieter roads and got back to enjoying things again. Farm land along a river with little traffic was great and then I even managed to navigate through a city quickly for once when I made it through Bellingham. After Bellingham, I was in awe with what I was getting to ride through, as I was getting a sneak peak at what the Hoh Rainforest would look like. Trees covered in long draping mosses hung over the hilly road, with beaches down below on the shore. It wasn't long lasted as I was soon back to flat farmland, where I'd meet a father-son duo (Dave? and Ryan), who had just started their journey riding from Surrey to San Francisco. I'd get onto an island and cross it onto another one before stopping. Unfortunately, the whole time I was on the islands it was very foggy. The reason being it was unfortunate was because there was a naval air station on one of them, which I would regularly hear the jets zooming on by, but I couldn't see any of them.

Forested road south of Bellingham

The next day was another nice one as I rode on quieter roads and had some nice views too. As good as the going was though, I did feel somewhat off and I think it was still that being outside Canada just felt weird. I knew it would but was hoping that I'd get over this feeling faster, especially since when I started the trip, I had planned on going into who knows how many countries. When I reached the ferry, luckily it was running when I got there, as I had heard that they had cancelled a couple trips earlier in the day due to the fog and I didn't think the fog had really cleared that much yet. While on the ferry, I got talking with a couple locals who were out cycling for the day and they would end up giving me a couple energy bars. The fog cleared on the ferry ride and there wasn't any in Port Townsend when the ferry finished crossing the strait. Once there, I hopped on a trail not sure where I planned to get to for the day. A little after I made it past the town, I ran into a man (Misha) on a bike on the trail. He was very interested in me as he had done lots of travelling by bike himself. He mentioned a whole bunch of spots he thought I could camp for the night before he ended up offering to let me camp at his place. I happily took up his offer and followed him back to his place.

I don't think I've quite ever been to a place like Misha's before. The place was off the grid and full of random stuff that was mostly junk. Misha lived in an old bus and another guy, Jason, also lived there but he lived in a mini cabin that wasn't much bigger than a shed. When we got there, Misha showed me his bus before taking back off into town and leaving me alone. Jason would show up in the evening and he like Misha, was well versed in cycling. He would tell me about how he's done lots of different ultra cycling marathons and still was doing them too. He would also tell me how Misha had gone across the US before, while he's done the Great Divide multiple times, so they were both quite aware of how I was travelling. The other interesting thing he would tell me was about how his neighbors here grew/produced meth (or something else like that, I don't remember exactly what it was). We'd talk for a couple hours before Misha showed back up later in the night and all went to bed afterwards.

Misha and Jason's place

I'd spend most of the morning talking with Misha while he gave me breakfast before leaving. After a while I made it to the start of the Olympic Discovery Trail which I'd be on for a while. It was very nice in that the trail itself was very good and when it did transition to riding on roads, the roads were ones with hardly any vehicles on them. While on the trail, I'd encounter Shalon from New York, who was on the 2nd day of his trip going from Seattle to San Francisco. We'd ride together for a bit before splitting up in Sequim. The rest of the day was mostly calm and peaceful riding along the trail until I made it to the edge of Port Angeles where I'd stop or the day. I stopped along the shore in a really nice spot. I had a nice view (when the fog wasn't taking over) out over the Salish Sea where I could see Canada again as Vancouver Island was on the other side. I could watch the ferry making its crossing if I wanted to from there. In the other direction over the water, I had a view of Mt. Baker towering over the rest of the landscape.

Canada over the Salish Sea

When I woke up the next morning, my stomach wasn't feeling very well. It wouldn't get to feel much better until sometime in the afternoon, so I ended up deciding to just take a rest day. On top of that this was probably the worst day mentally that I'd had in a while now. My mind just wasn't getting to a better place since I started the US and at this point I was hoping that maybe either the route ahead or seeing the Hoh Rainforest may be what I need to get feeling better again.

I waited out the rain the next morning before getting back onto the trail. The trail continued to be great as it started out paved again before switching to single track through forest. This part was very scenic and a lot of fun to ride to start out. After a while though, there started to be some very sharp switchbacks that were very difficult for me to manage with my loaded bike. I would've loved to keep riding it if I had a bare bike, but after a while I decided to get off the trail and skip a section as it looked like there were more of these switchbacks ahead. I wouldn't regret that decision though, as after a short ride on the highway, I was back on a quiet forested road that slightly reminded me of rainforest again. This brought me back to the trail again where there were a lot of people at this part of the trail. The reason would be that there was a railway tunnel not far from the trailhead, that seemed was a tourist attraction. While the tunnel was nice, I find it hard to enjoy things like that when it's loaded full of tourists. The trail quieted again after that and a bit later I'd stop and setup camp for the night.

View from trail

Single track trail

It was halfway through September now and the weather was starting to feel like it the next morning. I found the morning cold and even felt the need to wear my gloves, which not counting the mountains, was the first time since the spring that I'd done that. I finished the final part of the trail before the end of the morning and had to ride on the highway most of the time from here on out. Luckily for me, the western side of Washington is quieter than the rest of the state, so even though the highways didn't always have the best shoulders here, there usually wasn't enough traffic to make it much of a bother. I'd only get to Forks before stopping for the day. The NFL had now started and I'm a massive Rams fan for anyone who isn't aware of this. There was no way for me to watch the games live while travelling, but I could still find and watch their games the next day, which is what I spent my afternoon doing.

I felt lazy yet again the next day and didn't leave town until the afternoon and really even then I only did so, so I could say I got somewhere else in the day. I'd only go as far as the Bogachiel River where I found a great spot along the shore to camp. With it being September now, the water was also starting to get quite a bit cooler as I found myself getting quite cold while getting washed up in the river. It was a nice spot though and it helped get me in the mood to want to ride again the next morning. It also helped considering what I'd be seeing the next day as well.

Camping by the river

After a nice morning by the river, I got back on the highway for a bit before I made it to the turnoff for the Hoh Rainforest. It was still a ways to get to the rainforest, but the drive in was definitely part of what made this worth visiting. I got to ride along the turquoise Hoh River the whole way and was surrounded by trees covered in thick moss as well. When I made it to the Hoh Rainforest, unfortunately it like so many other really nice places was full of tourists, but that still didn't stop me from being able to enjoy it. I explored a couple of trails while I was there and it really did feel like I was in a rainforest. On the way in and a couple other spots in Washington, I had seen trees covered in moss, but it was a whole other level now. Some branches on the trees had moss hanging off of them that must have been about a meter long. Everything was so green in there too, the trees too as their trunks were all coated in olive coloured moss. Some of the trees in there were very large as well, both in height and in having wide trunks. I left there very happy I had listened to Jared's advice to check out the Hoh Rainforest if I had the chance. I'd go most of the way back out before finding somewhere to camp, where I got to camp among the mossy trees.

Hoh Rainforest

Hoh Rainforest

Hoh Rainforest

Hoh Rainforest

It was back on the mostly shoulderless highway again the next day. Later on that morning, I reached what felt like another milestone when I made it to Ruby Beach. While I had already reached and touched the Pacific Ocean, I had only done so with straits and bays. Now I had finally reached what felt like the proper Pacific, as I could finally look out at endless ocean. I went down to the beach and took it in as the rough, uninterrupted waves crashed onto the shore. While my time in the US didn't start how I would've hoped, it was finally feeling like I was starting to settle back in again.

Finally, the Pacific

Distance Biked: 539.2km

Total Distance Biked: 9837.8km

Sunshine Coast

     When I started the trip, the goal was to bike around the whole world. Pretty early on after starting though, I changed the goal to just riding across Canada. Well, I had now completed my goal, so the question becomes: what's next? Well, I'd say probably while I was in the prairies, I became about 95% sure that I wasn't going to stop once I reached the Pacific coast at Vancouver. As I went further that slowly kept creeping up until it was 100%. What was the end goal now? I have no idea. The new plan was just to keep going until I felt like it was time to stop.

So now that I reached Vancouver, where am I going next. Well the plan is to go down the Pacific coast to San Francisco, but before that, I still have a bit more of Canada that I planned to do. I had been hoping to meet up with Carsten and Isabell again around the Vancouver area and ride with them some more before starting the US. They had gotten to Vancouver a few days before me and were even in Hope the day before I made it there. While I was in Vancouver now, they were actually on Vancouver Island. They planned to travel on the island before getting back on the mainland at Powell River and then ride the Sunshine Coast back to Vancouver. I wanted to celebrate and take some time to myself now that I had accomplished my goal of cycling across Canada, so I decided I would spend some time in Vancouver and then meet up with them at Powell River and ride back down with to Vancouver.

After reaching the beach and walking out to a pool of water, it was time to celebrate. I went back to the beach and spent some time just soaking in the moment, as I had now just accomplished a great feat. After having some time to myself, I made some calls and got in touch with others letting them know I’d made it across Canada and received a lot of congratulations back. Of course I also wanted to celebrate by eating out as well. I biked into Vancouver proper and found a bunch of places to choose from. I ended up getting Korean chicken before going to a bubble tea/cold drink shop. I got a mango ice cream slushie there that was amazing. It was a small shop that was dead when I got there, but after I got there, quite a few more customers showed up too. The owner of the shop considered me good luck as she had people showing up after I arrived and ended up giving me more of the mango ice cream slushie for free. If anyone is in Vancouver, I’d recommend Butterfly Tea and Dessert, it was great and the owner is incredibly friendly and nice.

Look over Iona Beach when tide is in

I went up towards the University of British Columbia (UBC) after, in hopes I’d find somewhere to camp for the night. I’ve learned universities are usually good places to target in cities as the atmosphere seems to be safer for how I’m travelling. Luckily for me, there was plenty of forest around the university for me to be able to find a spot to camp in. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be in Vancouver or where all I’d go and see, but this seemed like a good spot to use as a base while I was here. Luckily for me it really was as I’d end up needing it to be very badly.

After it was dark and I already had my tent setup for the night, I started to not feel so good. Pretty soon I started to having diarrhea and later on after that I started throwing up. Turns out, it seems like I got food poisoning and I'd have to guess it was probably from the chicken. I was up nearly the whole night in misery but by the morning I was no longer throwing up at least. Luckily, close to where I was camping was a community center. I went to the community center and spent the day there trying to recover. The diarrhea wouldn't go away and mostly stayed for about 5 days.

Huge leaf in Vancouver

I thought I was mostly getting better from the food poisoning and a couple days after the initial event, I tried eating normal again. All this did was give my body plenty more ammo to launch right back out and put me back in misery. In all, I ended up dealing with the food poisoning for close to a week. I spent almost the entirety of it camping in the woods around the university and then relaxing the best I could in the community center during the day. When I didn't feel quite as bad, I would explore a little bit, but I rarely felt good enough to go far or do much. At least the community center was great. It was quiet, I could charge all my stuff there and it even had showers that I took advantage of.

After about those 5 days of dealing with food poisoning, my body was finally getting past it. By this point I was quite weak considering I'd hardly been able to eat and have anything stay down for so long now. I'd spend another few days in the same area and mostly at the community center trying to strengthen up a bit, as I was slowly starting to eat a bit more again. During this time I did get out to see the beaches along the shoreline which was quite nice and then also got to a bike shop to get some work done on the bike. This included getting a new tire for my rear as the old one was so worn out at this point, that the rubber was completely wore through in a few spots.

After about a week of being in Vancouver, it was time to go if I wanted to meet up with Carsten and Isabell in Powell River. I felt good enough to be back on the bike and going most of the day, but I still wasn't super energetic yet. On the way out of Vancouver, I finally got to see downtown. It was alright there but the highlight for me was getting to see the Olympic cauldron from the 2010 Olympics. After I figured out how to get on the Lions Gate Bridge, I was in North Vancouver and had a nice ride along the shore, that wasn't too busy, that brought me all the way up to the ferries of Horseshoe Bay. While the view from the ferry was still good, they weren't quite as good as I was hoping due to the wildfire smoke making things a bit hazy. It was hazy from wildfire smoke my entire time I was in Vancouver and that wouldn't change as I rode up the coast now. I'd get to Gibsons for the night and found a nice park with a really good view over Howe Bay that I spent the evening at.

2010 Olympic Cauldron

Now that I was back on the coast, things started to become hilly again, as I quickly and constantly started changing going from up to down and back again. I was hoping to get some good views of the coast but ended up finding the road was a bit more inland than I expected combined with a thick wall of trees that also blocked the ocean view. I gave myself plenty of time to get to Powell River just in case I needed it, so I decided to stop before taking the 2nd ferry I would need to board to get there. I ended up finding a campground near Earl's Cove to spend the night. It was such a nice spot, it was so quiet and peaceful and no one was around to bother me at the section of the lake that I was at. It was so quiet in fact, that after I went to bed in my tent for the night, for the first time in my life, I experienced true silence. There was nothing, no voices, no cars in the distance, no wind or water moving either. I'm not sure why, but for the first time really on the whole trip, I was finding myself kind of paranoid. I'm not sure if the silence got to me or it was just a random off night but felt like a bear or something might end up coming around (which I hadn't been scared of the whole trip).

Leaving the lake and campsite in the morning, instead of going the way I'd come, I'd decided to take a trail back to get to the ferry instead. This was a poor mistake as while it was a shorter distance, it ended up taking quite a bit longer. It was very steep (up and down) at points with switchbacks and clearly wasn't designed for someone on a bike with a crap ton of stuff on it. I don't know why I decide to try things out like that so much when I fully expect bad results but oh well, lesson learned maybe. This ferry ride was even harder to see anything as the smoke was thicker now than the previous one. Since the road to Powell River starts at the ferry, once all the vehicles from the ferry passed me, there was essentially no traffic from that point on for most of the way to the town. This stretch also provided more chances to see the ocean than that I had already rode, making it even nicer. It wasn't a long way to get there from the ferry, so I was there not long after noon with the rest of the day to relax as I had about another 24 hours until Carsten and Isabell would be there. I'd check out more of the coastline while mostly relaxing for the rest of the day, before setting up camp in the woods by myself for the last time for a little while.

The next morning while I was killing time waiting for the ferry to come, I realized I'd screwed up the time the ferry was coming. I thought it was coming later but turns out it was arriving right at the very moment I was realizing I'd screwed up the time. Luckily Powell River wasn't very big and getting to the ferry was downhill, so I booked it down to find the ferry was docked but hadn't unloaded yet. Right after getting there it did start to undock and in very short time was Carsten and Isabell. I was quite happy to see them but brought bad news as I noticed right away that Isabell's one tire had gone flat during the ride over. I may have been bad luck for Isabell, as she got a flat the moment she saw me and would end up getting I think 4 flats during the time we rode together again. We'd both hit major milestones in the few weeks since we had cycled together before (me crossing Canada and them finishing what they had originally intended to do) but now looked forward to riding a last stretch in Canada together before we all left the country (they planned to go home after this).

We headed to a bike shop in town (and luckily grabbed a couple spare tubes for Isabell) and started to come up with a plan for the ride back to Vancouver. I'd been paying attention for potential good camping spots along the way back and had some spots I thought might be good. The first of which I'd already stayed at: the campground on the quiet lake on the other side of the ferry. So we decided on heading there for the night. It was nice getting to ride with them again and chatting along the way, as I hadn't really done much of that since the last time we were riding together in the Rockies. I hadn't thought of it myself, but Carsten pointed out to me, that from this point forward, I'd be travelling south. I'd been riding west for nearly the entirety of the trip, but now that general direction would switch south for an undetermined but potentially long time. The ride back was good and we found a nice campground on the ocean not too far from the ferry to kill time at, while we waited for the ferry. Once across the ferry, it was a short ride up to the campground and lake. This time there were others over in the section of the campground that I had been at a couple nights ago, so we didn't have it entirely to ourselves but it was still a very quiet, peaceful and beautiful place nonetheless.

River along the road

None of us were in a rush, so we planned to split the rest of the way back yet into a couple days, plus there was a lake that I had passed on the way to Powell River, that I thought may be a good place to camp and we'd be able to check that today now. With all the up and down we were doing, we ended up riding at our own paces for the most part, to tackle the hills. This usually would lead to me following Carsten up the hills, then stopping and waiting at the top for Isabell to catch up. Luckily this is what we decided, as while me and Carsten were stopped and talking at the top of one of them waiting for Isabell, I finally, after nearly finishing my time in Canada got an encounter that I'd been waiting for. While we were talking and there was a break in the traffic, we heard a ruffling in the bushes on the other side of the road and saw a bear running away in the other direction. I'm guessing with the traffic break, it was able to hear us which probably spooked it and made it run away. So while I only got to see a bear running away, I finally got to see a bear on the trip! So many times I'd heard people saying they had just seen them in areas, plus twice Rochelle even ran into them in between our camping nights, yet somehow, even though I'd been riding and camping in prime bear territory for weeks now, thaey had managed to entirely evade me until now.

After a not so long day, we made it to the lake I wanted to check out for camping. It turned out to be perfect as after a little walk in, it turned out to have a picnic tables in a spot that was perfect for camping next to the lake. The lake was great and after swimming for a while, I made supper for all of us. One thing I've noticed about travelling by bike, is sometimes it seems to attract some strange people towards you. Tonight was one of those nights as while prepping supper, a man and his dog showed up. The dog was nice but the man ended up talking with (to, not so much with) us for a couple hours. This included the topic of some weird 6 dimensional (and non-sensical) geometry that I can't remember what he called it, just to give an example of the type of stuff that I mean. None of us were rude enough to ask him to stop, so ended up listening to him for a couple hours. This was a little problem that happened a few times so far, but would end up becoming more of an issue once I started heading south that I'll mention more so in the future. After he and a couple others left, the rest of the night was very quiet for the 3 of us by ourselves.

The next morning we went the rest of the way back to the ferry to Vancouver. Along the way back came more flats for Isabell and also while we waited for the ferry in Gibsons, me and Carsten decided to ride up a 21% hill for fun (surprisingly it wasn't that bad). Once back in Vancouver, we rode the shoreline road back to the Lions Gate Bridge, with a DQ blizzard run along the way. We all ended up going back to the community center that I had spent a week at near UBC. We spent one final evening there together before heading to the woods to camp for the night. I'm happy that I decided to meetup with Carsten and Isabell again instead of just deciding to continue forward. I've learned it's not too often you meetup with people to be able to to ride with them, plus with all of us soon being separated by an ocean, I was happy to see them again when I had no idea when the next time would be.

In the morning we split up, they headed towards their host for the night and I went to the bike shop for the appointment I had scheduled before leaving Vancouver the first time. I'd gone quite a ways since I last had the drivetrain worked on, so got a couple parts swapped out plus had a couple other adjustments made. After that, I was back to the community center preparing any last things before I wanted to, before I planned on going to the border tomorrow. I would end up getting to feel more anxious about leaving for the USA as the day went on and then wouldn't leave me the next day either, as I decided to wait another day due to the anxiety.

The day after that though, it was officially go time as the nerves started to settle some about going to the USA. A lot of the way to the border was backtracking how I originally had made it into Vancouver, so was easier to navigate than usual for travelling through a large city. Before reaching the border, I stopped at a Tim Horton's in White Rock as it felt like an appropriate symbol before I left Canada. Then shortly after, I reached the Peace Arch, officially marking the end of my journey in Canada. Getting to travel across Canada was amazing and I had met so many great people and had so many amazing experiences that I'll remember forever. But now it was time to start a new country.

Peace Arch

Distance Biked: 546.8km

Total Distance Biked: 9298.6km

Reaching the Pacific

     I was now on the final stretch on my journey of crossing Canada. What seemed so far away and at times what seemed impossible was now in reach. Making it to the Pacific Ocean and being able to say that I've crossed the entire country, from Atlantic to Pacific, was so close now. I only had about half of BC to go yet and the closer I got, the more and more I thought about how close I was and how I wanted to make it to the ocean. Eventually as I neared the end of my crossing, my thoughts would be dominated about how badly I wanted to finish, but before all that, I was still near Grand Forks on the Trans-Canada Trail.

I awoke to a nice view of the valley below me, with mist sitting over the river. I've always liked to take my time in the morning and move at my own pace, so Rochelle was much faster than me and ended up leaving about an hour before I did. I was starting to learn from looking at my map, where the best spots for camping would likely be along the trail and had pointed out to Rochelle where I though I might stop for the night before she left.

Early morning mist over the valley

The trail started the day the same way it had been for the past couple days, but would soon change as I neared Midway and the start of the Kettle Valley rail trail (KVR). It was no longer isolated away from everything but instead going through villages, farms and other places. This lead to the trail constantly changing but still being beautiful the whole stretch. Along the way were more tunnels, forest, singletrack, farm fields, orchards, mountains and lots of gates that you had to stop to open and close. Once I officially reached the start of the section considered the KVR, I started to see more cyclists along the trail as this is a trail that a lot of people go to ride. I met a couple of sisters (I can't remember their names) that I rode with for a little while and would run into again later in the day.

I would end up reaching the spot I thought would be good for camping, which it was, and ended up stopping there for the day. It was raised up a ways above the Kettle River with a picnic table but I was able to get down to the river from there to swim, wash up and do some laundry. I was somewhat surprised that Rochelle wasn't there and I guessed she must've gone further ahead as I hadn't passed her along the way. However a few minutes after I got there, I noticed some smoke coming from just ahead along the river. I went to check it out and down on a little beach, right below my raised section where I had stopped, was Rochelle with a campfire going. Somehow we had ended up in the same spot now 3 nights in a row.

This was one of those really nice spots that I was in no rush to leave, so I took my time in the morning and like the previous couple days, Rochelle was on the road a good while before me with no idea if we'd run into each other again or not. There wasn't much to see as the trail was nothing but forest all day. There was construction along the trail at one point though. The detour around it reminded me a lot of the Gray Creek pass (but much shorter obviously), so I wasn't exactly the happiest riding that after taking on Gray Creek a few days before. I found a good spot along the trail to camp for the night but there was a campground a bit further ahead, so I decided to check it out to see if I could get water there. To my surprise, at the campground was Rochelle who I had run into now for the 4th night in a row. We talked and made supper before I went back to the spot I had found a little earlier.

KVR

It was nice to be able to run into and talk with the same person a few days in a row, but this would almost certainly be the last time we'd run into each other, as Rochelle was gonna keep going on the trail, while I planned to explore Kelowna. I was on the bike early and before riding down into Kelowna, I went a bit further on the trail so I could see Myra Canyon. Myra Canyon was really nice with all of its trussell bridges and the view of Kelowna down below past the canyon. It was a little unfortunate though how it was plugged full of tourists. After getting around the canyon, I doubled back around the canyon to get to the FSR that would go down into Kelowna. On the way back, I ran into Rochelle one final time as for the first time, I was the first one on the bike in the morning.

Myra Canyon over Kelowna

Myra Canyon trussell bridge

Myra Canyon

Once I made it down the FSR, I was greeted with lots of orchards along the edges of Kelowna. I was now in the Okanagan Valley and getting a little look into why it's so renowned for its produce. Kelowna might've been the greenest city I've ever seen (I really haven't seen that many cities though), as it almost seemed like the orchards were trying to bleed into the city. There was a nice bike path near Lake Okanagan too that lead to the bridge that crossed the lake. I took advantage of all the produce stands along the edge of the city and stocked up on some fresh fruit before leaving.

Orchard in Kelowna

The next day I got to ride along Lake Okanagan as I headed south from Kelowna. The ride was along the edge of the highway there, which is advertised as a bike route, but I really didn't feel overly comfortable riding there. It did provide amazing views out over the lake and the hills that towered over it though. I was able to get off of the highway and back to a quieter route after Summerland though. Leaving Summerland I got to ride through plenty more orchards and vineyards before leaving civilization behind again. There's a road that goes from Summerland to Princeton which I would've thought would have a good amount of traffic on it, but it turned out to rarely have any vehicles going along it. The trail went along the same route but was sandy and hard (at times impossible on my heavy bike) to ride, so I ended up mostly staying on the nice empty dirt road instead. I would get back onto the trail later to find a camping spot and ended up finding a great spot with a little shelter that local snowmobilers had built. It was such a quiet and peaceful night there and it was one of the rare nights I was able to sleep without the outer layer of my tent making it even nicer and peaceful.

Lake Okanagan

Outside of Summerland

In the morning I noticed there were berry bushes where I camped, so I ended up getting some thimbleberries and saskatoons with my breakfast. It was another quiet ride on the road until I made it to Princeton. This would be as far as I would go along the trail. A few years ago floods had washed out the trail beyond Princeton and the trail bridge leaving the town had half of it missing due to being destroyed from the floods. I would go to that bridge though to camp for the night along the bank of the now very low river. It was another hot BC day but I had the shallow river I could lay down in to cool myself down, making it not so bad.

Camping in Princeton

From here on I'd be back on highways all the way to the coast. Being back on the faster highways and with how close I was starting to get to the Pacific, almost all I was starting to think about was how badly I wanted to make it the Pacific and officially finish crossing Canada. It helped that after riding the trails for a while now, I was looking forward to riding paved road again and being able to grind out some longer distance riding. This would sadly be my last day of getting to ride over mountains though, as once I made it to Hope I'd be in the Fraser Valley. The mountains didn't disappoint as I got to ride 2 mountain passes along a long stretch that was almost entirely uninhabited. They provided some more great views that I had gotten accustomed to at this point, being able to see out over long distances and also provide great views of the other surrounding mountains. The best part of all about the passes though, is the downhill after the long climb up and the long descent down to Hope and the Fraser Valley didn't disappoint. In Hope I had a nice chat with a local and his kids before finding a nice camping spot along the river in town.

Hope rockslide

After a couple weeks of avoiding it, I was now back on the Trans-Canada and with me starting to reach the cities that surround Vancouver, it was getting a lot busier. Making it worse was yet another very hot day probably in the mid 30's, plus one of my saddle sores decided it wanted to be very sore this day. On the positive side though, the road was now flat making for easy riding and while I wasn't riding over mountains anymore, they still surrounded in every direction with snowy ones returning as well. I found a couple of nice parks to stop in along the way including the one at Bridal Falls which was sort of like a rainforest. Whenever I wasn't focused on how bad my sore hurt, my time was spent thinking about all that I had done so far and just how far I'd come after the struggle that the beginning of the trip was. I'd make it through Chilliwack and Abbotsford before stopping in Aldergrove where I had a bit of a hard time finding somewhere to setup my tent for the night.

Bridal Falls Park

This was it now. I only had about 60-70km to go yet to reach Iona Beach which is where I picked that I was going to see and touch the Pacific for the first time. I was up early as I wanted to get going and also so I could try to get ahead of the heat too. Being in city now and no longer being on the Trans-Canada meant navigating was much harder now, as I frequently had to stop to figure out where I was going. Figuring out how to get on and across the bridges along the way wasn't super easy either, but Vancouver area had some routes and signage that did help make things a bit easier at times. I stopped for a break about halfway there after crossing one of the bridges. While there, another cyclist saw me and stopped to chat. This was Peter who had done a few shorter trips like going to Portland. He congratulated me on crossing Canada but I still hadn't crossed yet, I still had a bit further to go until I could say I'd officially done it.

The final stretch now would be almost all along the Fraser River. A lot of it was on a nice road with very little traffic. It didn’t even seem like I was in a city but rather could have been riding along a river in a rural area in Quebec. There were lots of nice views too, but no matter how nice it all was, all my mind could think about anymore was just how close I was now to crossing Canada. I’d cross one more bridge and make it onto the island with the airport and the beach that would mark my crossing. The wind had been against me all day, but this final stretch along the airport out in the open had noticeably stronger headwinds that I could see slowing down all the other cyclists going in the same direction as me. I’d hated and been fighting the wind the whole way across Canada, so it was only appropriate it would try to fight one final time. It couldn’t defeat me though, as this time I rejoiced that it blew against me because it felt like I had won the long war that we had been fighting.

I had overcome the struggles of my inexperience, the weather and conditions of the first week in Nova Scotia. After resting my bad knee, I had restarted and rode along the coast of New Brunswick. In Quebec things started to turn around in the great biking province, as I had started to enjoy the trip. I got to see a lot of friends in Ontario and made a new one that I got to ride with for a little while too. I crossed the Great Lakes in the seemingly never ending wilderness of Northern Ontario. I got to experience the flatness, endless fields and great generosity of the people of the prairies. I saw and rode among the greatest marvel of Canada in the Rocky Mountains, where I met lots of people including a couple I hope will be life long friends. I saw more mountains and had amazing camping along the trails of British Columbia. And now as I made it past the airport, I was seeing the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

Iona Beach

Shortly after passing the airport, I would make it to Iona Beach. The tide was out and it appeared the beach was very shallow as the edge of the water was nowhere nearby. The beach was a long strip that separated the ocean from the Fraser River, so I decided to ride out farther to see if I could reach the water. This would be in vein though, as I soon realized that it appeared that the edge of the water may have been a couple kilometers away. There were still some pools of water that were out a little ways that still count as Pacific Ocean water. This wasn’t quite how I had envisioned reaching the Pacific would go, but it really didn’t matter. I walked out and stood in a pool and started celebrating. I had done it, I had biked across the entire length of Canada!

Reached the Pacific!

Distance Biked: 701.6km

Total Distance Biked: 8751.8km

Mountains of BC

     Reaching BC felt like a huge accomplishment. In doing so, it now meant that I was on the final stretch of Canada and not that far from Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean. While I was getting closer to finishing Canada, I wasn't in a rush to finish, rather the opposite. Instead of staying along the Trans-Canada through the Rockies, I decided to head south on a longer route that had been suggested to me by a few people. The southern part of BC has a rail trail that runs most of the length of the province and I'd been told that it was both enjoyable to ride and very scenic. Brian, who I met in Assiniboia, had even sent me the whole route from Merritt to Fernie known as the BC Epic 1000 that some people race each year. I wasn't sure just how much of it I'd ride, but decided that I was for sure going to check at least some of it out.

I'd still be riding in the mountains for the rest of BC, but they would be different from what I'd experienced so far. I'd been on roads with huge mountains in every direction, lined up along each other. Some of the mountains were green, but most were bare, gray rock. There also was a decent amount that had glaciers or some form of snow on them too. It'd still be like this my first day in BC, as I rode through Kootenay National Park, but after that it'd change. The mountains now would almost all be green, covered in trees and not quite as tall either. The roads also weren't designed for the picturesque views that you see along the Trans-Canada, but the mountains are still incredible there, just a little different.

Kootenay National Park

Before I left the campground in Marble Canyon, I noticed my back tire was pretty flat. I decided to pump it back up instead of checking to see if something was causing it to lose air, even though every time this happened, it would end up in me having to stop later and properly fix something that was causing it to go flat in the first place. The tire held for a while, but by the afternoon while I was climbing a pass, I noticed the tire was losing air again. I properly patched it this time as I found a wire in the tube. It did give me a break from the climb though, which was nice. While Kootenay National Park was still incredibly beautiful, it wasn't quite as breathtaking as the Banff and Jasper parks were. One thing though that was quite the thing to see, was the scars of previous wildfires that had struck the park in the past. I had asked a woman about them while I was taking a break during the day and she told me that some of the still standing burnt trees were from a fire over 30 years ago. I could tell that those weren't from a recent fire as there were plenty of living green trees growing among them now, but there were still so many standing from a fire that long ago, that it was hard to believe.

Remnants of old wildfires with new growth

The ride down the mountain pass I climbed during the day, down into Radium Hot Springs was probably the funnest downhill I've ever rode. The twisty roads combined with cliff faces right against the side of the roads made for an incredibly unique and fun environment to ride through. There were also a lot of big horn sheep along the way, mostly on the cliffs but some were ground level too. There were even a couple on the edge of the road at one point that I rode right next to and they weren't scared at all. Towards the end of the long downhill, I passed through a tunnel that, as I approached it quite quickly looked really cool as it connected the cliffs on each side. A little after that, the cliff faces seemed like they might have been leaning over the road as it looked like they trying to squeeze the road shut.

Big horn sheep along the road

Getting down the pass took me from the higher elevations with cooler temperatures (maybe mid-teens this day) down into the Columbia Valley where it wouldn't have been far from 30 degrees. It didn't feel too bad though descending into the heat as I had close to a week away from it with much cooler weather. The valley provided its own sights to see too. It was of course surrounded by mountains on each side and when I was higher above its base, I could see the Columbia River weaving its way through the valley and the surrounding farm land.

Columbia Valley

I ended up making it to the town of Invermere for the day. When I made it there, I looked for somewhere to go to celebrate making it to BC and also crossing into the Pacific watershed as well. I ended up finding an asian buffet and decided to take full advantage of it. Well I ended up taking too much advantage of it, as I ate way too much food and could hardly make myself finish what I had gotten for food. I was so full that when I finished. I just laid next to the restaurant for at least a half an hour before I felt like I could possibly make myself bike anywhere else.

While I hadn't minded descending down into the heat, I was back to not caring for it the next day. It was around 30 again and the wind frustrated me all day as it went back and forth on just how much it wanted to fight me. The day did start pretty good though as I found a nice paved bike trail that took me past Windermere Lake before I was back on highway the rest of the day. Shortly after I was back on the highway, I met the biker who was on the longest trip of all the bikers I've met. This was Summit who had been riding since November of the year before. He started from his home in Vermont and basically did a loop around the USA as he went down the east coast, across the south and then up the west. He didn't have an end planned, similar to how I was going at this point, but knew he was going to check out the Canadian Rockies before heading to Vancouver.

Back on the highway, the landscape started to change into something I had never seen before. I think it was called open pine forest. It became very dry grassland with scattered pine trees throughout it. It also had a unique smell as I would describe it as a mix of the pine trees and the dryness of the land combined. If there was ever an area that looked like it was destined to one day be ablaze from a wildfire, I'd say this was probably it. While it provided a unique experience, it wasn't helping protect me from the heat, sun and wind that kept beating me. The final stretch of riding was very tiring but I ended up making it to Wasa, where there was a nice big lake for me to jump in and cool down. I even got some laundry done at the lake, as the weather was perfect for it to dry quickly. Wasa was a nice little spot and some older ladies even ended up pointing out to me where there was some crown land that I could camp on for the night.

I had ridden over 100km the previous 5 days and had gotten myself excited about wanting to do a full week straight of at least 100 km days, but the heat combined with the fatigue of the distance I'd down and fighting the wind, was enough to make me concede. I decided on having a shorter day and letting my body get some rest before starting the route Brian had sent me. I made the ride to the touristic town of Kimberley and spent the afternoon in a library out of the heat.

Waterfall in Kemberley

Leaving Kimberley, I was now on the route that Brian had shown to me and starting to head west again. The start of it was very nice as I was able to get away from constant traffic for the first time in weeks, probably since earlier in the prairies. Not only that but the scenery was amazing again as I was going along a river which opened to a very nice lake at one point, with large green mountains on each side of me too. The enjoyment would soon change though as I turned off of the nice dirt road I had been on, onto a forest service road (FSR). The FSR's are basically the equivalent of logging roads but are maintained well enough that they are traversable, unlike the muddy mess I got myself into early on in the Atlantic provinces. "Maintained" though doesn't mean that they're in good condition, just that they're kept in a state such that you could get through them by vehicle, bike or foot.

Gray Creek Pass (the FSR I was on now) was incredibly rough, primarily due to all the big loose rocks all over the place. I was no longer able to enjoy the scenery around me as I had been earlier, as I found myself having to constantly stare down at the road so I could successfully bike it. There were parts of it too where it would get very steep (this road is a mountain pass) and that's when the loose rocks were at their worst. Gray Creek Pass would end up being easily the hardest place I've ever biked (successfully, I'm not counting the areas that I just ended up walking through mud) and the place I pushed myself the hardest to cycle. During the trip, I would get some comments regularly from people and one them was that I must have strong legs. Well today I was proving that true each time I grinded my way up the steep sections, even though my tires might slip or suddenly change direction due to the rocks.

As tough as I was finding it, there were some parts to it that were nice. After a few vehicles passed me at the very start, I didn't encounter a single one after that. There were also some really nice spots to stop at. Best of all though was in the moments I did stop, was just the feeling of how undisturbed the place was. There were no vehicles nearby to make noises and instead you could only hear the wind and running water. I also enjoyed in those moments, that I was entirely alone in the wilderness and I was able to enjoy it to myself.

Eventually I did reach the top and boy was I ever proud of myself when I summited. It was easily one of the physically hardest things I've done and knowing that most other people probably couldn't complete that ride (at least without walking a lot of it) was something to be proud of. The summit also marked a new highest elevation reached by bike as it was a little higher up than the passes I had done along the Icefield Parkway. I celebrated and then relaxed at the summit before heading down the other side. I considered camping up there as there was a nice camping spot but it was cold up there and I didn't feel like staying in the cold the rest of the day. It was even cold enough that I found myself in my winter jacket again.

Gray Creek summit

The other side of the pass was entirely different from the side that I had climbed. This side was not nearly as rough as the first side with far less big loose rocks. However it presented a different type of challenge. From bottom to top, there was a 1500m elevation difference and this was only over 17km of distance. This lead to the gradient being very steep with it being 9% on average and plenty of times the slope would reach the mid-teens as well. I had to ride my brakes so hard the whole way down that my hands started to hurt quite a bit. On the way down, I met another biker who was slowly working his way up. This was Charlie who was riding part of the same route that Brian had given me. I wished him good luck and continued down. On the way down, I experienced the biggest sudden temperature change I think I ever have. I was cold in my winter jacket with layers on at the top and then at the bottom it was back to near 30 degrees heat again.

When I was making supper in Crawford Bay, I was confused as the time on my phone and bike computer weren't matched up anymore. After asking around, I found out that I had crossed into the Pacific time zone somewhere along the pass. This was yet another big milestone as I had crossed into the last time zone of Canada. It was also quite the thing to put into perspective that I had gone far enough at this point that I had been in 5 different time zones. I ended the day on a beach by a ferry I'd grab in the morning at Kootenay Bay. It was a little wooded area and while there, I met Jules who had been living homeless in that wooded area for the last 10 years. It's a nice spot but I don't know how he manages it there in the winter as I would think it would probably be brutal there then.

I grabbed the early ferry across Kootenay Lake and decided I'd have a shorter day again (Gray Creek really took quite a bit out of me). On the other side I met David who was riding a lot of the BC trails. He seemed unaware of what he'd be getting himself into today, so I warned him about the ride to come, especially since he told me he was nearly out of food. I decided Nelson would be where I'd stop for the day and I made it there by noon. Nelson has a very nice, big park along the Kootenay River that I was told about while on the ferry ride in the morning. It was so nice that I ended up spending a lot of my day there before I left the small city to find a camping spot in the evening.

I decided to skip the part of the trail leaving Nelson and instead hook back onto it at Castlegar, which saved me around 200km I think. The day started with a pretty good climb and descent back down on a road with nearly no traffic. This was what I needed at the moment to help get my mind back in the right state as Gray Creek kind've got me out of my normal rhythm. After briefly stopping in Castlegar, I made it to BC's rail trails for the first time. The trails go up and down mountains the same as all the roads in BC it seems, but since these were designed for trains, the elevation change is far more gradual making them quite a bit easier than the steeper roads at times.

When I got to the trail head, there were some jeeps there trying to get in. The entrance was gated as clearly, it was to keep vehicles out of the trail (which there shouldn't be vehicles on trails). So then to my surprise, after I had stopped to take a break, the same jeeps were now coming up along the trail. They happened to stop at the same place as I did and we ended up talking. I stayed nice (and they were nice people) but I was quite annoyed that they were on the trail now. They found another way onto the trail (I even said to them back at the trail head that it wasn't meant for vehicles) and now were going to drive along it. There wasn't even room for anything besides their vehicles, so when they passed me further along, I had to pull off of the trail to let them go by. Needless to say, I wasn't happy and unfortunately this wouldn't be the end of it.

Columbia River from trail

The trail itself was very nice. It had nice views over the river as I kept slowly getting higher above it as I went. It was also very quiet and peaceful, as the section I was on went in the opposite direction of the roads, leading me out to be completely out on my own (when there weren't vehicles on the trail). Further along, I found out why there were vehicles that wanted to get on the trail. That reason being that this section of the trail had old railway tunnels along it. These were incredibly cool both in how they looked and also being able to travel in the mountains instead of just saying I was on them. I rode through a few short tunnels where you could see the opening of the other side when you entered, but then I reached the big one. This one was 1km long and pitch black inside. I couldn't see a thing and had to get out my headlamp to be able to ride in it. There was no seeing the other side of this tunnel leading to an entirely different experience than the shorter tunnels. It felt almost like I was deep in a cave, at least it did to start out, as part of the way through, a couple vehicles drove through it completely destroying the incredible moment I was experiencing. In total I ended up coming across about 10 cars before I stopped for the day.

Small tunnel

Another small tunnel

The long tunnel

Okay, now I'm gonna go on that rant I promised a couple posts ago. But first I have to tell of the asshole I encountered the next morning. I was waiting out the rain under a shelter when a vehicle pulled up. A guy came out and asked me where the tunnels were. He reeked of weed and his eyes were bloodshot. He was clearly driving under the influence and in no way, shape or form should've been driving. So here he was on the trail, a place for people to go and be safe away from vehicles, a total and complete threat to anyone he may encounter along the way. Unfortunately I didn't think to get his license plate, but I was in the middle of nowhere with no service and no way to prove anything, so not like it would've done any good anyways.

So let me start by reiterating, trails are a place for people, whether you want to hike, bike or even use 4 wheelers (I'm also not a big fan of but they are designed to be used in these places so I can't be too upset), to be able to go enjoy themselves away from the constant threat of vehicles that are present basically everywhere else you go. I don't care that there are cool tunnels on a trail, don't bring your stupid vehicle into a place that is designed to be vehicle free. Find a different way to see them; bike, hike or again, even bring a 4 wheeler in, I don't care, just not your stupid car.

Now, this rant is not just about the trail, far from it, it's just the event that tipped me over the edge. Really this more about my overall dislike for vehicles and the culture that surrounds them. First off, and this isn't even really related to the problems of vehicles, but I hate the fact that America is designed with the expectation that you are supposed buy and own a vehicle. This is especially true if you don't live in a city. Public transportation is lackluster in both Canada and the USA from what I've seen, this includes uninspiring bus networks and a total lack of rail networks that you would see in Europe. Also all infrastructure is designed specifically for vehicles with no thought given to other means. Rarely is there anywhere for a biker or hiker to go other than being forced onto a road with speeding vehicles that can kill you.

Speaking of vehicles killing you, did you know that the leading cause of non-natural death (I'm considering illnesses to be natural as they have always and will always happen plus occur in all other species we see too), are vehicle related incidents, killing over 1million people per year. Just think about that for a second, that's over 1million deaths per year that are almost all entirely avoidable. Canada has one of the lower vehicle causality rates in the world, but still has about 2000 people die each year. Another way to think about that is about 1 in every 20000 people in Canada will be killed each year, or 6-7 people will die every day because of avoidable vehicle accidents.

Deaths aren't the only problem that vehicles create, with greenhouse gasses and noise being other issues. Vehicles are one of the leading emitters of greenhouse gasses. Considering the state of climate change, which soon (in relative terms) may be better classified as a climate crisis, one would think it would be good to try to cut down on emissions. Admittedly there are some changes starting to be made in this regard with electric vehicles, however I would be pleasantly surprised if the visions some people have of them replacing gas burning vehicles actually comes to fruition. This is specifically a me problem, but being on the road on a bike means I am constantly exposed to the fumes coming out of cars as well. The noise of vehicles is another thing I hate about them. Have you ever stopped and noticed just how loud vehicles really are? Cities are very noisy places, but if you were to have no vehicles running in a city, it wouldn't be entirely quiet, but it would be so much quieter. I travelled the whole length of Canada, a country known for it's uncivilized nature, of which I was in plenty, and rarely across the whole length of it was I able to go without hearing vehicles, even more remotely the sound would still carry out into the distance.

Potentially worse than everything I've already complained about is the culture surrounding cars. A little part of this is what I've already mentioned about the expectation that everyone has one, but really this is more about how people drive and tret each other. Considering how much time I've spent on the road with vehicles, I think I have sufficient enough data to speak confidently about this. So many drivers seem to drive with a mentality that they need to get from one place to another as quick as possible . If something happens along the way that would disrupt that, they believe it gives them the right to get angry and begin acting recklessly so that they can continue trying to get to their destination as quick as possible. Something slow on, or by the road like a bike, pedestrian or animal: "Why should me and very fast death machine be slowed down by something like that?! How dare they do this to me! I should never have to leave my straight line so I'll teach them a lesson and drive dangerously close to them to teach them a lesson!". Slow driver on the road ahead of them: "Fuck you for slowing me down! You should drive at my pace so to never slow me down! Now I have to pass you even if it's dangerous and of course I'll flip you off and yell at you as I do, so it's known how wrongly I've been done in this situation!". Am I exaggerating? Yes (although road rage is generally this ridiculous). Is this actually what the common driver mentality is like but to a lesser extent? Yes. There's more to it than this that I just can't remember at the moment too that I strongly dislike about driving culture. This also isn't just a situation of a biker complaining about cars. While yes some people choose to be assholes because I'm on a bike, there are also lots of drivers who treat me well because I'm on a bike. You reading this right now who probably drives a car? Those same drivers are far less likely to be sympathetic to you in any fashion. Also consider that these same drivers I'm talking about could be you. Since I am viewed as an obstacle far more often being on a bike and get passed so much, I do deal with more crap, but this isn't just the complaints of a cyclist. This terrible culture is what I believe is the main culprit in why so many driving incidents occur.

I understand the benefits to vehicles and some vehicles are absolutely necessary, however it seems the negatives never seem to be discussed. I'm not sure whether it's because some people are unaware/have never thought about them before or just that people generally don't care. Personally, I clearly don't like how things are and wish they would change, even just a little bit, but I'm not optimistic enough to believe they ever will. I wanted to keep the blog just about my journey and keep my thoughts and opinions out of it the best I could, but my vehicle problem had become too large a part of my trip to not include this. Okay, back to the story now.

It started to rain after I made it through the long tunnel. Luckily the trail would have a picnic table every once in a while where there used to be train stations and a couple of these were even sheltered. At the summit of the trail was one of these sheltered picnic tables, which was a perfect spot to stop for the night. I had this nice spot in the middle of nature entirely to myself, or so I thought. An hour or 2 after getting there, to my surprise another biker showed up. This was Rochelle who was on the first day of her mini trip cycling part of the BC trails. She also decided to stop at the summit for the night.

Shelter at the summit

I decided to wait out the rain in the morning but Rochelle didn't want to and went on ahead of me. A bit before noon it stopped and I got to coast down the other side of the trail now. When we were on the summit, Rochelle pointed out that she thought we might be in clouds there but I wasn't sure, now after leaving and going down, I could see that we definitely were in clouds. As I had gotten low enough to be below them now, I could see them above me in the trees on the mountains. At one point I encountered a brook that crossed the trail. I had learned during this trip (especially early on, on the mess of a trail I took in NS), that I usually couldn't get across without my bike stopping but I decided I was gonna try to ride across it anyway. Well, my bike hit a bump and stopped and down went my foot into the brook, getting soaked. I could've walked across some rocks but instead got a soaked foot for the day.

Mountain in clouds

Along the way to Grand Forks, I came across a landscape that I found quite strange. On one side of me were green mountains lined in trees and the other side were smaller mountains full of grassland with very few trees. I have no idea what made the two sides so different but found it strange. I'd get to Grand Forks and spend some time there before going back onto the trail later in the day. The trail so far had lots of spots that were perfect for camping. I think it was designed with spots like this to camp on purpose as lots of people travelled them on multi day trips. I planned to stop at the first good spot I saw along the trail for camping that I could find and when I did, there was Rochelle who had already gotten setup for the night. We got caught up on what our days had been like, while looking out over the really nice view we had as we were overlooking a valley with a river weaving it's way through it.

Divided landscape

Lookout over the valley

With that, I was about halfway across BC and on the final stretch of making it across Canada.

Distance Biked: 582.8km

Total Distance Biked: 8050.2km