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