I'm glad I did take off today. I didn't feel great when I woke up and was concerned that I might be coming down with something. Anyways, it gave me a chance to take a nap and to visit the town. The town itself is nothing too special, but the surroundings are gorgeous as it is surrounded by mountains. As you no doubt all know, hope is the "Chainsaw Carving Capital of Canada" (I'm not making this up) and these carvings dot the whole of downtown. I took a picture of the nicest one I saw.
The people are really nice here as well. I stopped in at the health food store to get some vitamines (I wasn't feeling well) and the lady was super friendly. I told her about my trip and she gave me a bunch of free samples even though I likely will never be her customer again. Also, I was sure that the waitress at the restaurant where I ate this morning's breakfast came straight out of a Hollywood script. She had a one-liner for anything that anyone said and she called everyone "darling" or "junior". I think I was baptized "honey" by her. The restaurant was mediocre, but she made it entertaining:)
Here are some pictures of Hope.
They're calling for nice weather tomorrow. So I should be off. I'll hopefully post again in a few days. I'm off now to a restaurant called Rolly's (I had to go eat there:) and then it is off to see Inidiana Jones!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Lazy day
May 30 - Hope to Hope (0 km)
I know, I know. Three days of biking and I'm already taking a day off. It is pretty lame of me I must admit, but I woke up this morning with little energy and a sensation in my throat. The weather was still overcast and cold, so I decided to take it easy. Enough with the excuses. Truth be told, I felt lazy and wanted to rest up. Since I didn't do much training prior to the trip, I had told myself that I would take it easy in the beginning and heh, these are officially holidays and I plan to enjoy them:)
This morning I watched a bit of tennis, Spiderman 3 and Transformers. At this rate, I'll be so sick and tired of lounging around that I'll do twice the work tomorrow. Actually, in a little bit I'm off to the tourist info to see what Hope has to offer. It is a pretty town and the surroundings are beautiful. So I'm hoping there is a good trail that I could hike. I also noticed in my walk around the town yesterday that Indiana Jones is playing this evening. So I'll be checking that out. I do have to maintain my support of Hollywood blockbusters after all.
Confession time. The fashionistas amongst you may not want to read the following paragraph. Since my luggage space is rather limited, I only brought two pair of footwear: my bike shoes and my sandles. Since the bike shoes aren't meant for walking great distances, I wear my sandles when off the bike. Well yesterday, as previously reported, was super cold (I think I saw on the weather network that it reached a high of 12). So, yes, I wore socks with my sandles!!! I'm sorry it was a horrible thing to do, but the alternative would have been freezing feet. I realize this is no excuse and I will do my utmost to limit this type of eyesore and trust me, no pictures will be taken of my socked feet in sandles.
I know, I know. Three days of biking and I'm already taking a day off. It is pretty lame of me I must admit, but I woke up this morning with little energy and a sensation in my throat. The weather was still overcast and cold, so I decided to take it easy. Enough with the excuses. Truth be told, I felt lazy and wanted to rest up. Since I didn't do much training prior to the trip, I had told myself that I would take it easy in the beginning and heh, these are officially holidays and I plan to enjoy them:)
This morning I watched a bit of tennis, Spiderman 3 and Transformers. At this rate, I'll be so sick and tired of lounging around that I'll do twice the work tomorrow. Actually, in a little bit I'm off to the tourist info to see what Hope has to offer. It is a pretty town and the surroundings are beautiful. So I'm hoping there is a good trail that I could hike. I also noticed in my walk around the town yesterday that Indiana Jones is playing this evening. So I'll be checking that out. I do have to maintain my support of Hollywood blockbusters after all.
Confession time. The fashionistas amongst you may not want to read the following paragraph. Since my luggage space is rather limited, I only brought two pair of footwear: my bike shoes and my sandles. Since the bike shoes aren't meant for walking great distances, I wear my sandles when off the bike. Well yesterday, as previously reported, was super cold (I think I saw on the weather network that it reached a high of 12). So, yes, I wore socks with my sandles!!! I'm sorry it was a horrible thing to do, but the alternative would have been freezing feet. I realize this is no excuse and I will do my utmost to limit this type of eyesore and trust me, no pictures will be taken of my socked feet in sandles.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Let's begin...
May 27 – Vancouver to Rolley Lake Provincial Park (75.71 km)
Well my first three days have been good if froth with delays – especially day 1.
Day 1 was plagued with equipment adjustments. The day before, I had put my bike together and all seemed well, but apparently I am overconfident of my mechanical abilities. I started my ride at about 7AM. I wanted to do the cliché thing and dunk my wheel in the Pacific Ocean and then take off. I did the next best thing. When I arrived at the beach, moving my bike through the sand was like, well running it through sand (as you can see my ability to create clever similes have not improved). Since I was next to a dock I rolled my bike to a pilar and there it was written “repentez vous”. Well, I first found it odd to find a something written in French and that it was written that one should “repent” seemed appropriate considering I was going on this quixotic journey. So I layed my bike there, took the picture and started on my journey.
I planned to do as much mileage as possible and stop for breakfast in the outskirts of Vancouver. However, I found that my rear derailer was not working well. I stopped, made an adjustment and even though it sounded better, I thought it wise to have a pro look at it. However, the bike shop only opened at 10. So my breakfast in the outskirts turned out to be breakfast downtown. When the bike shop opened, I brought it in and Larry the mechanic told me that the rear derailer was fine, but my front derailer needed an adjustment. He suggested I take it out for a spin and it did sound a lot better and I went off. After a while the ticking sound in my rear derailer returned. Oh well, it will do for now, but on my next day off I'll go to a bike shop and see what's going on.
So the bike ride started around 10:30 and at about 11:30, I was going down a hill in Port Moody when I noticed that one of my saddle bags was hanging on only one hanger. I stopped without any problems, but this was a bit worrying, because if a bag falls when riding, it can throw off your balance and cause problems. Anyways, I took about an hour to figure out a fix for it. Essentially, I'm tying my bag to my rack with a zip lock. Not very elegant and a bit McGiver-ish, but it's doing the job. If anyone has faced this problem before and has any suggestions, please pass them on.
So what was supposed to be a short easy day, ended up going from 7AM to I think around 4PM.
May 28 – Rolley Lake to Harrison (69.21 km)
Short anecdote. This morning I was attacked by squirrels. It was crazy, at one point there were 5 of them taunting me and lunging for my food. Whoever thinks those little rodents are cute is sadly mistaken. One of those demon spawns actually chewed through a dry bag in which I was keeping my food.
Other than that, today, was more or less uneventful except that it was a beautiful day and the wind was thankfully at my back:) I did have to extend my ride however as my first campground choice (a provincial campground) was a dump. I had seen one along the way that seemed inviting and backtracked after being disappointed with my initial choice.
May 29 – Harrison Mills to Hope (54.14 km)
Last night was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping – it was totally Norman Rockwell worthy. Well things turned overnight and the skies opened up and it rained hard for a while. Thankfully, my tent proved to be up to the task and I was dry. A bit of humidity on the sleeping bag, but nothing bad. however, my tent was wet and some of my gear was as well. My tent is super tiny you see (I'll take a picture one of these days) and my panniers could never fit inside. So I left them under cover and it worked out pretty well, but the system isn't perfect.
Anyways, unless the weather turned, I knew that I'd want to stay in a motel for the evening in order to let my stuff dry properly. Since Harrison Mills doesn't have much to offer, I decided to bike a little ways to find a motel. Well it was cold, it was raining and it was windy (thankfully, most of the wind was at my back). So after a couple of hours, my rain gear was drenched and I was cold. I peddled faster to keep my body temperture up. I felt it a bit on the side of my leg where I assume my IT-band is. So I'll have to mindful of that in the days to come. I've never had problems with my IT-band, but I've been told it is a trip stopper if it does act up.
Like I said the wind was generally in my back so I made pretty good time and reached Hope at around 12:00. I didn't go any further because I was cold and according to my map, the next town that could guarantee having motels was about 100km away – wasn't going to happen today. So I'm now in the Royal Lodge Motel waiting for my laundry to get done (yep, I'm living the life of luxury:)
I think I figured out how to load my pictures. Check these out to see if it works: My first few days
Well my first three days have been good if froth with delays – especially day 1.
Day 1 was plagued with equipment adjustments. The day before, I had put my bike together and all seemed well, but apparently I am overconfident of my mechanical abilities. I started my ride at about 7AM. I wanted to do the cliché thing and dunk my wheel in the Pacific Ocean and then take off. I did the next best thing. When I arrived at the beach, moving my bike through the sand was like, well running it through sand (as you can see my ability to create clever similes have not improved). Since I was next to a dock I rolled my bike to a pilar and there it was written “repentez vous”. Well, I first found it odd to find a something written in French and that it was written that one should “repent” seemed appropriate considering I was going on this quixotic journey. So I layed my bike there, took the picture and started on my journey.
I planned to do as much mileage as possible and stop for breakfast in the outskirts of Vancouver. However, I found that my rear derailer was not working well. I stopped, made an adjustment and even though it sounded better, I thought it wise to have a pro look at it. However, the bike shop only opened at 10. So my breakfast in the outskirts turned out to be breakfast downtown. When the bike shop opened, I brought it in and Larry the mechanic told me that the rear derailer was fine, but my front derailer needed an adjustment. He suggested I take it out for a spin and it did sound a lot better and I went off. After a while the ticking sound in my rear derailer returned. Oh well, it will do for now, but on my next day off I'll go to a bike shop and see what's going on.
So the bike ride started around 10:30 and at about 11:30, I was going down a hill in Port Moody when I noticed that one of my saddle bags was hanging on only one hanger. I stopped without any problems, but this was a bit worrying, because if a bag falls when riding, it can throw off your balance and cause problems. Anyways, I took about an hour to figure out a fix for it. Essentially, I'm tying my bag to my rack with a zip lock. Not very elegant and a bit McGiver-ish, but it's doing the job. If anyone has faced this problem before and has any suggestions, please pass them on.
So what was supposed to be a short easy day, ended up going from 7AM to I think around 4PM.
May 28 – Rolley Lake to Harrison (69.21 km)
Short anecdote. This morning I was attacked by squirrels. It was crazy, at one point there were 5 of them taunting me and lunging for my food. Whoever thinks those little rodents are cute is sadly mistaken. One of those demon spawns actually chewed through a dry bag in which I was keeping my food.
Other than that, today, was more or less uneventful except that it was a beautiful day and the wind was thankfully at my back:) I did have to extend my ride however as my first campground choice (a provincial campground) was a dump. I had seen one along the way that seemed inviting and backtracked after being disappointed with my initial choice.
May 29 – Harrison Mills to Hope (54.14 km)
Last night was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping – it was totally Norman Rockwell worthy. Well things turned overnight and the skies opened up and it rained hard for a while. Thankfully, my tent proved to be up to the task and I was dry. A bit of humidity on the sleeping bag, but nothing bad. however, my tent was wet and some of my gear was as well. My tent is super tiny you see (I'll take a picture one of these days) and my panniers could never fit inside. So I left them under cover and it worked out pretty well, but the system isn't perfect.
Anyways, unless the weather turned, I knew that I'd want to stay in a motel for the evening in order to let my stuff dry properly. Since Harrison Mills doesn't have much to offer, I decided to bike a little ways to find a motel. Well it was cold, it was raining and it was windy (thankfully, most of the wind was at my back). So after a couple of hours, my rain gear was drenched and I was cold. I peddled faster to keep my body temperture up. I felt it a bit on the side of my leg where I assume my IT-band is. So I'll have to mindful of that in the days to come. I've never had problems with my IT-band, but I've been told it is a trip stopper if it does act up.
Like I said the wind was generally in my back so I made pretty good time and reached Hope at around 12:00. I didn't go any further because I was cold and according to my map, the next town that could guarantee having motels was about 100km away – wasn't going to happen today. So I'm now in the Royal Lodge Motel waiting for my laundry to get done (yep, I'm living the life of luxury:)
I think I figured out how to load my pictures. Check these out to see if it works: My first few days
Monday, May 26, 2008
May 26 - A Tale of Two Taxies
For several years now, I've been saying that the nicest taxi drivers can be found in St.-John's NFLD. I may have to revise this assessment.
My flight in yesterday was good in that it was uneventful (I rather like boring plane trips:), but my taxi ride to the hostel where I'm staying was really nice. I got this super nice driver that rivals the NFLD drivers that I've had. He was asking a bunch of questions about my trip. I suggested that he join me, but he decided not too:)
That ride was only surpassed by my ride to the airport in Ottawa. My friend Ginette was kind enough to offer to drive me to the airport (un grand merci Ginette) . Sure, she doesn't exactly count as a taxi driver, but I did provide payment (in chocolate no less) and besides what other taxi driver gives you a hug when they drop you off. In other words, I highly recommend Ginette's taxi service:)
After arriving in the hostel, I met up with my yoga friend Kevin who has been living in Vancouver for about 4 years. We rented a "dinghey" - I'm not disparaging the boat, Kevin told me that it was the proper term - and went for a one hour sail in the Bay. I knew this before, but I have to say it again, Vancouver is a beautiful city. The mountains on one side and the ocean on the other - it can't be beat - well except for Moncton of course. Then Kevin and I went to supper and he showed me some of the sights in the city. It was good seeing you Kevin!
My luggage arrived in one piece and I put my bike together this morning and all seems well. I also ran my final errands this morning (got some food and final camping supplies). So I'm off tomorrow. If all goes well, I'll be going on a relatively short ride of about 60km to Rolley Lake provincial park. The pictures on the net look pretty nice. Anyways, I'll keep you posted.
Ciao for now.
PS: Still working on posting some photos. I was hoping to post some today, but it's taking forever to load them on flickr. If someone knows a quicker way, let me know.
My flight in yesterday was good in that it was uneventful (I rather like boring plane trips:), but my taxi ride to the hostel where I'm staying was really nice. I got this super nice driver that rivals the NFLD drivers that I've had. He was asking a bunch of questions about my trip. I suggested that he join me, but he decided not too:)
That ride was only surpassed by my ride to the airport in Ottawa. My friend Ginette was kind enough to offer to drive me to the airport (un grand merci Ginette) . Sure, she doesn't exactly count as a taxi driver, but I did provide payment (in chocolate no less) and besides what other taxi driver gives you a hug when they drop you off. In other words, I highly recommend Ginette's taxi service:)
After arriving in the hostel, I met up with my yoga friend Kevin who has been living in Vancouver for about 4 years. We rented a "dinghey" - I'm not disparaging the boat, Kevin told me that it was the proper term - and went for a one hour sail in the Bay. I knew this before, but I have to say it again, Vancouver is a beautiful city. The mountains on one side and the ocean on the other - it can't be beat - well except for Moncton of course. Then Kevin and I went to supper and he showed me some of the sights in the city. It was good seeing you Kevin!
My luggage arrived in one piece and I put my bike together this morning and all seems well. I also ran my final errands this morning (got some food and final camping supplies). So I'm off tomorrow. If all goes well, I'll be going on a relatively short ride of about 60km to Rolley Lake provincial park. The pictures on the net look pretty nice. Anyways, I'll keep you posted.
Ciao for now.
PS: Still working on posting some photos. I was hoping to post some today, but it's taking forever to load them on flickr. If someone knows a quicker way, let me know.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
May 24 - 1 day before Vancouver
Disclaimer: I wish to apologize from the very beginning of this blog for the many spelling mistakes that will invariably occur in the coming months. There are two principle reasons for this:
1) Computer size: I’ll take a picture of my travel computer when I get the chance (it’s packed right now), because as you will see, it was designed with the hands of a 5-year old child in mind. As a result, my hulking hands are a wee bit clumsy.
2) Spell check: Since my computer is pretty much bare of all frills, there is no spell check. And to my father’s great dismay, I decided not to bring a dictionary on my trip. See there is something you should know about my father. He has an unhealthy relationship with dictionaries. He feels ill at ease if a dictionary is not at arms length. As a symbol of my rebellious nature, I declare this a dictionary free trip!
I shaved my head last night for the trip (hopefully, I’ll be able to post some photos soon – I’m working with limited bandwidth right now). I didn’t go to the scalp, but decided rather to keep a bit of peach-fuzz. It’s not the first time that I shaved my head. So there was no surprise, but it was a strange experience nonetheless. It was as if by changing my appearance I was crossing a point of no return and a bit of anxiety about leaving stuff behind. This is pretty foolish of course as I crossed the point of no return about 6 months ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’m super hyped to start my trip and am looking forward to starting rather than simply planning and talking about it. A bit of last minute jitters I suppose.
Thanks for checking out my blog. I probably won’t post again until Monday at the earliest as tomorrow promises to be pretty busy. I’m hoping to meet up with Kevin, a yoga friend who moved to Vancouver a few years ago.
Cheers
1) Computer size: I’ll take a picture of my travel computer when I get the chance (it’s packed right now), because as you will see, it was designed with the hands of a 5-year old child in mind. As a result, my hulking hands are a wee bit clumsy.
2) Spell check: Since my computer is pretty much bare of all frills, there is no spell check. And to my father’s great dismay, I decided not to bring a dictionary on my trip. See there is something you should know about my father. He has an unhealthy relationship with dictionaries. He feels ill at ease if a dictionary is not at arms length. As a symbol of my rebellious nature, I declare this a dictionary free trip!
I shaved my head last night for the trip (hopefully, I’ll be able to post some photos soon – I’m working with limited bandwidth right now). I didn’t go to the scalp, but decided rather to keep a bit of peach-fuzz. It’s not the first time that I shaved my head. So there was no surprise, but it was a strange experience nonetheless. It was as if by changing my appearance I was crossing a point of no return and a bit of anxiety about leaving stuff behind. This is pretty foolish of course as I crossed the point of no return about 6 months ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’m super hyped to start my trip and am looking forward to starting rather than simply planning and talking about it. A bit of last minute jitters I suppose.
Thanks for checking out my blog. I probably won’t post again until Monday at the earliest as tomorrow promises to be pretty busy. I’m hoping to meet up with Kevin, a yoga friend who moved to Vancouver a few years ago.
Cheers
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
