It was a beautiful morning by the roaring Willow Creek. After a late night, I took my time and brewed up some Starbucks instant extra bold coffee and toasted a bagel at the same time. My little Esbit stove is well worth its light weight when away from civilization.

The only challenge I see in the day ahead is that I have about 100 km to go and only about a liter of water. It is a sunny day so I set out to solve that before I leave. There is a sign in the rest area washroom that says the water is not potable and it stinks too so I decide boiling is out of the question. So I hang out at the rest stop for a while seeing if those stopping by have some extra water. I get my first liter from a woman traveling across Canada with her dog. She gives me the water from her dog’s water bottle (a beautiful glass bottle). The second liter I get from a professional “life coach” who agrees with my mini sabbatical and recommends them to his clients. A few kilometers on the road at another rest stop I am offered two oranges, so my hydration worries are over for the day.

It is a beautiful day for a ride.

I see my first Moose drinking water by the side of the road. Like the bears the night before, as soon as he hears my clicking freewheel, he rumbles off. It was one mass of dark brown, taller than me.

As the day continues, a slight headwind turns into more of a challenge and there are several long 6% grade climbs, a few three to five kilometers long.

I also see a few more Black Bears and one who was very nonchalant about me stopping to take his or her photo.

This bear seemed just as comfortable on the road as in the forest.

Aside from the building headwind and the climbs, a great day for riding with very few cars or trucks on the road and a wide clean shoulder to ride on.

During a roadside rest break I notice the sun glisten on my double top tubes.

I also discover a treat that takes chocolate covered raisins to another level, these, dark chocolate covering blueberries.

When I make it to McBride, I notice the sky is changing behind me and rough weather looks to be on the horizon.

McBride, I discover is on the eve of its 80 year celebration of its founding in 1932. The town is alive and people spill out from the Elks Hall. I find myself dinner in town then cycle two more kilometers outside town to Beaverview Campground, run for the past five years by a British couple, Dave and Jill. As the wind picks up further and the rain begins to fall, I nest in my watertight Hilleberg Akto tent, oblivious to the patter of rain.

Stats – for Friday 15 June 2012

Start: Willow Creek Rest Area
Finish: McBride
Distance: 95 km
Average Speed: 16.5 km/hr
Time on Bike: 5:43
Distance to Date: 1,805

Before leaving Prince George I go to a local bike shop, Evolve, to have my chain checked again and also to grease my Frog Speedplay pedals. Turns out they had the special grease gun for the job. And they confirmed that after just 1,500 km, my chain was stretched past 75% so I had it replaced. I love the smooth feeling of a new chain and fully greased pedals.

I then cross the Fraser River leaving the city.

On the other side of the bridge I meet a cyclist road sweeping angel. His name is Dale and, with his free time, he wanders about Prince George with a big broom sweeping areas that have become too full of debris for cyclists. We have a fun conversation and he invites me back to the city for lunch but it was already near noon and I needed to make good progress.

At the top of the first climb out of Prince George there is a modern building that looks part of a new college campus. Regrettably, it is a shiny example of where Canada is investing lots of money. A prison. Politely called an institution. I don’t think I have seen a school this nicely built in Canada yet.

I soon get excited with the 200 km plus ahead with nothing but wildlife in between. The signs on the road are like advertising.

The day is mostly overcast with a slight headwind. A few long climbs.

My goal for the day is the Grizzly Den Provincial Park 95 km away.

I see plenty of signs of Black Bears as I can see, as my grandmother would say, they have done their business on the Yellowhead Highway. Number two business in fact. No evidence they are eating humans.

I reach the Grizzly Den Provincial Park but note that there are three dirt paths leading to trailheads but no sign of a campground or campsite. So much for the plan to stay there for the evening.

I pedal on and start looking for a place on the side of the road. The kilometers continue and I do not find anything. It’s true what a cyclist told me a few towns back: “There ain’t Jack between Prince George and McBride.” When I finally find what looks like a grassy area, I walk my bike in and see a sign that reads: “Caution: Bear Sanctuary Area.”

I didn’t even remember to take a photo. I knew unwanted to be some kilometers from there. As I pedaled on, I saw four Black Bears on the roadside. As soon as they heard the click of the freewheel, they would run into the woods. That is the good news. What was amazing to see was how fast and elegantly they ran. I just barely managed to get one photograph.

Finally, 40 km beyond my planned stop for the evening there is a rest area called Willow Creek. I pull in for the evening where I have the place to myself.

Having seen so many bears in the last ten kilometers, I stash all my food in the back of the bear-proof trash bins. I learned this trick earlier in the trip, you just have to get it before the trash collector comes in the morning.

Stats – for Thursday 14 June 2012

Start: Prince George
Finish: Willow Creek Rest Area
Distance: 134 km
Average Speed: 18.7 km/hr
Time on Bike: 7:08
Distance to Date: 1,711

About to head into the Rocky Mountains and likely no wireless contact for two days or so. But I am stocked up on food for 48 hours – here is some of it.

And here is what I would take too but they don’t fit in my panniers, only in my mind.

My goal for today is to reach the Grizzly Den Provincial Park and Protected Area. Not the most inviting name.

Rolling terrain today alongside fields and lakes with no strong presence of mountains anymore. Where the mountains gave personality to the first few days out of Prince Rupert, that role is now filled by the sky and clouds. The campgrounds I pass are all empty still.

I managed through just a few light showers and was gently pushed by a sweet tailwind all day. Since starting on the coast, other than my thoughts, my constant companion has been the Canadian National – CN – Railroad. The rail cars have been rumbling next to me night and day. They go east empty and come west full of what these forests are providing China.

In the early 1900s Canada took great pride in building this Grand Trunk Pacific Railway to the west coast. It was accomplished in large measure through the prodigious labor of people from China who had the most dangerous jobs, the poorest living conditions, the highest mortality and were paid a fraction of the wages paid to Canadian labourers.

One hundred years ago these Chinese labourers probably never imagined that what they were building would eventually bring Canadian natural resources on their way to China. Vanderhoof seems to be thriving thanks to the local forests.

Made it to Dave’s Campground just east of Vanderhoof. Immaculately clean and very kind owners. As both Grizzlies and Black Bears have been in the area, she took all my food into her home under lock and key for the evening.

Stats

Start: 20 km west of Fraser Lake
Finish: Vanderhoof
Distance: 90 km
Average Speed: 20 km/hr
Time on Bike: 4:30
Distance to Date: 1,481 km

I awaken to the first real overcast day but no rain since Prince Rupert. It is only about 80 km from Houston to Burns Lake. The road is rolling but does include the toughest climb so far of the trip, 6 Mile Hill, named before the metric system was adopted in Canada.

Still not above 1,000 meters.

My first stop is at a curious simple country restaurant in Topley with a pig theme. Yes, pigs. The owners used to be pig farmers. A few years ago they put on display a few pig figurines. Now, through the obsession of customers who add to the collection from all over the world, they have over 600 pigs and they keep on coming. I order their lunch special and I am asked If I want fries or a wedge. I assume the wedge to be a wedge of lettuce but when it arrives I learn it is a description of another cut of fries. First translation problem of the day.

The second, maybe because I have pigs on my mind, occurs with a roadway flag woman controlling the flow of traffic around a washed out bridge. She tells me to be careful because there is a big sow up ahead. I ask why there is a big pig in the road. No, she says, a big mama bear. I proceed cautiously but do not see the sow.

To get through the construction of the bridge, I am given a personal escort from a pilot truck over the temporary wooden bridge.

It takes about twenty minutes but holds up traffic in both directions for much longer. The drivers look pretty unhappy and one shouts out: “I can’t believe we have to wait for one bicycle, damn.”

The first major rain hits me for the remaining fifty kilometers to Burns Lake. I find there are no campsites other than a free municipal site but it has no water or showers. So I find dinner and at 7:30 pm with the rain stopped and some blue sky showing I push on.

My goal is a rest stop about 40 km away. It turns out to be too ambitious and hilly and the sun sets before I reach it. Although I have lights and good reflectors, the cars and trucks don’t know what to make of a cyclist on the Yellowhead Highway in the dark. I push further and finally at seven kilometers farther than I thought I find the rest stop.

The rest stop is surprisingly active and includes truckers sleeping in the cabs of their trucks. I head into the woods a bit to find a spot and instead find an area devastated by beaver. There are dozens of fresh chewed trees.

I am not sure what they would do with me and my tent, especially of they find my food so I head back out to the rest stop and pitch the tent in the corner of the rest stop. I am so tired that I hardly notice all night the comings and goings of vehicles.

I am starting to get a bit lonely out here and missing family, home and friends. I knew this would happen but not so soon.

Stats

Start: Houston
End: 20 km west of Fraser Lake
Distance: 126 km
Average Speed: 17.8 km / hr
Time on Bike: 7:05
Distance to Date: 1,391 km

I decide to take a kind of cycling Sabbath. The stay at the Inn includes breakfast, so that is the first treat. I then find a place to wash all my clothes and even find the right detergent for wool. I make a few phone calls and don’t leave Smithers until 4 pm with the goal of arriving in Houston about 70 km away for dinner.

I make a final stop at a large bicycle shop before leaving Smithers. I am impressed that after two full weeks and well over 1,000 km, my tire pressure is just about the same as when I left Metchosin when I pumped them up to 50 psi. Each tire was about 47 psi. The one thing that was well worn was my chain. According to the mechanic, it was “75% fully stretched” and ready to be replaced. That seemed like way to fast for a new chain to stretch so I decided to continue to Jasper to change it.

Shortly out of Smithers, a car pulls over going in the opposite direction an alerts me that up ahead on my side of the road is a Black Bear with three cubs. I slowly approach, regrettably too slowly, as they move over the crest of a hill just as I spot them. This photo will win no awards and you might even think this is a fish tale but if you look real close at the top of the picture, you will see the bottoms of three small cubs, each smaller than a mature Golden Retriever, just about to go down the hill.

I get my first long hill climb, Hungry Hill, about twenty kilometers from Houston. It is about six kilometers to the top and locals like to talk about it and scare you with the climb. It is tough but gradual enough to take it sitting down. By the time I reach the summit I am nearly 1,000 meters above sea level. There will be a lot more climbing to get over the Rockies.

The landscape is less mountainous with far fewer snow capped views to enjoy on this stretch.

I get to Houston in time for my first Chinese meal of the trip, a heaping order of chicken and vegetables with black bean sauce. It was curious that when I entered the restaurant they wanted me to know right away that “western” food was available, said almost like an apology for being mainly Chinese. There was no need to push the local fried food.

Houston appears to still have some active logging and milling going on but they are smart to be pushing something else: fishing. The town features the world’s largest fly rod.

The Shady Rest campground just east of the town is clean and welcoming. With the sun rising now at 4:30 am, I realize I did forget one thing: an eye mask for sleeping.

Stats

Start: Smithers
End: Houston
Distance: 73 km
Average Speed: 18.3 km/hr
Time on bike: 3:57
Distance to Date: 1264 km

A slow start today enjoying being refreshed after sleeping in a bed for the first time in more than a week. Al showed me around Northwest Community College where he teaches. He walked me through the new and impressive Long House, which is turning out to be a great resource for the community.

I have a late breakfast of complex carbs as recommended by a fellow cyclist.

The ride along the Skeena River was rolling and with little traffic. The sky was clear and I was pushed along with a light tailwind all day.

One theory I have about being a solo cyclist is that you are not seen as a threat of any kind to people along the way. People instinctively know you might be open to conversation as you have no one else to talk to but yourself. And unlike a solo hiker or walker, with your fully loaded bike, people know you won’t be staying long so why not strike up a conversation?

A good example was when I was riding by a former restaurant, the Grill. There I found three friends on the porch cleaning fiddleheads for dinner. They – Rob, Wendy and Phil – more or less insisted I stop and get a story of the place. And they wanted to know my story too. They have lived there, living close to the land and what it produces for the past three years. They plan to
reopen as a restaurant to be called The Seven Sisters.

At one road rest stop, BC parks ministry suggests I stretch. What great copy.

Photo forthcoming..,

I make it to Kitwanga, about 90 km from Terrace where I am told there is
a restaurant. There is one, where Route 37, the Alaska Highway goes north and splits from the Yellowhead Highway. If you like deep fried food, you would not be disappointed. There is absolutely nothing fresh for sale. No salad, no fruit, no vegetables. A fresh food desert. I manage with a hamburger and fries, which came slathered with gravy. Yikes, no wonder bodies in this community are shaped the way they are.

Although it is approaching 8 pm by the time I leave the restaurant, with clear skies and no traffic, I decide to pedal away into the peace of the evening. It is like my own private universe.

I continue until it is too dark to ride but that is nearly 11 pm. I ride hopeful that i will see the white “spirit bear” that has been spotted in the area but all i see is bear droppings along the roadway. By midnight, settle quietly into the Seeley Lake Provincial Park.

Stats

Start: Terrace
End: Seeley Lake
Distance: 130 km
Average Speed: 19.4 km/hr
Time on Bike: 6:42
Distance to Date: 1,112 km

A big day of cycling following a rough ferry ride. The same wind that buffeted my ride south on Haida Gwai took aim at the ferry from Haida Gwai to Prince Rupert and the heaving and pitching of the boat through the night made it hard to get a good night’s sleep and be ready for a 150 km ride from Prince Rupert to Terrace.

By Prince Rupert standards, it was a glorious day. Mostly sunshine. Apparently, Prince Rupert is the rain capital of Canada and it is so continuously overcast that people with medical conditions that prevent them from being in the sun move there. Well, they had to stay indoors today.

Massive snow capped mountains lined the entire journey along the Yellowhead Highway. And next to the road for most of the way was the wide and gentle flowing Skeena River and the CN railroad tracks. There was a modest headwind most of the day and it shifted around to a tailwind at kilometer 90 as a shower and its westerly wind blew me towards Terrace.

Thanks to Jim Freer, who suggested this lunch.

As I was taking a lunch break by the river, a First Nations fisheries patrol person came to make sure I was not fishing illegally and we ended up have a good talk about life. Then I fell asleep for an hour.

In addition to the nice wind shift, two other great surprises helped me into Terrace. The first was stopping at kilometer 90 at the Wilderness Resort tucked in behind a small patch of old growth forest. It is mostly a camp for fishing groups. I was hoping to replenish my water. I found much more. A semi professional – whatever that means – baker, famous for his pies. He had just baked thee pies: lemon meringue, blueberry and raspberry. I had an energy and spirit boosting slice of the lemon meringue.

The second surprise was when approaching the top of the long climb outside Terrace. Coming down the opposite side of the road, a truck slows down, the driver rolls down his window and yells out: “Welcome David
Hawley.”

This was Al Sande, PC year 5, who then gave me directions to his house where I was greeted with a pasta dinner, a hot shower and a warm bed. How delightful. Just before meeting up with Al, I saw my first Black Bear of the trip. The bear ambled confidently across the road in front of me, a bit too far away for a good photograph.

Much of the highway is being repaved so it will be even better for cyclists next year. I know this is a curious and not the fastest route across the country as I would be well past Calgary by now if I took the more common southerly route. However, the traffic has been light as well as the road conditions. And the scenery rugged and spectacular. After Terrace, the road goes mostly north for about 100 km but then heads me more easterly after that.

Stats

Start: Prince Rupert
End: Terrace
Distance: 148 km
Time on Bike: 7:28
Average Speed: 19.7 km per hr estimate
Distance to Date: 982 km