Tired of I.T!

A post that was written at 3 different stages over multiple days, pardon the broken unreadable aspect of it.

April 27 – 5:15pm – Port Hardy
Listening to the chatter of the locals in the Port Hardy legion, is making me smirk and laugh quietly to myself, while desperately trying to avoid making them irate or offended at the ‘imposter’ in their clubhouse. I’ve just had a heart to heart with a logger who proceeded to tell me I was a beautiful man, while not being so graceful about his body language and commentary. It’s tough to offend me however..

Out of all the days of bicycle touring (which really, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t much at all compared to others) was the worst. My attitude is good, but my energy is just not there whatsoever. I have been pushing myself pretty hard to get to this point in time, and while a sense of completion is sounding, exhaustion is clouding any of the goals. Thank goodness that I have a 9 day vacation ahead, taking the ferry over to Prince Rupert, and then over to in Haida Gwaii. I plan on picking up a fishing rod, and catching some steelhead, that appear down the riverways during each tide from what multiple locals have been telling me.

I’m surprised I actually made it this far in such short amount of time – the next morning after I wrote the previous post my huge ambitions of cycling right into sayward started with the birds chirping at 7am / daylight. I sat up, reaching over to pull the plug of my air-mattress (eliminates any concept of a snooze button) I heard the tiniest drop of rain hit the tentfly. Next thing I knew it was 10:30am, previous nights lack of sleep catching up.. I made the decision to to head over to Elk Falls for the next night just outside of Campbell River for a light 22km day. Somewhere along the line at 1pm while getting caffeinated in a cafe I got the itch to make the move up to Sayward as originally planned. Knowing that I had some serious climbs ahead of me, I mentally prepared at 2pm, knowing that dusk would arrive when I hit my destination.

The hills were nothing. As a matter of fact, 28km of the ride was downhill! I found a campsite right off the North Island Highway, setup quickly and sat down in a pub just in time for the hockey game to start between the Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings. I’m not really into the sports – but nice to cheer with a crowd for the “home” team. We even won, and moved on to the second round of playoffs. Someone lost their flag attached to their car on the side of the road and it now hangs off my trunk bag. Go fanboy.
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Continued April 28, 2010 1:39pm

The legion was getting a bit weird, so I opted to head over to my hosts house, and neglected to finish last nights post, so here we are.

The weather became downright nasty when I left Sayward, into Woss. Wind and rain, combined with some downright chilly temperatures (snow on the ground in the ditches) made for a hectic 67km, with no sign of the weather letting up. Woss has minimal amenities, and I chuckled when I pulled off the side of the Island Highway to enter the town and saw a pair of work boots hanging from the power lines. Luckily I had prearranged to stay with someone I met on the Warmshowers.org website, a community where cyclists are offered – yup, you guessed it – Warm Showers, places to stay, laundry, or coffee. I met Pat who immediately told me that the nights rain was going to get worse, and I should stay inside. Didn’t have to convince me twice. He was right, with the torrential downpours lifting at about 5am the next morning.  I wasn’t able to get a solid sleep, perhaps receiving a most of 6 hours, before leaving early in the morning to my final Vancouver Island destination – Port Hardy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwZlJcMbenM]

After my 7 hour ride, again pelted with rain, gruelling hills and not seeing any bears on the road like I had hoped I made it here – A once bustling town with an industry heavily intertwined with fishing, and logging, population has drastically dwindled over the past 20 years, with many stores, and areas closing, buildings becoming condemned, and minimal tourism attractions to annually draw visitors. Visually, this place is one of BC’s best kept secrets, with lush forests, clear water, and a mild yearly climate. Land is cheap, housing is reasonable, and for one who wishes to wake up to an ocean side view, it certainly is within the realm of most people’s affordability.

I stayed with another Warmshowers.org host last night, who made me feel 150% welcome. She even went as far as acting as a mail drop for me so that I could upgrade to my new home, the Hilleberg Nallo GT 2 tent (complete with garage). She cooked me a wonderful meal, quenched my thirst with fine wine, and provided a comfortable guest room with internet access all the while being able to communicate in an effective manner and keep things interesting. I was her first cyclist on the website, and I hope that her experience was as positive as mine. Her dog, Charlie was a bundle of energy and I laughed at all the antics and moves she would try as a 1 year old.

I visited the post office and sent off my tent to the buyer in Winnipeg, MB – and the first set of equipment bAck to my house in Surrey, BC. This will likely be one of many. I’m not sure why I thought it was a good idea to bring a Soup Ladel (how bout a spoon?), A deck of cards (I’ve got enough things to amuse me where I don’t need to play Solitaire), A cigarette case (c’mon), a bowl (I’ve got 2 already), an inflatable globe (I’ll buy another one before Africa), paperwork, operation manuals for the Kindle and the Zoom Q3 Player (I’ve got PDFs), a computer mouse (I have 2),  and some other miscellany. I’m sure I’ll be ready to send a bunch of clothes ahead and eventually my sleeping bag to someone in Ottawa, as it won’t be needed during the hot prairie summer months.

I’m planning a couple posts during the ferry ride up to Prince Rupert, focussing on technology, both hardware and software – and it couldn’t have come at a perfect time, my ‘w’ key on my keyboard has stopped working! My plans have changed and continue to change daily, where as only 2 hours ago I expected to travel to Bella Bella,  but instead have decided to head straight to Rupert due to a pain in my left knee, likely from pushing myself too hard. The benefit of this is that it’ll give me almost 2 days to rest up off the bike, and the elevation and climbs are non-existant in that area.. Due to the lack of cellular towers, it may be a bit until we get a live post from me for a while. Must-Finish-Taxes as I’m running out of money

I wasn’t able to pack my bear suit that I conveniently wear in the summer months as a way to consume vast quantities of beer, so I’m not going to fit in with the locals here in the woods at all. I’m now heading into the uninhabited areas of Vancouver Island, right at the edge of Campbell River in a BC Park named Miracle Beach. There is a staggering amount of campsites available (I counted 200) and they have showers! I’ll partake in the free flow of water before I head out tomorrow.

After some crossed wires in communication and some reference checks on where my head was at, tonight’s original destination of Courtenay didn’t happen. Because of that, I won’t be catching a flight tomorrow either. I suppose you could call this a deviation of my deviation. I’m not gonna let it wear on me, I could have put more effort into staying in Courtenay, but something in my head said keep going. I did some adjustments tonight to my plan and depending on how I fare tomorrow in the woods from here to Sayward, meaning that I make it at a decent time, and I can fare the upcoming steep climbs effectively, I will put the push on to make it into Port Hardy by Tuesday, instead of my original Friday date. Yes, it’s rushing, however the bugs are taking chunks out of me, it is bear country – and they are just waking up and hungry from their winter slumber – and I have the opportunity to catch a Wednesday ferry, hopping off at 1am on Thursday morning and roaming around the VERY small island of Bella Bella in the Discovery Passage. The next ferry comes by on Sunday at 2am, and I would hop on that and take my originally planned boat up to Prince Rupert. I think this opportunity only comes once again so I’m gonna push for it.

I do plan on spending some time tomorrow before the big climb to Elk Falls, a large waterfall in a secluded park outside of Campbell River. I’ll do the photo-op thing and maybe dunk myself in it, if the weather gives me what it’s been giving me for the past day again. Riding has been getting easier, my legs no longer hurt, I’ve built routines for pedalling, shifting, and remembering old tricks I used to play with myself on previous tours and setting internal alarms to check “business” to ensure I’m not just pedalling for nothing or daydreaming in a high gear. The bike is starting to take alot of dirt, took a huge scuff falling over against a brick wall, and has a slight wobble to it. Bella Bella will be bike fixing time. Preventative Maintenance now means no surprise breakdowns on a hill later.

I’ve heard reports of the upcoming route up to Port Hardy is filled with wildlife, and as mentioned before, the bears are out in full force, on the highways, roaming around, just being.. well… bears. As a reminder, here’s some bear safety:

Here’s how to be Bear Aware:

• Keep a clean and tidy camping site, leaving an extra chair out will show that you are inviting them to come chat.
• All food and garbage must be stored in well sealed containers. When they steal it to take it back to their den, you don’t want to anger them by having a container break open and have them lose the sauce for their pasta.
• Considering your feet are essential for pedalling, putting the bag of food in your tent by your feet is the quickest way to introduce bears to human toenails.
• Never leave cooking utensils, coolers or grease, or dishwater lying around your campsite. Bears don’t use headlamps and could trip and poke, or soak themselves with your mess.
• Use bear-proof garbage containers located throughout the campground, if you can fit in there, sleep in there as well.
• Cook and eat well away from your tent.
• Avoid getting food odours and scented products on clothes and sleeping bags. You’d be the equivalent of a spice rack.
• Never feed or approach bears. They like a fine mix of plants, shoots, leaves, berries.Trail mix is none of that.
• That bear bell you bought is not a gift for them. You are supposed to wear it, dummy.
• Never get too close to bears. They have been known to get extremely attached in short order, to your arm.
• Be noisy when using hiking trails, you know, like May long weekend hooliganism style loudness.

If a Bear Approaches You:

• Talk softly to the bear so it knows what you are.
• Do NOT give it beer, no matter how hard it looks sad, shrugs its shoulders, or makes child voices.
• Leave slowly – always face the bear, but don’t stare directly at him. They be seeing tunnel vision.
• If the bear follows you or starts to circle you, slowly but calmly keep backing up. They want to dance, but will certainly step on your foot.

Yesterday, I felt like royalty after leaving Chemainus – an easy ride on Highway 1. The shoulder’s generally good, although covered in glass and a failed attempt at a bike lane in Ladysmith, far too many bumps, and when it was time to cut into intersections, it wasn’t a smooth meeting to the street, resulting in me nearly losing a couple panniers. I opted for the road for the rest of the trip into Nanaimo, pedaling faster than I originally intended through areas which seemed to have fallen apart that much further since I lived in the area 14 years ago. I thought to myself, wow – I’ve lived in some pretty slummy towns in my life, this one included. I stopped off and talked to Hank, the owner of his Bicycle Repair store on Bowen road, in business for 47 years. We talked about leather saddles, how people write them off and go for the fluffier padded ones now a days, not knowing what they are missing, and he showed me a stack of letters from a couple from Germany in the early 90′s who broke their frame in the area, he set them up with a new one and they continued to postcard him all throughout their tour. Far out!

I stopped off at the Pizza Hut Buffet, and ate 19 slices of pizza, nearly erupting trying to leave. I wasn’t trying to set a record, I was just hungry and trying to get as much food in me as possible. Oh, and I had a salad. Strangely enough, I was able to pedal in a straight line, not throw up or scream from digestive pains on the remaining 30km into Parksville, where a friend let me know they had booked a hotel room for me and was coming up island to see me! I felt like a million bucks, my body thanked me, my finger nails cheered with joy, and everyone around me didn’t wrinkle their nose at my essence.

Sometime yesterday as well I put a classified ad on Crazyguyonabike.com – A bike touring enthusiast site where many others post journals, news, and for sale ads for related journeys on my upcoming tour to Africa. I’ve been told politely, begged by some, and flat out threatened a loss of friendship if I go and complete that tour out of safety issues. I’m with them on the safety front, it’s a scary place, but I need to do this. I’ll be going with stripped equipment lists, no technology with the exception of say a cyclometer, camera, and tonnes of sd cards for photos., but still need to go through with this part of the journey. Have received a few responses so far, and will follow through with them and see if they are legit – this could just be the way that it becomes possible.

Minimal photos were taken today, its the same route I took with someone in Phase-1, but in reverse. I reetched these memories into my head, yet the photos in the gallery still look the same

There seems to be a racetrack beside this park, and they’ve quieted down for the night at 8:47pm, which is my cue to catch some z’s as well if I’m going to be up  and on the road by 9. Great weekend so far!

Settling down in Fairy Lake for the night, a closed Forestry Service campground with no services but a beautiful landscape. I’ll be running out of water tomorrow morning so will make the decision to either boil, or use my MSR Water Filter to make sure I don’t get the water funk. Spent the previous night in a gated off area of French Beach, complete with roof, running water, and sinks. I’m low maintenance, pack in/pack out sort of guy and left no trace before the 8:30 departure time I had going.

Today’s weather was a complete 180 to what was going on Tuesday. The ride from Victoria to Sooke on the Galloping Goose trail was quiet, until I got my first flat of the tour, and yup – in the rear. Gray clouds, cold wind, and then rain coming down made my trip slower than possible. Had a chance to run into a fellow tourist outside the Wal-Mart who expressed an interest in my new flamethrowers, speaker holders and my lock. Finally picked up batteries for my headlight, which is letting me write this, and allowed me to read another toy/tool I picked up while loitering in Victoria – an Amazon Kindle! A friend in the lower mainland picked it up for me at a super steal of a price and shipped it over to the Victoria Bus Depot for easy pickup.

The Kindle is a wonderful device, lightweight, large enough to hold onto easily, and pleasurable to read. The speakers don’t distort with the Text to Speech often, and loading files wirelessly or with the USB cable was simple and easy. Being able to put my Barnett’s Manual of Bicycle Repair onto it and have it display immediately without using the insane amount of battery power a laptop would for reading sold me right away. There are thousands of Public Domain books available and I’ve got a cache of Science Fiction I’ve been dying to read. Buying content for the device will be rare but it will be nice to have as an option for say…. an author I liked. Now, I’ve just got to keep from smashing the device, a protective case is being sent to my mail drop hopefully by the time I get there next Friday.

French Beach offered a great look at the crashing surf, shots of the Northern Washington Peninsula, and a great look at wildlife, such as pods of Grey Whales. The wildlife is becoming more and more common, and deer no longer run, but stop, stare and go about their own thing if you don’t make motions to shoo them away. Glad I stopped there as opposed to Jordan Creek, my original destination as we suffered quite a wind storm, and I in the slightest interested in being woken up all night by howling. It turns out I did lay awake at some point in time throughout the night tossing and turning, realizing that my air mattress was deflated. Another flat! I stopped early today to make sure I could patch it, but I must have just left a valve open as everything’s fine as we speak and we’ve been fully inflated for close to 2 hours.

I had an enormous amount of energy and good feelings while riding the 50km to Port Renfrew – It was the first day I was able to try out my sound system. It worked as planned, was loud enough for me to listen to while riding, and still hear upcoming traffic. I do need a rear view mirror as there could be the possibilities of quieter cars sneaking up, and its generally a safer option for me to have one anyways – but I am content. I managed to listen to Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Pennywise – About time, and a recording of my old radio show SLEIZURE – 2009-10-31 – Halloweenie, a mix of dark and quirky electronic music. Even better when I had to stop after one of the many steep climbs and switchbacks for lunch on the side of the road, and peel off the majority of my clothes due to the searing heat coming from the burning planet in the sky was having music to accompany my can of sardines and scoops of peanut butter to tide me over for the remaining 10km.

I stopped at the Port Renfrew General Store, chatted with some locals a bit who assured me heading back out of the town to my next destination wouldn’t be as hellish, before stopping for 2 hr at a cafe which was having a meeting for its residents recommending that they band together to change an old growth forest area to something that capitalizes on the well known movie Avatar to Avatar Grove, and to use this opportunity to bring in German tourists to see the oldest, largest trees in Canada. I’m mixed on it, but did enjoy their cookies, coffee, and wifi.

I was planning on camping at Botanical Beach, but once I brought my bike down the 1.8km rocky hill, I found it to be too loud, with the water startings its return to bring in High Tide. I spent 2 hours exploring the tidal pools containing Anenomes, Mussels, Clams, Purple Starfish, fish and Hermit Crabs before having to take a completely different route back, I was trapped by the return of the tide! I made it out without issue and headed back up the hill and out of the town, heading towards tomorrows finish – Cowichan Lake. Yup, the area where those famous sweater’s are made, which I’m hoping to enlist the services of someone to make me a custom sweater and have it mailed to one of my upcoming destinations.

After some bumpy rides and some one lane bridges I finally stopped here for the night, and started doing some reading on a potential route change, hoping to leave Prince Rupert again by boat to Bella Coola, a very untouched area of BC, that would help me shave off some days getting to Cranbrook to fly to the Yukon. Unfortunately my plans were squashed by the fact that BC Ferries only sails there in the summer. I came up with a different plan however which will allow me to avoid alot of climbing, taking the number 5 south to Kamloops. I’m certainly doing the long route in BC, as the turn off on the Yellowhead highway is very close to the Alberta/Jasper border, however I made a promise to a friend to head south to Rossland, and I’d like to visit family in Kelowna.

My drivetrain is squeaking something fierce and my rear brakes are seizing a bit, looking forward to a light ride tomorrow to take care of some much needed work. I figure once I get into Kelowna I will have a shop service the bike including repacking bearings, and potentially pick up some new tires depending on their wear. Am surprised I haven’t burned out a chain yet based on my earlier rides.

The geese are obviously frustrated I am awake now, so I’ll end this.