Clay and Wattles

Quick post to confirm that we’ve arrived back in Queen Charlotte City after kayaking in Gwaii Haanas Park for two weeks.  We had a fantastic trip with very good weather and plenty of humpback whales and hummingbirds to keep us company.

Pictures and details soon.

We arrived on Haida Gwaii last night, Wednesday, July 15th.  We had a beautiful trip on the long ferry ride over from Prince Rupert to Skidegate.  We departed at approximately 1 pm, and we arrived just after 7 pm.  We went shopping in the morning and got some groceries to bring for our kayaking trip (you can’t get everything on Haida Gwaii, or so we thought-there is a health food store that’s amazing, it had everything we needed).  We bought extra food to eat during the day.  Ferry food tends to be fast food, and I cannot eat that, and I just don’t like it…guess I’m a food snob. 

We had an amazing day, both napping and being awake and eating and getting excited about being on Haida Gwaii!  We were especially giddy as we approached the dock and were waiting for the doors to open! 

I didn’t let my cousin Christopher and his partner Bonnie know we were planning on staying with them, or when we were getting here…that was my job, and I just kept forgetting to call them…so we showed up at their door in our taxi with the most amount of luggage anyone has seen!  Most of this luggage is our bicycle and our folding kayak (which is in two big duffle bags).  The Haida word for this type of behaviour is hunch-ee-ga (nervy).  Like I’ve got some nerve doing that!

We were trying to make arrangements for a Haida tour operator to drop us off in Rose Harbour, or as close to Sgun Gwaii/Ninstints as possible.  No luck there, so we just found a list and started calling people.  We found a tour operator who has room on their boat tomorrow morning at 7 am, on the Sandspit side, or on the Moresby side of Haida Gwaii.  We might just get up early and get there, or we might leave by the smaller ferry to get across tonight and camp over there so we can be there promptly.  Kevin is sure we can get up and get there on the first crossing, so we’ll likely do that.

It’s been so amazing just being here again.  We keep saying that over and over again.  I love the ocean, and the beaches..my people!

We had an incredible lunch today at Queen B’s, Bonnie’s cafe, complete with dessert and Royal Early Gray tea for me…mmmmm….

Yep, it’s all about eating for me! 

Neither of us will be near any computers, there is no world wide web in Gwaii Haanas, so we won’t get to update until two weeks pass at least.

It’s too bad, there are so many things happening here.  Tonight is the launch of a cd box set of ancient Haida Songs at the museum in Skidegate.  We’re in Queen Charlotte City, but it’s close enough for us to ride our tandem bicycle to.  Tomorrow night is the opening of a display of weavers and weaving as well…we’ll miss that, but the display might still be up when we get back and out of our kayak.

Take care all!

We’re in Prince Rupert today.  We had a very good day yesterday: over 90 kms into the wind.  It was pretty flat following the Skeena River from Terrace, but that wind was gusting in our faces the whole way.  There is a reason why every other cyclist does this route from West to East instead of East to West like us!

In the last couple of days we’ve finally started to get into a groove.  Our endurance has increased and we can cycle all day up and down hills without feeling much pain.  Too bad we are at the end of the cycling portion of the journey!  Actually, we might ride another couple of hundred kms on Graham Island after we return from kayaking in Gwaii Haanas if we have time and energy.

It has been super hot these past few days. Riding has made it tough, but despite this, it’s been a lot of fun.
I’m still sore, but Kevin says it will take the second week before the pain stops and I just feel okay. I especially have saddle sores…I mean a sore butt!

So many things have happened since we last posted, but I know I’ll forget to mention it all.

We were riding all day in the rain, we were soaked, the gear was soaked. So we stopped at a motel in Fraser Lake.

We got a ride from there to Smithers by Jared. He was so nice and so helpful. It was wonderful getting back on the road. We were running out of time, and had to skip ahead and then continue riding from there.

We had a nice stay in Smithers at a beautiful campground. In town the next day we had to get a sleeping mat (Kevin’s mat had a lot of little tiny holes in it, the result being he was sleeping on the ground before morning).

We rode to Moricetown, where we had the best food at the Little Frog Cafe and Bistro. It’s a nice stop beside Highway 16, where the Carrier fish with spears. The river was too high for fishing.

The Cafe had the best veggie kebobs, the best bannock, the best veggies, the best mashed potatoes! I really hoped to have room for dessert…potlatch cake, but no room! The cook this day was Millie Alec and her husband Victor was our waiter. The owner is named Theresa Tait Day. We met her son, Gordon.  There was also a very quiet boy there playing a game…but I never did get his name. I highly recommend you to stop here and eat, there was so much on their menu…I wish to go back there again. We’ll post photos of our stops somewhere on here at some point. 

We continued riding to New Hazelton. We talked to women at the gas station where they suggested a motel, but it was full. Cassidy, the manager volunteered her sister’s backyard! So off we went to stay in Britteny’s and Derek’s backyard.

The next day we had breakfast, made by Cassidy. Mmmmm, pancakes and scrambled eggs!

Cassidy and Britteny cycled across Canada from Prince Rupert to St. John’s last year. They raised money for BC Children’s hospital.

They said many, many people were so very nice to them when they took their trip last year, they wanted to do the same for us. So we will also pass this on, when it’s our turn.

We then cycled to Coyote Creek…suggestion made by an aboriginal man named Graham. It was great, but there were several trucks and campers already there, we camped up closer to the road. There were tonnes of bugs there, especially black flies. But of course millions of mosquitoes. I kid you not. We raced out of there, packed up our stuff super quick and rode down the road away from it. We didn’t stop for breakfast, but we snacked on stuff beside the road further down.

On we went. Our rear tire blew. Kevin walked across the road to repair it, then it blew again. Off we rode.

Shortly after this, a road worker stopped (forgot his name immediately, sorry-Clarence seems right) and brought us some fresh spring dried salmon! It looked like a treasure in his bag, there was so much of it. We thanked him and gobbled right away! What a treat. I wish I had taken his photo, but my camera ran out of charge.

Last night we camped in a provincial park called Kleanza Creek. It was nice, busy with RVs, campers, and several little dogs that barked late, and started barking early this morning. It was very pretty there, and relatively bug free!

We were exhausted. We walked down to get water from the pump and while there, we also walked down to the creek, where Kevin jumped in to cool off. I dipped my toes in, eek! Too cold for me!

We both slept well. Now we’re in Terrace and we’re off to have some yummy lunch at a place called Hot House, an East Indian, or South Asian restaurant.

Have a lovely day, I know we will!

We’re in Terrace today. We stayed the night in Fraser Lake, then got a lift to Smithers because we didn’t want to run out of time for the fun part of the ride closer to the coast. We’ve camped every night and ridden about 60 kms each day. We were hoping to find a hotel tonight, but we must move on and there aren’t any beyond Terrace within our range. Perhaps when we get closer to Prince Rupert we’ll find on for the last night on the road.

Looking forward to kayaking in Gwaii Hanaas in a few days.

Well our trip did not start out great.  We got off the bus in Prince George. We live in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, so we did take the bus from there-it leaves at midnight.   

Kevin set up our bicycle, and we shopped for food, got a hot meal, went to to the Coast Mountain store, and started our trip.  We were still in Prince George, but our gears weren’t working properly.  We had to pull over and fix them.  Notice the Royal ‘We?’  I sat around and read my book while Kevin worked on them. 

They got fixed and off we went!

Exciting!  Hard!  We’re both out of shape for a long cycling trip.  We did not make it to Vanderhoof as hoped for.  So we stopped and camped by the side of the road (Crown Land).  Talk about tonnes of bugs!  Mosquitoes galore!  Black Flies! 

And really, I thought there were no bugs once we passed the Northwest Territories border!  We look like one big bug bite!

The second night we had a long ride to Vanderhoof, so exhausted by the end of the day.  But we made it.

I wasn’t sure we were going to, however.  We had to stop for a long time at the side of the road.  The funny thing that happened (because there was no proper rest stop in this area, we just pulled over and climbed into the huge ditch to sit and take it easy).  We found fresh strawberries! 

Oh yeah, the funny thing that happened…a police office pulled over because the ditch is so deep, he didn’t see us sitting there.  He thought we were in an accident.  So he stopped to check on us. 

We made it to Vanderhoof.  I was so happy to be there because we stayed in a Motel.  It was because our air mattresses had holes in them somewhere and Kevin had to repair them.  We also needed a shower, and to wash our clothes.  It was so nice to take a long soak.  And to sleep in a bed. 

Our bike gears weren’t working again when we started on our trip on this day.  We had a quick, but yummy breakfast at Tim Horton’s.  Kevin has declared he’s a real Canadian because he LOVES Tim Horton’s!  He had a delicious latte (I had a sip, it had real caffeine in it, and if I drink real coffee, it makes me crazy), a jelly doughnut, a bagel and a fritter.  I had a bagel.  It doesn’t take much to fill up my belly. 

When we were done, we biked into the Co-op parking lot, where Kevin started working on the gears, and I went shopping for some snacks and food for our trip.  We just needed a few things.  It took a long time before Kevin could get the gears working, after going to the hardware store.  But he did it!  We had some help.  A young boy came by and asked him a lot of questions, he even came into the store to find me to let me know my husband wanted to see me.  And Collee/Colly helped us immensely when a tiny screw fell off the bike.  After I searched for it all over, she asked, “Did you try looking on the other side of the front wheel?”  I reached around it, saw what I thought was garbage, but it was the screw!  I was so happy I took her picture, and I took her picture with her mom, Donna.  Sorry if I spelled your name wrong Collee.  You were a great help.  (Collee is on the right, Donna is on the left).

Yesterday evening it started to rain.  It rained very hard all night.  It was nice once the camp was set up.  We camped in Beaumont Provincial Park.  Kevin did all of the work.  He’s been doing most everything.  He’s encouraging me to rest when I need it, usually every time we stop so I can make it to the end of this trip! 

I didn’t mention I had a serious illness earlier this year, and I’m still recovering.  I’m quite well, and I look fine, but my insides are 100% yet.  My pancreas shut down in January.  It’s showing signs of working, and I’m hoping it just keeps on doing just that…and I believe it will.

Beaumont Camp was beautiful and quiet.  It was very nice inside our tent listening to the rain coming down.  We were cozy warm…yes I had on a wool shirt, a light jacket and my small parka!  I didn’t get cold once, though, so it helped a lot. 

It is now our 4th day…and I was hoping it would get easier to ride by now, but I’m sore in a different way.  Muscles in my legs I wasn’t aware of are sore.  It was so hard when we first started, but eventually it got easier.  Though I should mention we have only been riding for an hour…

Now we’re thinking of taking the train, if it will allow us on with our gear and stuff.  We have a goal of getting to Haida Gwaii (aka the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC-where I was born and raised) for the kayaking portion of our trip.  We want to get back to Gwaii Haanas, into the World Heritage Site, and the ancient villages of my people.  We hope to make it to Sgun Gwaii the most southern Haida village, and the one with the most ancient totem poles-20.  These poles were raised over a hundred years ago. 

Last summer we took 2 of our kids (we have 3) to this same area by kayak.  We kayaked 200 km and we made it from Moresby Camp (on south Moresby, on Haida Gwaii) to Hot Spring Island (still on south Moresby).  It was quite a trip!  I loved it, had moments of fear, and anger…but really it was the best thing that happened last year.

I’m not sure when we’ll get to another computer again, but I’ll try to keep you updated on our next portion of our trip.

Well, we are on the road. We survived the thirty hour bus ride to Prince George, barely. You can usually stretch out and sleep on the almost empty bus from Yellowknife to Hay River, but this time they sent a tiny van with a trailer instead of the usual coach — we were a little cramped.

Once we arrived, we sent our kayak bags on to Prince Rupert as freight so that we can meet them there. We assembled our bike, bought a few groceries, and headed out in the middle of the afternoon.

One thing I never knew about Prince George (or never noticed) is that to get out of town, you have to go straight up a hill.  We managed it, but it was tough going because the gear shifter on the bike was malfunctioning.  We did lots of pushing as well as riding and finally made it. 

One of the highlights of the day was when we walked right past a bear who was trying to cross the highway, but not having much luck with the heavy weekend traffic.  We didn’t even notice the bear until we were already past it, so we had a chance for a good look backwards.

We travelled about 30 kms the first day and found a place to camp beside the road.  Our campsite was a little rough, but it was loaded with ripe wild strawberries, so we couldn’t complain.  We were tired and went right to sleep without cooking anything.

Day Two of the bike ride, we were still plagued by problems with our gears.  They just weren’t working properly, “slipping” in and out of the lower and middle range and just generally making it hard to build up any momentum.  Riding a tandem requires a fair bit of coordination for the two riders, so anything that disrupts your cadence causes problems.  Still, we travelled sixty-five kms that day to Vanderhoof, where we stayed in a motel for the night.  I needed to work on fixing my air mattress, which (though I checked it) had sprung a leak the night before — and there is nothing I hate more than waking up laying on the ground!

The next morning, we rode down a big hill into the main part of the town and stopped at Tim Horton’s for breakfast.  We usually never eat fast food or sweets, but you really sugar, fat, and carbs when you are biking all day.  On the way out of the parking lot, the gear cable snapped, so we limped over to the Co-op across the street, where Roberta picked up a few groceries while I worked on the bike.  A few hours later, we were back on the road (I always carry spare cables — be prepared!).

We pedalled on through some beautiful and hilly country, but still had trouble with the gears.  We stopped at a pretty spot next to a field, where I dismantled the shifter again and through trial and error, finally got them working properly once and for all.  Part of the shifter is stripped inside, but at least now we can use the full range of gears without that annoying slipping sensation.

We stopped in Fort Fraser for some greasy food and awesome homemade apple pie as the rain started to come down.  By the time we left, it was raining heavily and we decided to stop at Beaumont Provincial Park, a few kms down the highway, for the night.  We only travelled 40 kms that day, but that seems to be a reasonable daily goal for us with this bike and the heavy trailer, especially if we want to have time to make camp and stop to look at birds and butterflies.

Beaumont was very nice, but it poured rain all night and hasn’t stopped since.  We stayed fairly dry and comfortable, but we’re looking at our options for drying out.  We’ve pedalled here to the Fraser Lake Public Library (about 20 kms) and are going to figure out whether to push on and camp in the bush or stay here and dry out first.  We might even hop on the bus or train for the next leg, because we’d rather skip some of this section than when we get closer to the coast.

Anyhow, things are going fine.  We’re sore, but starting to toughen up!

Well, summer is here again. That means we’re leaving tomorrow on another sustainable vacation. This time, my wife Roberta and I are traveling from Yellowknife to Prince George, BC by bus, on to Prince Rupert by tandem bike, over to Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) by ferry, and down to SGang Gwaay Llnagaay at the south end of Gwaii Haanas National Park in a double kayak. We’ll paddle back up to Sandspit or Skidegate, possibly bike to Port Clements or Masset and back, then take the ferry to Prince Rupert again and the bus home.

The reason I call this trip “Origami Tour 2009″ is because we have a folding bike, a folding kayak, and a folding house (i.e. a tent) that we’ll be using on the trip.

The map below shows our planned route. The little sailboat represents our kayak, which actually does have a sail.

Rough distances for the human powered parts of the trip (assuming we don’t take any shortcuts):

• Prince George to Prince Rupert by bike: 721 kms
• Moresby Camp to SGang Gwaay and back by kayak: 340 kms
• Skidegate to Masset and back by bike: 204 kms

View Origami Tour 2009 in a larger map

We’ll try to update this map and post our adventures when we can.