Clay and Wattles

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.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.