Day 43 & 44 - Noises during the night and strange dreams

Distance: 49.49mi & 60.70mi | Time: 4:18 & 5:26 | 1890kcal & 2199kcal | 2026 & 2935 vertical feet

camping-in-cinema-second-hand-bcAfter one day of riding next to Highway 97, we stayed at the Cinema, a second hand store which sells everything from fireworks to clocks. There were picnic tables and they let everybody stay for free. And then during the night, Mathias woke up when something in the forest broke a very large branch. Soon he started sleeping again but not for long. After a few minutes he heard an animal walking very close to the tent and he woke up Caro. We both remained silent and listened to the animal which was now very close to the tent. It probably heard us, when we moved inside our tents. After a while the noise got further away from us and then disappeared completely. What it was? We will never know! After this short time, where we listened to the noises, we both dreamed of bears. Caro was thinking, the bear would eat our backpack, when it discovers the toothpaste and the dehydrated food in it and Mathias dreamed of the bear attacking our tents and we would have to come out and spray with the bear sprays. In the morning everything looked nice again, the entire scene is just different, when it is not dark outside. The next day we took the West Fraser Road, a sideway next to the busy Highway 97. This took us through nice farming lands until we arrived at the Margaritue Ferry. Here there has been a connection with a cable across the Fraser River, but it is out of business now and the next bridge in both ways is about 25mi away. On the sand bank next to the river we had our usual Spaghetti dinner and built a small campfire.cycling-on-west-fraser-road

Day 45 & 46 & 47 - Shortly before desperation

Distance: 41.77mi & 65.46mi & 57.24mi | Time: 5:32 & 6:07 & 6:20 | 1924kcal & 2897kcal & 1670kcal | 3095 & 3065 & 2765 vertical feet

Today, yesterday and also tomorrow were and will be very exhausting. We are currently on the way down south on the Highway 97. Mainly with four lanes and a rather small shoulder, this is really not the place to ride a bicycle. If anybody every plans a trip like that, leave this part out and be happy! No pictures from these days, just drive on the Autobahn or Interstate 5, then you know how we currently feel. We will upload more pictures again, once we get on Highway 99 towards Whistler. This one will have many up- and downhills, but at least we’re in a very nice landscape and less traffic there!

Day 48 - Feeling not so good

Distance: 44.07mi | Time: 4:05 | 1670kcal | 2355 vertical feet

cacti-in-bcToday the plan was to go on Hwy 99 towards Squamish and meet a few friends, who we met before at the border of Alaska to the Yukon. Unfortunately Caro woke up with a strong headache and also signs for the flu. So we kept riding a bit on the Hwy 97 until Cache Creek, where we first tried to get her a ride with someone in an RV. But after about 3h at a gas station, where we thought we might get lucky, we gave up and waited for the only bus leaving in the afternoon to Vancouver. It came right on-time and took Caro and her bike for $72 on the 5h ride to the city. Mathias kept riding and went on Highway 99 towards Lillooet.

The landscape here changed completely now and it looks like in a desert. The today’s camp was also wild, just directly next to the road. And there I spotted them: Little wild-growing cacti right next to the highway and this up in B.C.!! Now when we keep going we have to watch out where we set up out tent and especially where and when we walk bare-footed :-) cacti-in-british-columbia-opuntiasalmon-after-lillooet