Wednesday June 24, 2015

After yesterday’s tedious ride getting out of Greater Vancouver, today’s ride was a joy. Although it was a long day in the saddle, it was a lovely ride along the Fraser Valley. As we cycled through the downtown core of Mission, it seemed a little run-down.  We did spot a very nice Sikh Temple which rather surprised us.

We had the wind at our back, there were no major hills to speak of and I remember coming along this route with my Dad on the train. When we came through this area there was a lot of snow on the mountains -it was middle of May.

I kept looking for the Rocky Mountaineer Train but it travels on the other side of the Fraser River.

The only Town we went through was Agassiz where we stopped for lunch and texted our warmshowers host.

Is this what the ride is going to be like all the way? the wind at our back, the sun in our face and awesome scenery. Going west to east we are supposed to have tail-winds.

Do you notice anything strange about this \”tree\”.  It isn\’t a tree it is a repeater tower.

About 15 kms outside of Hope we spotted our first touring cyclist going in the opposite direction. We slowed down and crossed the road to chat to him, he had slowed down as well. We had a great chat with Martin who was from Germany. He was cycling a circle route of BC, but was hitting major headwinds on his return to Vancouver. He said he was hoping to get to Mission that night. It was about 1:30 and getting hot, we only had 15 kms to go and would be finished for the day and he had brutal headwinds and another 78 kms to go, I hope he made it. He commented on the fact that it was nice that Ralf and I were able to cycle together. His wife was very small and only liked to cycle shorter distances. Then he looked at me and said \”but you are very small as well, what height are you\”? I told him and he said \”can I take a photo of you, you are the same size as my wife\”.

I can imagine the conversation back in Germany – “See this woman is very small and she has cycled around the world, you can cycle too”.   I wonder what her response will be, if I feel sharp pains, I know that she has made an effigy of me and is stabbing it.

We arrived in Hope after crossing the Fraser River, it is quite high and very fast flowing.

We spent some time exploring the area as our warmshowers host would not be home for an hour or so. Hope has a great library and recreation centre and a curling club. The employment is primarily schools, hospitals etc although it once had a thriving lumber industry.

Our host (Hilary) indicated on her profile that she didn’t provide an evening meal as she had so many touring cyclists. Ralf and I were at the grocery store, when Hilary spotted us. She told us she was making dinner for us and hoped we liked it. We offered to buy beer or wine, but she said she had enough, we didn’t need to get anything. We were expecting to cook our own dinner and once again we have been surprised by the kindness of strangers.

Ralf got supplies for tomorrow night as we are staying at the Manning Provincial Park and we will have to cook for ourselves – Menu Option # 1 – pasta, sauce and tuna.

When we arrived at Hilary and Peter’s place we were shown a lovely basement apartment. Hilary told us to make ourselves at home. We cleaned our bikes and did a load of laundry. After making ourselves clean and presentable we went upstairs and chatted with Peter and Hilary. They have two crazy dogs. Gander a black mutt was a “prison dog”. The local women’s prison, socializes dogs so that they can be adopted into a family. The perspective owner has to have three meetings with the dog and the inmate who has trained the dog. Gander was much calmer than Cain, who liked to bring you stuff, socks, shoes etc.

We had a lovely evening with Hilary and Peter, chatting about their ride across Canada last year. Hilary had done a lot of week long tours with a group of women who have been doing it for years. The ride last year was the first long-distance self-supported ride for Peter, and he seems to have got the bug as well. We got some good tips for the route.

Tomorrow is going to be a very hilly ride.