Tahita was a total surprise for us,as we hadn't heard it announced on the flight schedule.One hour to stretch our legs,come to from the wet Oz winter ,and greet the sun.
Flying from LA to Seattle the following day,we met our old friends Craig and Martha Copeland,and stayed there for a week.
Gave us time to catch up a bit,as well as pick up the new replacement tandem flown in from Burly HQ.
What follows is an un abridged set of diary notes.You can judge for yourself what kind of effect the British Colombian experience had on us.The starting location is a place called Mission,60kms east of Vancouver.Note that Vancouver Island west coast gets the same yearly rainfall as the wettest parts of NZ:-1000 inches;17meters per year.Unless otherwise stated,we camped wild,complete with bears and mountain dogs.
Sunday 10/6
Real start of cycling in BC.Stunning view 4000feet or equavalent of about 200 meters below 1220 meters.Roads lethal for any bike,much rougher than NZ.
40 kms or therabouts to mount C from Steelhead 11.15 to 4.15.Felt very frustrated about not having time to walk to saddle summit,had to be back by 5pm-4hours daylight wasted.Wonder if we'll have the chance of doing it again? Puzzeled by the bike not making it up loose gravel.Been up as steep with baggage with gravel as wet and loose underneath.
Saw some fantastic landslides;places of desolate uprooted trees.Stumps,rock,silt.Its clear that the only thing to do is bring a tent and camp.
The mountains a royal version of Scotland.
MONDAY 11/6
Late start,had tuned up back wheel spokes quite reasonably.'Horizontal' cycle along Stave Lake shook out two chain pins (technically impossible) while cycling.Two days ,two pins.Roughest roads yet on the trip so far.Put two links in chain on return to Norbert's and Priscilla's (hosts in a mountain chalet).Met a marvellous deer sitting beside the roadside-very cool and trusting doe lying with feet tucked up.We had a nice read in the heavy rain for ages,then discovered a totally dry bit of forest cedar pine floor,beside huge lakeside.Chucked it down all afternoon-what a place!Nice Bach Ciaconna tucked us up.
TUESDAY 12/6
Went up Richards Road to miracle valley,and took an extraordinary wet road to the south eastern side of Stave Lake.Blackened stumps in the water,millions of them..Nasty weather.'Toe -clipped' fall into a large puddle in middle of track.
WEDNESDAY 13/6
Cycled 50 kms to find maps.Mission 25 kms down hill from chalet.Strange reluctance to sell decent maps ,in mission.Vile weather.Had Bob O'Niel catch me up in a land rover to give me a digital satillite instant map.They seem scared that the Crees migh get hold of the next planned logging tracks.
THURSDAY 14/6
Practice 3 hours straight then got a phone call from Vancouver Symphony Orchestra saying no audition given.Must watch out for the likes of Comissaris.Death of a dream.Bashed bike up a 'bear infested' and uphill prison built road (BC lumber industry dependant on prison labor).Half a view at the top-too rough to cycle down-at least the sun shined a bit.
FRIDAY 15/6
Got fed up with the rain (we'd heard of finnish people who get depressed with the amount of time it spends raining),but went out on a dyke beside lake Hayward along the old railway route.
SATURDAY 16/6
Extraordinary ride to McNutts Road (20 kms),then a push through trees over 10kms.Mostly cycling on loose broken rock.Pushing (something peculiarlily BC)for last 4-5kms.Left bike in the summer dark,misty hailstorms at 4000ft.Lots of bears in trees and bush.View of Golden Ears to Robbie Ried (mountains that stood out among the rest),as the mists occasionally lifted.Stunning views along Lake Alouette.Brutal inaccessability.Canoe and backpacking only effective way to 'wild it' north.Austerity of the cold grandeur bearing tree lined hints of inhospitability.Climate diabolical.
SUNDAY 17/6
Indian mission house called 'House of Blessing'.Language english.A whole people averaged out of their spiritual inheritance by the mighty dollar.Indians completely demotivated by north european work ethic.
The scots,coming here after the 'highland clearances' didn't manage to stop a similar form of despotism from happening to the native peoples.
MONDAY 18/6
More obscene rain.Read all day at the mountain chalet.Walked with Jean up the back road to superb view within 30 mins of the house.We've cycled weeks in other lands for this kind of snow clad,sweeping view of lakes,hemmed in by hefty mountains.Nice that the weather dried up a bit in the evening.
TUESDAY 19/6
Packed up and cycled all day to Harrison lake.Wow.Totally stunning.When the sun shines here its really beautiful.Tail view of Lake Harrison ,along the ridges on the other side breathtaking snowy precipeces.Makes 'Remarkables' (NZ) look slightly tame.No shops for next 200kms.How'll we do?Tarmac 20kms before hot springs,then very steep non-metalled loose rock.Pitches of 40 plus degrees,in the heady afternoon heat.Packed lunch from Cree friends tasty.
WEDNESDAY 20/6
Good weather all day ;tough ascents and descents..Lunch stop in sunny heat at 19 kms.Knackered.Jagged ridges ,snowy peaks.Near vertical fjordland eastern side of Harrison Lake.Camped on ideal lakeside tiny peninsula,looking out into 'triangular' peak over the water to our vertical right.The lake seemed narrowed by the steep mountains on the other side.Snow melting fast.Valley rivers fast flowing and crystal clear.Sun very hot when out.Quite relieved with later cloud cover.
THURSDAY 21/6
First 12 km easy and pleasant-next 18-20 distinctly redefinitional.4-5 hours 'pushing',road rougher than NZ Mavora lake stun bum road-a tremendous team effort.Jean really exelled herself.Legendary perserverence.A really spectacular gorge after phenomenal ascent.Only 6-7 kms of 'killer' terrain,strictly foot and shoulder country.Very wet afternoon lots of misty downpouring dreeg BC 'specials'.Logging camp after 35kms treated us like royals.Grapes,oranges,peas coffee,chocolate bars,jams and honey.For a small consideration.If we'd seen the road out (going back from whence we'd just arrived),we'd never have dared to do it.
FRIDAY 22/6
Too much coffee the night before at logging camp(6 cups!)Slept a couple of hours then had a read till 3am.Got up 8.10 feeling tired,worst I've felt in a long time.Bashed bike to hot springs (38kms from logging camp).Allowed Jean to talk me into the springs themselves,only because of torrential rain (it had been quite dry till 4 pm).Sulphurous water has an overpowering effect in a subtle sort of way.Verne and Maxime hopped along and gave us a very sensitive impression of Illiwat Indians-'couthy' and laid back.We asked them why they had asked us to enter their own reservation hunting grounds springs.'Loggers',was their eloquent reply.The previous day we had seen several Crees pile out of a van,on one of the lakeside 33% or more, loose boulder ascents,lasting 2 or so kms,before the next surprise.They shuffled the rocks around the chevvy 65 van into a certain order.Then drove calmly up.We had just seen two powerfull trail bikers turn off that precise incline and head,defeated,back to 'civilisation',and less bears.
The Cree attitude to bears differs considerably from the white man's......"Treat them with respect,speaking calmly as if to a person,give way,stand your ground"good advice from Carol, a part scottish cree indian administrator from Edmonton,who had shared the mountain chalet with us for two weeks,before we set out to Harrison Lake.Norbert and Priscilla,our hosts had built the wonderful place with their own hands.We just followed her advice,putting food and all toothpaste,lipstick,suncream 4meters up and 3meters out.(Make sure that your wife is not camping near bears,even on a registered campsite,if it is a certain time of the month for her....male bears are confused into thinking it's mating season!)
I had also discovered another meaning of the initials BC:-blasted cedars....The jellied leg feel after 30kms slog ,twice a day up and down the light starved brittle underbranches of this noble tree.
To find ourselves in the wilds and discover two Cree villages way after the logging camp,and also many sacred Cree burial sites,makes one realise the harmony with land necessary for cultural survival.The white loggers disregard this completely.Rape of the land as quickly as possible seeming to be the biggest priority.Why do the Germans refuse to buy any BC cedar?
Because the insufficient replanting methods are too close to those used 400 years ago that caused such irresponsible devestation to the Black Forest.But the might of the yen is to be measured in the three pulp mills,south of Squamish, that have rendered marine harvesting of Howe Sound Lobsters inedible within the evil 21km mill triad.The japanese are buying up as much of post halycon BC as they can.More of that in a bit.
SATURDAY 23/6
Fine weather after rainy night under electeric pylons.Ground under tent inexplicably flat feeling in spite of visible ridges and unevenness.Good 40km? bash out of roughest 200 kms I've ever seen or want to see.4 days to complete.First two,about 35 kms ;second two days50 kms per day.Scores ten for hardest cycling route without shops for over 200km.Estimated 20 cars seen over the four days.Mostly Indians in chevvy trucks.Verne had a one ton 64 chevvy.Must be good to last 25 years.Lilleot lakes really pleasant,much less inaccessable than Harrison Lake.Lunch in 'driftwood bay'.Jean tired.Exciting triple dog chase.When melting snow cloud did lift breathtaking ridges of preciptous rock,unhinted at by the blue lower slopes and the calm lake.Good to hit tarmac.
SUNDAY 24/6
From our little campsite on Greg's (a young cree ,building a house) to be built road,we managed to shop in Pemberton,meet Nicholas (who biked in India and didn't like it one bit,then found Nepal at 10 000 feet hard to acclimatise to),who gave some good tips for further excursions in the mountains north of Pemberton.Plenty glaciers in sight for next few days.
MONDAY 25/6
Got some good camping 45 kms further down on a newly cleared campground.At least it was the right price.Managed to see the notices in time warning fisherman and campers not to drink the river,due to heavy pollution from the nearby japanese paper mill.There was no fresh water tap in the clearing (not that we had needed one before).We set off looking for streams,and found a stream about 10 kms further down the valley.Shortly after came Whistler.A stranger anachronism cannot be imagined.Full of holiday loads of Japanese,specially built architecture for their taste alone.In the middle of just nowhere.Apparently, the whole coast is being bought up .Quaint ,just taken by itself;not so funny when one considers the filth being pumped into the Howe sound flora and fauna in the name of the almighty yen.Three pulp mills,local village fish markets no longer operating.It is well seen that a nation gets the goverment it deserves.
Which brings up the point of how much unity or even agreement is possible in the now largest country in the world,where the germans stay in Deutchmarks,the Dutch in Guilders,the french in Francs,and the rest in dollars,and yen.
At this stage in the diary the daily entries gave way to overall impressions,blocks of days melding into a concerntrated attempt to keep being missed by the desperate logging trucks on the 4 way highway out from south of Whistler right down to Vancouver.
We had unwittingly done the 200 kms rough stuff in the one time per year that the trucks were inactive for a week.The narrow loose rock single width 'roads' would have been unthinkable with the customary anti personel way of driving usually employed.The Crees have been very patient so far,but how much longer the rape of nature can last there cannot be guessed at.It's supposed to be their sanctuary,their haven of rest to carry out their lifestyle,yet de facto access by road is less than minimal.
We rested up at a place called Britannia Beach for a few days,and were impressed at how open the local 'whites' were on this very subject.No one was happy about it.
Brittania Beach to Golden Ears Park pretty undulating 140 kms.We left at midday.Vancouver center had a colonial feel,and the traffic congestion reflects it.Bridge crossings narrow bottle necks.The motorway actually had a marked cycle path which led straight into a traffic jammed city center.Some ridiculous film was also being shot holding up rush hour traffic,compounded by the police spot checking Cree trucks,and not much else.We recognised the same thing on more than one occasion.We pressed on out of Vancouver post haste,and settled into a supercharged 60 kms to Golden Ears Park,camping at 2am on the only official site we had been on in several months.Of course the noise in the morning from screaming kids had to be heard to be fully appreciated.We got 5 hours sleep,then gave up and went exploring.Weather sunny and hot -park worth a visit.Good trails, walks, and remarkably civil park rangers.
The short 40 kms back to Norbert's and Priscillas was surprisingly slow and hilly,I think we were low on gas.
The cultural schizophrenia of BC had a subliminal set of no go areas for those willing to slow down and take time to absorb the place.The only true Canadians I ever saw were the patient crees.The rest were there to make a fast buck,or so it seemed.
Carol had said that I was the first white she had seen in 30 years who could understand the cree's without patronising them.I hope to take her up on her open invite to the cree nation's hub in Edmonton ,before long.