When I woke up, it was much warmer than yesterday. Even before I opened my eyes I figured that there must be cloud cover keeping the heat in and therefore the chances of rain were pretty good.

The day started with a big climb - 6 or 9 km. A nice wake up call. Unfortunately, my prediction about the rain turned out to be correct. There was a cold rain off and on for most of the day. It did get lighter as the day went on though.

I had a very nice experience along the way. One of the things that reminds me of why I tour on a bike. I was cycling along through the forest when there appeared two bald eagles that were flying along the roadway in the same direction I was headed. I was able to follow them for a couple of hundred metres before they veered off.

Along the way I stopped at Woss to get a snack and take a break from the rain. As I was waiting under a shelter hoping in vain for a change in the weather, a lady rode in on her bike. She stopped and the first thing she said was, "I need a smoke" and proceeded to light up. It caught me by surprise. I had a chat with her. She is training for an Ironman race in Mexico and cycled all the way from Port Hardy (about 104km away). She said that there was a section of the road after the turn off for Port Alice that is known as 'Bear Alley'. It seems that the province put in grass to prevent erosion, but the bears like to eat that type of grass so they end up hanging out there. She was getting a ride back in the car to Port Hardy. When she passed me near Port McNeil, she slowed down and offered encouragement.

My original plan was to stop at Port McNeil - I had stayed there while on a kayaking/biking trip a long time ago. When I got there I decided that it could rain again tomorrow and I would have to take down the tent and set it up again in the rain. It seemed better just to push on the extra 40 km to Port Hardy. Then I could have an easy day there and get ready to catch the ferry the following day. The ferry to Prince Rupert leaves every other day.

The roads were good today. The shoulders have pretty much disappeared north of Campbell River, but given the amount of traffic, it does not seem like a problem.

I stayed at the Wildwood Campground. It's just a couple of km from the ferry and cost only $22.40 for two nights. It's just a couple of kilometres from the ferry.

End point:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.70901,-127.4766&ll=50.70901,-127.4766&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Heart

0

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

Heart

0

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply