May 14, 2016
Saturday the 14th: Safer
I woke up in the forest on Saturday morning, quite delighted not to have been savaged by coyotes, and decided to celebrate still being alive by doing my most favourite pastime – going for a bike ride. Today I was going east and would soon rejoin the Trans-Canada, but before that there was time to stop and enjoy breakfast at a lovely little picnic area beside a lake. Here I sat and ate my peanut butter sandwiches and watched as a team of four men in enviably bright orange t-shirts arrived in a search and rescue vehicle. They launched a search and rescue boat into the water at the ramp next to the picnic area. I hoped they weren't actually performing a search and rescue, however, as they were being very relaxed and laid back about the whole affair, and they still hadn't actually left the dock by the time I moved on.
I rejoined the Trans-Canada and rode 25 kilometres to Sicamous, where of course I went to the library. A few hours there and I was back on my way. It was a nice and sunny day again. The road was good, not busy, and with a decent shoulder. I was excited because the day before I'd returned to gradually more forested areas, and now I was heading back towards the snowy mountains and spectacular scenery of national parks.
There was one moment of note along my route – the point at which the final stake was placed on the Trans-Canada Railway line. It was at the top of a pass, I think, which was funny because the road had been so gradually graded that I hadn't noticed I'd been going up a pass. There wasn't a lot to see at this historical site, although it was popular with Chinese tourists. The stake itself had been spray-painted gold, which was really lucky, because otherwise it would have just looked like all of the other stakes along the track. Still, what a marvellous feat of engineering, and what a momentous occasion it must have been when this line was finished, completing a continuous ribbon of steel all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
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I called it a night around seven in the evening when I found a good place. I was deep in the forest, but I spotted a meadow just down from the road that looked just right. It might have once been an area cleared for some sort of logging operation, but now the grass was grown and blooming with bright blue wild flowers. With a little stream and a view of snowy peaks it was another wonderful wild camp, but it was also, rather worryingly, exactly the kind of place I could imagine a family of bears living. I was so worried about this, in fact, that I collected a large pile of rocks and placed them at my tent entrance to provide me easy access to suitable projectiles should any appear.
With the tent up and projectiles stockpiled I next collected my food pannier and walked away from the tent to make and eat dinner. Ever cautious I sat with my back to a tree while I did this in order to prevent any sneak attacks from behind. That might sound like an overly cautious move, but it became remarkably prescient a little later as I stirred my pot of pasta and a large animal suddenly appeared behind me over my right shoulder, advancing towards me with lightning speed. It was descending quickly down the bank behind me from the road and it all happened so fast that there was absolutely no time to grab a rock or anything else. Of course I first imagined it to be a bear, but as it flashed past me I realised it was in actual fact a deer, a deer that appeared itself quite startled. It passed me by not more than four metres, and dashed off into the trees, disappearing in mere seconds. It took considerably longer for my heart to stop racing.
Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 49,312 km (30,623 miles)
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