I took a short day from Prince Rupert to a nice provincial park only about 20 miles out of town. Before I left Rupert, I checked out the downtown area called Cow Bay and also went to the small but excellent museum of Northern BC. It had some excellent old and new First Nations art.
While planning my trip, I had thought about going over to the Queen Charlotte Islands but have now decided not to since, to truly do them justice, I'd have to spend at least three days and the ferry ride is around eight hours one way. I just don't have that kind of time especially this early in the trip. I'll just have to come back some other summer.
Yesterday was a long but relatively easy day and the scenery was just fantastic. I rode 78 miles to Terrace along the Skeena River. The mountains around the river are very dramatic and still have snow on them so there are gorgeous waterfalls coming off the snow fields.
The terrain was almost completely flat and there was a tailwind for about 25 miles. Then there was a headwind to stress me out but it wasn't too bad and didn't last for too long and then there was next to no wind at all. My average speed was about 3 mph faster than on Vancouver Island with that nasty headwind. Easy days like that make for a happy cyclist.
I am currently in Terrace and will stock up on food since I'm heading north again first along the Nisga'a Highway and then on the Cassiar Highway that I rode last summer. The next town I'll see is Stewart and the next city will be the metropolis of Whitehorse in the Yukon.
The Terrace area is home of the elusive Kermodei black bear, which is actually white due to a recessive epistatic phenotype similar to the gene that produces yellow Laborador retrievers. Remember epistasis, all you bio nerds out there?
I'm really happy to be riding northern BC again. There is next to no traffic, the people all say hi on the street, the cars patiently wait for me to get out of their way, and the scenery is phenomenal. It gets dark at around 11 at night so I don't need to be in a hurry during the day to make camp The number one reason for excitement, though, is .... no substantial rain in the forecast for the next two weeks!!!! This, of course, will give me ample opportunities to gripe about bugs, hills, and wind but I'll be dry during the griping!
I hope everyone is having a good summer and is enjoying life as much as I am. Thanks for all the comments to my posts. I hope you are enjoying your virtual tour of the far north from the comfort of your couch or hammock.
-- Post From My iPhone
Big P! okay okay Lil' red,
ReplyDeleteSo far it sounds great, annoying, wet, and improvisional, lol, but over all sounds great. You should have attached a cam to your helmet, then you could relive all of these moments again, and even release a highlight tape, lol. I was thinking that a trip accross the PCT on bikes would be fun, what do you think? Well, gtg, us here have more to do than bike, lol.
-Splinter
hi. we met in the laundromat in Prince Rupert. I am glad to hear that you had a wonderful ride to Terrace. The scenery on the way was beautiful. We arrive in Sitka but we cheated and took the ferry. You would like the scenery here but there are only 42 miles of paved road so you might not find the biking very challenging. Be safe and continue to have fun for all of us who are not as brave as you! Charli from Ohio.
ReplyDeletePS Saw a bumper sticker here that said: Just because I can see the moon from my home does not make me an astronaut(this in the home of Sarah Palin!)