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Published: July 11th 2009
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British Columbia
I'm FINALLY home! Woop! Hey!
Man, do I have stories to tell. Do I ever. Man! Jeeze!
Here I am admist a bike trip, headed for now to Kelowna. Im meeting a friend here on the 10th (which is today, Ive met her) who Ive known for many years. She actually just spent a year in South America! But Ive had a nice journey getting here.
It all started last Monday night. I rode 115km from Lake Louise to Golden, BC. In Golden, while shopping for a new front rack (my last one finally broke after years of abuse!), I bumped into a nice lady, and her son. Her son liked my bike, and asked me if I was the mailman, or if I was travelling. I said I was the mailman.
Later, I was back on the highway when the two of them passed me in their car. They stopped, got out, and asked "Do you have any place to stay tonight?" I said, "No, I definately dont." They said, "Well, you should stay with us!" I said, "Yes."
The two of them were named Christine and Bastion. Christine was the tenant of a woman who owned an Exotic Animals Petting
Zoo. They had Alpaca Goats, various species of sheep, llamas, and an iguana, just to name a few. All animals were well kept, very healthy, and loved incredibly.
Unfortunately I didnt have time to go on a tour of the farm, as I spent many hours struggling to install a new front rack. Too many hours, as it turns out. I left at 2pm to climb the summit of Rodger's Pass. On my way up the mountain, my new front rack began to bend under the weight of my food, and after a slow-speed crash inside a tunnel near the summit, the state of my rack became dire. I finally arrived at the summit around 7pm, amidst a strong headwind and chilly rain. I decided it was definatly best NOT to ride down the other side of the pass. I was a little afraid it was going to snow on me, honestly.
Cool Story Point I decided to sleep on the summit. Somewhere.
Luckily for me, there was a large resort-ish hotel, offering rooms for $100 a pop.
Unluckily for me, I wasn't big-blingin enough to throw down one hundred skrilla for a cama.
Luckily for me,
Storm!
Kat and I were later run over by this thing. Twice. the restaraunt there had a staff of really cool, youthful waitresses. I explained my dilemma. If I were to camp, I needed a location to store my food away from the bears (they were fresh out of large-limbed big trees, and bridges). They offered to store my food in one of their rooms.
BUT (luckily for me) I was invited to a staff get-together in their nearby lounge. And, their lounge had a futon. And the futon, along with a place indoors for my bike and my food, was mine. Along with as much beer as I could drink, thank you thank you thank you.
Cool Story Point I fixed my rack! The next morning, I daringly rode across the highway to a BC Parks equipment yard, past signs saying 'Authorized Entry Only!' and 'You're Not Worthy'. I met an ole' feller named Paul, who showed me to a massive scrap metal pile... my bike is now 5 ibs heavier, but a whole bunch stronger. Rack Status: Fixed the heck up, motha hucka.
Cool Story Point I finally left Rodger's pass, after wasting even more time with my rack. Crap. 12:00 noon. I wanted to leave
at 8! I still had 320km to ride to Kelowna, and 2 days to do it in! So, I start bombing down the hill.. strait into a headwind. I had to WORK, just to hit 20km/h. On a downhill! On a huge, very long downhill, I could barely even hit 30km/h! I sighed, and continued at a leisurly (and slow) 15 kilos an hour.
After a few hours, the rushed morning that included a lack of food left me with a gurgle in my belly. I decided to stop and cook lunch, by a river away from the highway, in a covered cookshack.
And WHO do you suppose walks up to me, in this cookshack, away from the highway and anything visable? Noone other than my best buddy JOSH (whom I'd been riding with for the last two months, with the Otesha Project). We knew we were both in the area, but had no way of getting ahold of eachother.
Cool Story Point #4+1; Josh and I cruise away down the highway, hand-in-hand, happy as a pair of Redwing Blackbirds. And WHO do we get passed by, in the middle of this mountain pass, way up in the middle
of nowhere?
An OTESHA car! One of two on the planet. And, it held a dear friend of ours, whom had ridden the Kootenay Mountain Tour this year. The car had just started its trip back to Ottawa!
Cool Story Point Josh, myself, and a mutual friend Gaylene had a dandy time that night, camping in Revelstoke. Highlights included cheap organic lemonade, and jumping into a rec centre with showers, a hottub, and a waterslide! The next morning, I realized that I could not ride 260km in the day and a half I had left to do it. Or, I could.. but Id be exausted when I got to Kelowna, which is not condusive to happy times hiking with Kristy. I decided to either hitchhike or bus.. so I checked out the bus first. $100 to ship me, my bags, and my bikes part-way to Kelowna, to Vernon. Ouch! So, I checked out the bus times, and chose to give hitching a try.
I had an hour to to hitch. Gaylene, who hitched a few days ago with his bike, was picked up in 2.5 hours of waiting.
I was picked up in 25 minutes, and driven with
TylerOrienteering
This is me learning how to Flaminco-Dance whilst orienteering in the mountains. my BIKE, AND ALL OF MY GEAR in a small Mazda all the way to Kelowna, by a guy from El Salvador! Holy awesome.
Cool Story Point I arrived one day early, in Kelowna, with no real way of contacting Kristy. So, I started lounging around the city, doing errands and this and that. While sitting on a bike path, pondering what to do next, and talking to Katrina on my cellphone, up rode a woman on a fancy pink bike. She smiled, and I told Katrina I'd call her back. After a short conversation about places to illegally camp in Kelowna, she offered me her and her husband's back yard.
Turns out this couple is possibly the COOLEST POSSIBLE COUPLE I could have met, possibly, in Kelowna. They're organic fruit farmers! And, one of them is the offspring of the man who operates Nature's First Fruit, an organic fruit company in BC. They had two children, a 2 and 5 year old, and after cooking a declicious dinner in their kitchen they offered me a spare room downstairs.
I later recieved a job offer to pick fruit for them! Too bad Im already doing super cool things.
A flower!
Aw, shucks. Maybe next summer!
Cool Story Point # Infinity; I am now in Kelowna hanging out with Kristy. She just finished waiting many hours for me to study for and pass my Class 4 written examination, and now we have all weekend to have a jolly good time.
Thanks for reading! Tata for now!
Lots of love,
Tyler
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Keely
non-member comment
OMG!
Tyler! This story has soooo many cool story points - I don't know what to say! And you met Josh! And a KMT-er??? Wow! Glad to hear you got to Kelowna safely....Nathanael and I will be coming through there in 3 weeks - leave us a note on the highway ; ) Loves from Edmonton!