Advertisement
Published: August 13th 2010
If we thought the rockies were intense, welcome to the prairies, so far close on a 1000km of supposedly flat land. Everybody you speak to tells you, "oh yeah its all down hill from the rockies" , "oh yeah, its all flat from *insert town we are passing through" But well......its not. I mean, compared to the rockies, this is flat, thats for sure, but the majority of the riding has been up and down small hills. The prairies are varied and beautifull, the one thing that is shared in common of all the areas we have passed through prairies so far is that you have a humongous, beautifull, ever changing sky, and , there are absouloutley no trees!
A lady me and teyln chatted with told us "In the rockies, you know your coming to a village when you see a gap in the trees, here in the prairies, you know ones coming when you see some tree"
Thats real true, and there aint so much in the way of villages either, between calgary and regina there is medicine hat, swift current and moose jaw which you would call reasonably sized towns, and theres a lot of flat nothingness inbetween. One day me and kay had to hitch hike ten km to go and get the nights groceries, it was 10km back and we didnt get a ride, just a load of cowboys looking at us funny. So after a 95km ride we had shopping and a 10km walk to do to finish us off!
Thats another thing the prairies has a lot of.......cowboys, they are some funny looking people, the hats, the toggles, the boots...another word is rednecks, but i aint sure just cos your a cow boy your a redneck, but you sure do get a real conservative feel riding through these small towns!
We been hidng under grain elevators for our dinner, trying to get to towns the dont exsist anymore, and expereincing some of the most immense hospitality I have ever expreinced! If our ride out on the prairies says anything about prairy folks is that, they are sure as heck some of the most hospitable and kind people i have ever met.
So the last blog i wrote was from this guys house on the edge of calgary, we stumbled up to his door and asked for a space in the garden, but ended up in his home, complete with pool table and home cinema, we had nice comfy beds!! Im sure there would be a lot to tell about him but unfortunatley he didnt really socialise.
So the next morning after fixing a flat tire we glided down into calgary. It was kind of D day for kay with her bad wrist, we went to the emergency hospital and she managed to get an x ray, turns out shes got tendonitus! It really sucks and shes in a lot of pain a lot of the time, but now she gotta just ice it , and keep looking after it. We are all trying to help, scrounging ice from gas stations and somedays its better, some days its sucks.
After fixing up kay we went on a hunt for a bike shop to fix up her bike, then we hunted for Aids calgary. We couldnt find em, so then we set about hunting a place to sleep for the night! This has been the most amazing part of this trip, so long without knowing where your sleeping. This night we posted on couchsurfing calgary and amazingly got a response within 30 minuites from an amazing amazing energized person named kirsten.
We rode on up to kirstens house and enjoyed beautifull conversation, made an interview for the project with her, and she leant me her films to watch on chariis laptop in the tent in her backgarden! Such a beautifull expereince and once again we felt so lucky! By the next day we were all itching to get out of the big citiy and find out what the prairies were all about, but first we had to make our interview with Aids Calgary.
We finally found there building, and filmed a tour and made an interview with their communnications person. To be honest the interview was quite dull, the communications person seemed quite guarded and none of us really spoke about it after wards!! That said, after banff and calgary and with the upcoming joining of telyn everybody was starting to feel a bit better about the project!
We left calgary that day and battled 35 km of industrial estates.......that was pretty disgusting....once out in the prairies we saw the most creepy clouds floating over us, whirling and creating freaky shapes above us. Then Bam! it came, the first of the downpours! We sped up the nearest gravel track and took shelter with 30 or so horses in a huge stable while the storm raged outside.......... all the locals were saying the same, twister warnings..... i was excited........ and a bit freaked by the idea of being caught in a tent in a twister..... We then unsuscsefully negotiated with the stable owners son for shelter and headed back out into the drizzel to find a place to sleep for the night. After a few empty houses on another gravel track we spotted a car coming up from a distant farm house, we flagged it down and in the car was Quinn and his freind. Quinn was some guy off to get beer, and he said sure we could pitch our tent and come drink with him and his friends and have a bbq. Then off he drove. At first we were a bit hesitant to stay, on my part because i was nervous to be camping near drunk people.... but we decided to risk it and it was amazing! Quinn and all his freinds were just gorgeous, we ended up sleeping inside in comfort, the view was beautifull, the rockies and calgary in the faint distance. We drank nice beer , ate good food, had great conversation, played table football and guitar and slept great.
Quinn woke with us in the morning to drink coffee and say goodbye! I felt so lucky as we left and the feeling has lingered since of such good fortune in the people we meet, it has actually been ridiculously incredible, if i can say that........the ammount of good people we have met.
So we carried on on the prairies and those first few days, i gotta say, what a pleasure!! seriously, riding the prairies some days is like a dream, if you actually pedal rather than just cruise, you fly!!! we often were crusing between 25 and 35 kmph without even trying!! We finally started to knock off some 100k plus days! That next night another storm rushed over us, and we managed to get our tents up in a farmers feild just in time to chill out and smile about it! The next day was more beautiufll riding and we had planned to take a lunch break in the next village. We pulled up to a small native run gas station and asked permission to cook on the wooden porch, we got permission and cooked. As we were cooking we were invited to several peoples houses for bbq and beers, but we ended up accepting the first offer we received, from a man named Bryan Little Cheif. He came up and out of the blue after asking a few questions invited us to join him that night at his home for a sweat lodge.
I had no idea what that meant
but charli assured me it was an amazing priveledge and something i would enjoy. Bryan even offered to drive us what we lost that day in riding time the next day if we were worried about that....... we were so accepted his offer and headed up with him and his wife michelle to their house in the reserve.
I am so thankfull to of been given a chance to come and spend a night on the reserve and to partake in a ceremony. Bryan and michelles place was lovely and when we got there we were treated to coffee and offered a place to camp in a grove of trees. All around the houses is grass...infact all over the prairies actually is grass, but here were some homes i felt comfortable around, nature all around, not tarmaced over and repressed.
That night we were joined by some germans, an austrian woman and an infuriating british guy who knew about everything for the sweat lodge.
So a sweat lodge is kinda amazing. You should wikipedia it or something for a proper description, but basicly its one of the most intense expereinces i ever had. So you start by siting outside this kinda hut made of branches covered in some kinda canvas..... outside a fire is burning and under the huge chunks of wood are i think if i recall right 48 volcanic rocks. The number of rocks an elder can use in the ceromony depernds on how many they have earned. Bryan earned his rocks by going out and doing 3 day fasts in the mountains. Before the sweat lodge bryan told us stories and explained the ceromony to us a little. We stood in a line and rubbed ash over ourselves, and then entered the lodge by walking around and then coming in. Men one side, women the other. The idea apparently of the sweat lodge is that it is a ceremony for men, but women can also partake. They say that women get their release on their period, and for a similar kind of cleansing the men have sweats.
People can also make requests for specific needs or healing before a sweat to the spiritual leader (bryan). Well one of the group did this and later something strange happened, but anyway we went in the hut and the first 8 or so of the stones were added for the first round. After some rituals like the passing of the peace pipe and some other things i didnt fully understand, the doors close and the whole hut becomes pitch black. Then the drum drums the rattle rattles and chants and songs, and prayers start to circle the hut. The heat is unbearable that first round, you can barley breathe for the heat, and sweat instantly pours out of you. Nothing like a sauna where you wait 15 minuites for a bead of sweat. Here it is like you are instantly emptying yourself of sweat!
That first time i was scared right, seriously, i was scared, i was scared because i felt like, heck, this is really energized, and i dont know whats going to happen and im scared and its dark and i can barley breathe and i was praying right, really praying for something i didnt know i even neeeded til i began praying my heart out.
After a while we stop and the door opens and we go out for a break.
I forgot to mention, since i was near the door, as each round began i was passed the red glowing rocks from the fire and the fork and had to lay them inside the rock pit. Each round came 8 9 or 10 more and each time water was poured on them and the door closed, sweat poured from us and the energy intensified.
At one point I saw a blue light move within the hut. Bryan told me later it was a spirit, they enter through the spirit door.
What happens in a sweat must be different for everyone depending on where you are and what you need, but for me, it was a very real deep feeling of connection with being, and a return in some way to my connection with the everything. i can only be over awed with how lucky we were.
That night after the sweat we ate food and all passed out.
Bryan and michelle were good to their word and drove us and hours drive (a days cycle for us) to brooks, where we continued onwards. I just realised now that i got my days crossed up and actually it was this night we camped in the farmers feild, but thats ok i reckon, memories are pretry blurry.
Ive just realised this is going to take some writing and its pretty late, so i best carry on a little later! (ive a week more to catch up on)
until then............
Advertisement
Tot: 0.143s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 49; dbt: 0.0459s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Muv
non-member comment
sweat lodge
I love reading your blogs, they are interesting, informative and always make me smile. Looking at your route on a map shows you have done over 1700km, that is amazing, how do you feel about the achievement of cycling so far? You sound to have met some lovely people - I can just imagine you in 50 years telling loads of youngsters "in my day..." and narrating your adventures. Times like these give so many great memories to look back on and share. Keep up the good work! xxxx