Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) to Whitehorse, Yukon (Canada)

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My Greta Garbo phase is over. No longer cycling solo. Met up again with Alain and Tom, Swiss guys that I met last year in South America, in Vancouver. The last time I saw Alain was in Bolivia when I watched him cycle off into the rain forest with Felix the map cutter, an organic farmer from Dresden. At the time I vowed that I wouldn't let myself get hurt again and rush straight into another cycling relationship on the rebound. However time is a great healer. After a year pedalling on my own it has been good fun riding with them from Vancouver to Whitehorse.

We have developed our own exclusive touring language which is a combination of badly pronounced Spanish (with lots of over enthusiastic r's being rolled all over the place), Swiss-German and English.

In addition to the social and economic benefits, travelling together in a group has the advantage of saftey in numbers in Canada. Every day, a bit like the Pope I send my 2 young Swiss guards out into the forest first, to act as appetizers (or appies) for the bears. We have only seen the smaller black bears so far no big Grizzlies yet. Even though black bears aren't very big, they are big enough-and I don't stop to take photos.

Lots of mosquitos too. Everyone talks about how bad they are. They are not very nice when you are standing still or going slowly uphill. In the morning they hover just above my tent queuing up for their breakfast of blood. I think they can work out from my body heat which side that I am going to emerge from. Not sure what most of them eat when there are no cyclists around.

Although British Columbia is massive it is not too hilly and have covered a lot of ground this past month (2,400km). Also met a lot of very very friendly people along the way.

Weather has been mixed and changes quickly. Blue skies one moment, the next moment taking shelter from rain in a public toilet watching Alain eat peanut butter and raw onion sandwiches. Only the beauty of long distance bicycle travel can expose you to such contrasting sensations.

Particulary enjoyed the Stewart Cassiar Highway. It has been a long time since I have been anywhere this remote, carried 5 days of food, and we were lucky to enjoy our best weather on this section.

Having a rest in a nice hostel in Whitehorse (the Hide on Jeckell) for a few days at the moment. Hopefully get into Alaska sometime next week. Planning to finish pushing north sometime at the end of this month.

Anyway hello to everyone. Hope you enjoy the photographs.

Just a reminder that I am riding to raise money for Medecins Sans Frontieres. If you would like to make a donation over a secure internet link please visit my website www.pushonnorth.com.

Push on

Tim

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Photos

Tom, Alain and me
I first met Alain and Tom in a hostel in Chile last year. We ended up riding with them through Argentina and Chile before we went our separate ways in Bolivia. By a great coincidence Alain, Tom and I all were in Vancouver at the same time. After a few reunion beers we decided to ride together for a few days...

Hasta Whitehorse
...after a few more beers, and seeing a few bears, we decided that we would ride together to Whitehorse (2430 km to be precise). The fine details of the agreement are formally negotiated over a substantial Canadian breakfast in this restaurant in the small town of Lillouette. I will ride Hasta Whitehorse with Tom and Alain and until Alaska with Alain.

Leah
After a long hard day's ride Leah floated delightfully towards our table with three large helpings of Rhubarb pie. What could be better? I am entranced by the exquisite beauty of the moment and it is one of the few times on my trip where I have felt compelled to reach for my camera before my fork.

Nicole
Nicole is one of a number of attractive young ladies regulating traffic flows through construction works that I have met riding up through British Columbia in the past month. Her proud Amazonian posture, enigmatic Mona Lisa expression and alluring orange wristbands cannot detain me for more than a few minutes. I head north on the penultimate stage of my trip. Nicole seemed very pleasant others are not. One hard hatted harpy tried to get me to put my bike in a truck to ride through one section of road works. I think not. Push on.

Big angry brown rivers
British Columbia had a lot of snow this winter. After a couple of hot days in early June the rivers were pumping with brown water. Had to ride through some small floods but nothing really bad.

Timothy Lake (next to the Fraser River)
Moments after this photograph was taken I discovered one of the great economic advantages of traveling in a group of three: motels become much much more affordable. Of course a problem solved creates fresh dilemmas. With two queen sized beds in a romm who is going to sleep with who? I propose a very reasonable segregated system based on age and nationality. After some debate this is rejected and a rota system devised. As I spent a couple of chilly nights in the same tent with Alain in Bolivia so it is not a completely unfamiliar concept. On my first Canadian night with him a new phrase is added to my ever expanding German vocabularly "Wir sprechen nur" (we are just talking).

Solomon and Merc
Picked up a new rear wheel in Cycle Logic in Prince George. Cycle Logic 1443 3rd Avenue Prince George BC tel [phone]. www.cyclelogicbikes.com.
Merc (on the right) is from Switzerland. I had always dismissed world domination conspiracy plots as too complicated and farfetched to ever work but in the past month I have unearthed a very sinister plan being effected by the Swiss to destablize and sieze control of Canada. Everyone I have met (just about) comes from Switzerland. They all seem very nice but what are they all doing here? It surely can't be a coincidence.

Tom
Tom is a very thoughtful person. He spends a lot of time studying maps and guide books and calculating route distances. Here he is in one of his happier moods trying to work out how many carrots and bananas he has left.

Alain
There was not a great deal of reading literature in the student digs in Prince George where we stayed for couple of nights. However lurking amongst the old copies of Cosmopolitan Alain found this book "How to Live With a Man" which he found very absorbing.

Me
A can of corn beef is the base for most of my camping meals. I carried 4 cans along the Stewart Cassiar highway. Can't eat tuna anymore. This both fascinates and horrifies Alain and Tom (they eat pasta, muselli and raw carrots). I frequently overhear conversations that go something like this, "verdyberdygerdy Tim verdyberdygerdy Corn Beef verdyberdygerdy." as they describe their strange English travelling companions eating habits to the many other lovers of fondue that we encounter every day.

Alain, Sandy, Sarah, George and Tom
Tom and Alain met Sarah and George at Vancouver airport. They kindly invited Alain and Tom to stay when they passed through Hazelton. I tagged along and we had a very pleasant evening discussing the various kinds of animals that we might meet on our travels up through Canada.

Squanga Lake, Yukon-The last campsite
This is the last time Alain, Tom and I put up our tents together on this trip. Tom flies back to Switzerland from Whitehorse. Alain and I continue going north.

Alain, Tom and Henri
Just popped into to check our emails at Red Wolf Computing in Teslin and got chatting to the very affable Henri who ended up cooking us one of the best and biggest breakfasts I have ever had. Thank you very very much Henri.

Tomak preparing to cast the bke mechanic runes
Alain was very proud of his Swiss made rear wheel Huge hub that he picked up in Nicaragua. As he freewheeled past you it would make a lovely little uniform chattering sound that seemed to encapsulate the concept of precision engineering. Well it did until 50km before the end of the Stewart Cassiar highway. Then it started to make a different sound and stopped working completely. Nothing we could do about this in the middle of nowhere. So Alain sticks out his hand. The very first truck gives him a lift to the junction. (far far easier than hailing a cab in London). At the junction we spy Tomak with two mountain bikes on top of his car. We ask if we can buy one of his back wheels. He replies that we can but his wheels cost 1500 dollars. This line of enquiry quickly peters out. It turns out however that Tomak is a bike mechanic and he takes a look at Alain's rear wheel. In the rain and with only a few tools he converts Alain's broken freewheel into a functioning fixed wheel using a ring off my keyring to replace a spring. Very impressive stuff. This solution worked for the next 4 days and 500 kilometers. Thank you very very much indeed Tomak.

Nicky, Tom, Alain and George
When Nicky and Jason (aka George) came into view I was convinced that they would be Swiss or German. I was delighted to discover that they hail from Birmingham. Both are very amusing lively characters and we spent about 30 minutes chatting with them and swapping information in the middle of nowhere. They are planning to ride from Alaska to Argentina and am sure they are going to have a fantastic time. Visit their website for more details about their trip. Alaskatoargentina.co.uk