PowerCycle

06/16 Big event of the day was my first border crossing via bicycle. I kind of messed it up though. Getting through the American checkpoint before entering Canada wasn’t a problem although both the guards yelled, “Stop!” when I rolled up to the stop sign a bit too quick for them. Thought they were going to shoot me. Once the guy checked my US passport he pointed me over to Canadian customs. I handed over my US passport to the Canadian officials (a guy and a girl in their late 20′s–very friendly) and was asked all the usual questions. Then the lady asked how much money I had on me. I said about $80. I didn’t even think about it then but they wanted to make sure I could support myself while in the country. I was a bit surprised when she told me to come inside for “processing”. After more questions inside about my financial well-being it came up that I had a Canadian passport. Well that changed things. They took one look at it and told me to get going. They didn’t even care that the $80 was all the money I had to my name. Just kidding. I didn’t even get searched. My bear spray was allowed in too.

I took a picture of the Canadian entry point. It looked like a National Park entrance, kind of rustic looking, one lane, made of wood with no barriers at all. Behind me the US entry point looked like you were going into a maximum security prison. There were at least 6 lanes with huge steel poles and barricades. Crossing into Alaska should be fun.

I rode for a few miles until I hit a little grocery store next to the road. I picked up some Gatoraide and something called a Big Turk chocolate bar. Dealing with an official Canadian shopkeeper was interesting. They look a lot like us which was reassuring. They also speak a form of English that with very little work, could be picked up on quite easily. They do seem to enunciate the letters “ou” in certain words a lot. They took my American money and gave me some coins for change. One of them looked like a gold coin and the others all had pictures of beavers and moose on them.

Cattle guards have proven to be a fun thing to ride over on a bike. One of them was rather epic in girth. It had very thin strips of metal leading across so I aimed for one of them and rolled across. From now on I think it would be best to walk across them.

The other big event of the day was in Eureka, about 6 miles from the border. Had my first huckleberry milkshake. It was soooo good. Had a great tasting salad too.

The park I’m staying at is freaking expensive– $24. I almost had a heart attack. There are showers and water but no electric. The battery on my laptop is dead and so is the spare I had (I’m writing this entry on the 17th from notes I took that day–not sure if I should be writing in present or past tense). I charged my iPod using the the solar panel so I could at least listen to music. The sun doesn’t set until almost 10pm so sleep wasn’t going to happen.

After I’d set up my tent a guy rolled up on his 10 speed towing a BOB trailer and loaded with 4 panniers and a trunk bag. He was officially the only person I’ve seen that had way more stuff than me.

The weather was nice in the morning but I got dumped on hard by a passing storm. When it rains here it doesn’t joke around. It was right when I was going up a huge hill too. It cleared up a couple hours later.

My mood is bad on the chart below because I rode all this way and I’m probably not going to be able to see my sisters in Calgary for as long as I thought. We’ll see what happens I guess.

GPX Track