PowerCycle

07/02 It seems clear to me now that whomever designed Hwy 40 hates bicyclists. Its almost like they intentionally avoided going around big hills and opted in every case to head right for the top so you could then sail down that hill just long enough to get to the next big hill. The weather kind of made picture taking hard but from the higher sections of the road you get a really nice view of the surrounding area.

One unusual thing happened when I was leaving the city and tearing down the hill that leads up to it. I almost ran over a moose. It was kind of dark with the rain clouds coming and me having my sunglasses on so conditions were ripe for a man vs. moose encounter. The crazy moose is literally standing right in the shoulder almost on the road when I finally saw him from 20 feet away and hit my brakes. He heard the brakes squeal and took off back into the trees. That would not have ended well for either of us.

It rained most of the day today but not too hard. In fact, today was a thousand times better than the 2 days before Grande Cache because there was very little wind. I cruised along at 20 mph on the (few) flat sections and even kept a good pace up the smaller hills. Overall, today was just about perfect.

I stopped for lunch at one of the other rec areas and made a pita/fish fillet sandwich. The fish is the kind that comes in a tin can that you peel open and has all kinds of good fish juice in it. See where I’m going with this yet? So while I’m eating this surprisingly good sandwich fish juice is running out of the pita and on to my hands. For the life of me I can’t get rid of the smell. At least now I only have to worry about bears eating my hands and hopefully leaving the rest.

Made a huge decision today. I’ve been carrying around a tent and a hammock since leaving Florida because both have advantages. Well the poor hammock has been used less and less so I packed it up and shipped it to my Dad. I kept the fly though because it makes a great cover for cooking if it’s raining.

Time to give Canada Post a little review too. Work on your customer service! I managed to track down a box, so with everything packed in it I set it on the counter and asked if I could borrow a marker so I could write the addresses down. The lady standing there hands me a black marker which I found out quickly was as dry as her personality. I asked if she had another one and she said while holding another marker, “I have this one but I’m using it.” Fortunately another lady who worked there heard this and handed me a red one to use. So now I needed some tape. The dry marker lady pointed to the shelf behind me and said I’d need to buy a roll. WTF. I wasn’t going to pay $5 for a roll of damn tape just to use 3 feet of it so I said I was going to the drugstore to get some there. She rolled her eyes and handed me a roll behind the counter and said someone left it there and I could use it. Gee thanks. Why didn’t you just hand me that in the first place? Canada Post rating: F.

I also looked into getting either a prepaid phone through Telus or Rogers or getting a new sim card that would work in my useless AT&T Blackberry (which I unlocked last night). Now that I’m in the middle of nowhere it would be nice if I could at least email short updates so they’d post on my site. Rogers uses sim cards but the guy didn’t know if it would work in my phone. I don’t know why it wouldn’t but there was a bigger problem. I’d have no way to charge it because it charges using an AC adapter and I don’t have a way to charge devices that use standard plugs like that. The prepaid phone would have had the same problem. I’ll just keep trying to dig up internet access when I can. I miss my satellite phone sometimes.

I might actually be on the Alaska Highway in 2 more days (maybe; 3 is more likely–it all depends on the wind). Pretty excited about that.

GPX Track