PowerCycle

09/02 Slammed down some good miles today. I’m sure feeling this week off riding though. After mile 50 I was about done. Most of the day was one long, gradual uphill. There was only one big hill and even that wasn’t horrible. A cinnamon bun at the top fueled me back up again. The last 2 miles was a very fast downhill which couldn’t have come at a better time.

The 2 riders with the dog took off this morning. I saw them leaving but I was chatting with the British couple in the RV at the time. I met a guy named Mark on the road today. He lives here on the island and was riding north. Nice guy. He recommended the place I’m camped tonight– Fisherboy Park.

After a town call Woss, about 20 miles into my ride today, there was a nice paved shoulder. Made for much better riding since its confirmed now that people here, except truckers, simply do not move over. No one was aggressive about it except one idiot in a pickup who thought I was going too slow to make a right turn out back onto the highway so he almost cut me off and then peeled out. At least he tried to peel out–his truck was a bit on the weak side.

Vancouver Island, at one point in time, was probably an amazing place. There are towering mountains, beautiful lakes, fast-flowing rivers and a huge assortment of trees. I haven’t seen too much wildlife though–just a small deer and a raccoon. Unfortunately the BC logging industry has pretty much raped the landscape, at least along the 100 miles I’ve ridden so far. It’s like they picked the most scenic places and dropped a bomb. Some reforestation has taken place but there are still huge swaths of land that are just covered in dirt and small, downed trees. I can only imagine what the interior sections look like. My guess is they took the large hardwoods that grew closest to the road (cheaper) and then moved up and in. Everywhere you look you can see evidence of past logging activity. Even walking along the beach where I was camped yesterday you can see all the junk they left behind. Kind of a shame that they didn’t manage logging here as well as this did in the northern sections of BC or up in Alaska.

GPX Track