June 25, 2016
It has been a while since I have written in the blog.
I’m in Merritt British Columbia about to begin a 1040 km ride along the Kettle Valley Railway. You can see the maps by going to this link – epic1000. I’m not doing it as a race, just wanting to ride off road in a great part of the natural world.
I saw the guys this morning. About 15 heading out. The hard core racers are hoping to do it in 5 days – that’s 1040 km’s in 5 days. Crasy!!! I would be happy to do it in 5 weeks, that’s still 200 km’s a week.
I may see if I can pick cherries in the Okanagan Valley for a few days – make a little money and eat lots of cherries.
I’m really tired today after 5 days in a row of riding, the last two had some tough climbs one over a 1200 meter pass – so lots of napping and relaxing.
I just started reading a book by Robert Moss, “Dreaming the Soul Back Home”. I’m also reading a novel by Paula McLain, “The Paris Wife”. It’s about a woman who marries young Ernest Hemmingway. They move to paris before he is famous and start to meet some of the people who hung out there in the ‘20’s, such as Gertrude Stein. I borrow the books from the Library in ebook form – great for bike touring – as far as I know no extra weight to download a book.
You can see where I am and have been for I week here: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0TcAZu93bpoBqzqGb3dME3SEb39QnApMA
I flew to Victoria to visit my son Jonathan. Then after a couploe of nights on Saltspring Island, I took the ferry through the San Juan Islands (very beautiful) to Anacortes and then up Washington State to Abbortsford BC. Then I rode along highway 7 to Hope and up to Merritt. Along the way I met a couple Lynn and Fred from Victoria riding ebikes. We camped next to each other. They very graciously invited me for dinner that evening, sitting outside at the picnic table. That night it rained all night.
The next two days it rained intermittently. About half way to Merritt I met another cyclist – Forest who is riding across Canada following the Trans Canada Trail. Following that route is 8,000 km’s coast to coast.
Pictures will be posted on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHskyTXg78
I’ll try to write around once a week. Feel free to write if you have questions.