Cycling with Sally

This stint of our journey was filled with sunny warm weather which was a contrast to the previous week, however the mornings were rather chilly!  We cycled out of Prince George with another cyclist, Hans from Germany.  At first we couldn't believe our luck because the terrain was flat but we quickly found the constant head wind was a real hinderance to our speed.    Once we got to Chetwynd (the Chainsaw Capital of the world - there were heaps of carved statues of various things around the town), Hans called it an evening and we pushed on another 20 km.  We came across a super nice motorcyclist that was heading to Dawson City who stopped and chatted with us.  He was a mexican living in Arizona and had completed over 5000 skydives around the world over his life time.  Quite the interesting character to come across!  That night we pitched our tent behind some trees in a rest area.  This has been our worst sleep to date (maybe Dad shouldn't read this).  At about 11pm a roudy bunch of guys came into the rest area and cranked their heavy metal music up.  Belinda was somewhat concerned for her safety, fortunately they did take off without seeing our tent.  However, after thinking all was well they came back at 2am and did the same thing!  All we can say is both of us weren't particularly cheery the following day.

The second day out of Dawson Creek we had the summit to reach.  South was definately the way to go as it was a gradual uphill, whereas there were some steep downgrades after we got to the top.  We had a lovely break at the Bijioux falls where we shared our lunch with some Bluejays.  On this day we got offered free showers on two separate occassions, once in the morning where we stopped for coffee at Azouzetta Lodge and again at the end of the day when having an ice cream at Windy Point Inn.  We took the second offer for a shower which felt like such a treat.  Further up the road we came across a Provincial Campground (that had actually closed for the season) so we camped in a beautiful lakeside, sheltered and safe space for the night that felt like heaven compared to the previous night.

At the start of our next day we were aiming for a resort restaurant about 15 kms ahead of where we stayed to warm up and get kick started with a coffee (it's scary but Belinda is becoming just as much of a coffee drinker as Roland), however it turned out to be closed for the season.  Just as we were about to leave we met the owners of the resort, Andrea and Terry, who kindly invited us in for a free coffee and chat despite being closed - so kind!  Just after having a conversation to them about only coming across two bears from a distance did we see our first bear close up just down the road from the resort!  This black bear was having a good old munch on some berries on the side of the road.  Although he looked pretty chilled out we waited for a car to come along before we passed him.  He actually walked across the road in front of us and went into the bushes - was pretty freaky but also awesome all at the same time.  Just before we reached Prince George we came across two beavers busy working on their dam below the Salmon River bridge.  We were both really excited to see them up close as we had seen lots of activity of beavers along our journey but they always seemed to be away on holiday.

We stayed in Prince George for three nights with Warm Shower hosts, David and Megumi.  They were just so welcoming and relaxed - "Appreciate it"!  We had our first home cooked salmon of the trip (which was delicious) and enjoyed the company of their numerous pets (Muriel you'd just love these people).  While walking their two dogs one day we came across a bike swap.  We upgraded our front panniers (for $15) and gave our ones to Megumi for use around town.  One highlight of our time in Prince George was seeing a fiddler and her accompanist on guitar (Yvonne Hermendez and Jeremy Walsh).  We had never taken in fiddling before and we just thought it was terrific.  So much fun and boy were they talented.  Yvonne had won the North American championships five times in a row.  She also could to the foot work dancing while fiddling, which truely was a sight to see.  Thanks to David for taking us along.  Our final night there we had dinner with Ray and Helena.  The couple we stayed with in Fairbanks (Janet and Robert) strongly recommended us meeting this couple and we were sure glad we did.  We were stuffed full of excellent food, wine and yummy saskatoon berry pie - oh so good!  The next morning we were treated to a hot breakfast too to prepare for our cycle ride to Quensel.  It was a pleasure to meet you Ray and Helena - thanks again - we enjoyed hearing your cycling stories.

Our ride to Quensel went well for us but we did witness an accident where a motorcyclist plowed into the back of a car going through a construction area.  Fortunately all involved were ok minus the Harley Davidson - ouch!  We stopped at a place called the 'Second-hand Cinema' on our way and met another cyclist taking advantage of the free camping there.  William has also cycled from Alaska and is heading to California to learn more about survival in the wild.  An interesting guy and place (filled with stuff from tools to eight track tapes) to spend an hour or so.  However, to Roland's dismay there was no actual cinema to watch movies - what's up with the name!

What is Belinda so sick of right now?
*Seeing photos of herself in that blue jacket.
*Not having the self control to only eat one Vanilla Dip donut in one sitting when at Tim Horton's.

What has Roland had enough of right now?
*Sewing up the never ending holes in his cycling shorts and socks.

Things found on the side of the road:
*Pair of Van's board shorts
*A dust buster
*A beach ball
*CD's
*Cell phone charger
*Several more licence plates