The ferry from Vancouver Island was only 20 minutes. I spent most of that time standing at the front of the boat with my face to the wind. Once I was off the ferry, I found myself in a completely different world. After the other ferry traffic had left, there was almost no traffic at all. I had landed on the back of the island; the ferries from ( Read more... )

(Slightly different format covering a few days ( Read more... )

I took the ferry from Prince Rupert to Port Hardy. It left at 7:30 but they wanted people there at 6:30. So I was up, showered, and at Tim Horton's by 6. It is possible to fit a large paper cup in my vertical bottle holder ( Read more... )

I made it to Smithers for lunch. It was a nice town, but fairly quiet: it is still the Canada Day long weekend. I got to see the VIA train; it was a smaller version of the Toronto-Vancouver train, but there was still a few dozen that got off in Smithers. After lunch it rained a little, so I went to Tim Horton's until it stopped ( Read more... )

It was a short hop into Prince Rupert and then several laps around the town. The place seems to be having trouble figuring out what it is. All ships coming from Alaska are required to stop here, making it a defacto cruise ship port. But they did a good job of keeping their tourist area contained. On the other side of town they are developing a deep ( Read more... )

Today was my last full day on the Yellowhead. I feel like I have developed some relationship with the road having followed it from its start in Winnipeg. It is an interesting road, on one hand, it was the first great trail across the Northwest and on the other hand, it is one of Canada's newest highways. I intended to picked up a Yellowhead sticker ( Read more... )

The rain had stopped by the time I woke and my tent was dry when I packed it away. I wanted to make good time today, since I had plans to stay in Terrace and, while doable, everything would need to cooperate for that to happen ( Read more... )

I woke up to a beautiful biking day. I packed up and headed to the next rest stop, which had a picnic table, for breakfast. I made it to Burns Lake around 10. It was Canada Day and I was worried that everything would be closed. But the grocery store was open, so I resupplied ( Read more... )

This is what I envisioned the entire trip to be: uphill and against a strong headwind. For the most part it hasn't been. Even though there has been rain and talk of rain, I have woken up in a dry sleeping bag for the past couple weeks. Although that may also be attributed to my discovery of the importance of tent pegs ( Read more... )

Priorities are different on a bicycle trip. Things like the date or the day of the week don't matter at all and I will frequently lose track of them. Until, of course, a Friday before a holiday weekend rolls around and the road fills up with boats and RVs. At least I am not trying to get through Jasper today ( Read more... )