Part Two
We biked right out of town, & I noticed on the gravel hill leading out of the campground that my brakes made a hilarious sound, like an excited primate crossed with a goose. I was grateful for the loaner helmet. I played around with my gears because while I hear about lower gear being good for uphill pedaling, I usually stay in one gear on the flatlands. A couple of the hills, Elisabeth happily told me, are 13% grade- the steepest legally permitted or something. Riding down them was a rush the likes of which I've never known- like a roller coaster with no safety bar! The adrenaline or the wind brought tears to my eyes. I'm going to take up thrill-seeking & become an adrenaline junkie
...which is a hilarious idea for someone who complains about anxiety as much as I do! I asked that we stop once to pee because I had no idea how far we'd come, or how far 33 km actually is. Also I seem to have an eternal UTI that I shall treat as soon as I go see Chad for his herbal know-how. Right after we got going again, we were passing through Thimbleberry Palace. This little road was lined with succulent, ripe, sweet & tart glistening little berries. I creamed my jeans- or Ryan's shorts, which I was wearing. As we picked them, they seemed to fall off the bush and float up into our mouths. I have never had such sensual pleasure with my clothes on! In the August sun, our endorphins humming, we feasted on my favourite berries.
"These are like jam already," said I. They grunted, faces full of sugar & pectin & enzymes & vitamin C.
We climbed a ridiculously large hill around the halfway point & apparently Elisabeth indulges in a lot more joint smoking than she ever used to. I had to pass because the downhill portions of our journey were already pushing the limit of what my adventurous heart could handle. I like bending over my handlebars like a racer, & wished I had a cape. Having just said that, I find it hilarious that I'm 25 years old.
We made it, me panting, and bought coffee from a young man who's not yet learned how to deal with tourists & their demands- I asked him for soy milk, he said yes, & promptly forgot to get it for me. Sitting in front of the shop, a couple of people my friends knew came up & talked about their imminent return to Ontario, & Elisabeth's proposed alternative to Ontario- biking forever! To Mexico, maybe South America in its entirety! I made her promise to check out Portland for me, & the vegan street with the vegan tattoo shop.
I badly wanted to learn about whales in the Interpretive Center, so I went in & read & read & read. The mythology was what made me get over my unhappiness with orcas: the Kwakwak'wak believe that if you are sick and see an orca, you can take seawater into your mouth & blow it toward the whale, asking it to take your sickness from you. As well, they've a story where long ago, a little boy and an orca had a conversation. In it, they told each other that it hurt them too much when the other would take one of their people. They agreed to mutually stop the murders, and the boy went back to his people to write up a treaty. He brought it to the orcas, who consented, & since then the Kwakwak'wak have not killed orcas. Apparently there have been instances of orcas saving individuals from drowning.
There was a cougar skeleton, astonishing small. Enough about cougars for today- I'm reading R.D. Lawrence's The Ghost Walker, about a year he spent in a backwoods BC cabin in a cougar's territory, both of them stalking each other. Got my phobia covered.
Apparently the resident orcas of Broughton Strait eat fish while the migratory whales eat things like pinnipeds (seals, sea lions). Apparently an Alaskan population has recently resorted to eating large numbers of sea otters- Dan! My cuddly little sea otter! Birds get sucked underwater sometimes, although they are not really delicious to orcas.
Elisabeth & Ryan came after me, I donated $2 to the museum, & we left. We biked back to Port McNeill and my legs were very, very tired the next day. This did not prevent me from taking the Fiori back out and heading to Malcolm Island.