This is the official slogan for marketing B.C.'s natural heritage to tourism. And we agree with that! While cycling through B.C. from West to East during the last week, we have experienced quite a few happenings, which we would like to share with you in retrospective. Summer Who would have thought, that summer temperatures are going to hit us right in the mountains in B.C.? For five consecutive days we enjoyed (or endured, this could change quite quickly!) over 35 °C in the shadow. Luckily, we often had campgrounds situated directly on a river or lake, so we could jump into the water right after a day of cycling and cool down. High season Beginning of June also marks the beginning of high season for tourism in Canada; not necessarily only for foreigners, but also Canadians themselves. For the first time, we needed to "fight" for our campsite: prices are equally high per site whether you arrive by RV as a family and with two extra vehicles or on two bikes and with a tent. There is no such convenient thing anymore as "hike & bike" campsite, where you also enjoy priority. Especially on the weekends we now have to plan our legs strategically wise. Or we opt for wild camping (which is perfectly allowed, if we do not stay on private ground or in national parks); so far we were rewarded with the most beautiful spots while doing so. The only tricky point to keep in mind is the vicinity to water. We use the DrinkPure waterfilter if we need instant drinking water or for large volumes Micropure tablets.
Highways Sea to Sky Highway, Trans Canada Highway... The names are very depicting and hold their promises! Our most scenic route led us from Whistler to Lillooet on the Duffey Lake Road (thank you, Blake& Nina, for this advice!). We felt like cycling through a travel brochure for Canada! Everything was included: wide forests, snowy mountains, deep blue lakes... just the page with the steep, winding roads someone had accidentally torn out ;-)! On our way to the Rocky Mountains we logically now are passing through mountainous areas, which adds altitude to our legs (and trains our muscles even more for the coming). Cycling on the Trans Canada Highway 1 although is much less frightening than it sounds. First of all, we have had a wide and clear shoulder mostly (which you don't have on smaller streets, so the cars are passing you much closer). Second, the trucks drive very carefully usually leaving a safety corridor for us. Third, we are highly visible wearing bright colours and a flashing red backlight (which doesn't seem to be the norm, as we already have received positive comment from drivers at a traffic light regarding this). And fourth, we are having funny encounters on highways as well! There are the proud Harley drivers and also the ubiquitous RV lovers: usually we leave the campgrounds between 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning while the rest of the guests is having breakfast and usually our RV neighbours cross us on the road two to three hours later, waving, honking and blinking" good bye" to us :-). The peaks Not only physically are we reaching peaks, but also in figures. We have hit the milestone of 4000 km cycled, endured temperatures of 44.5 °C, climbed uphill for 1437 m in one day and raced downhill with a speed of 69 km/h. All in all, we are feeling like "flying high" these days and we are eager to discover Alberta's natural jewels soon.
1 Comment
Nora
17/6/2016 14:51:39
HAHA, die Jump-Serie gseht super uus =)
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Blog Archive
September 2016
CountersKilometers pedalled
Hours on the bike
Meters cycled uphill
Flat tires
Burgers eaten
Bears sighted
Day by day statisticsFor those interested in our day by day activities and statistics, please download the following document.
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