Start: Death Trap Motel, 100 Mile House, B.C.
End: Three Rivers Inn, Cedrics Willey, Washington, USA.
486 miles (Kilometers got left in Canada, eh.)
Total Distance: 4,882 miles
Back in the U.S.A.. I have mixed emotions about our return to America (yes I know Canada is in North America, too). Part of me is excited to be headed back to my family, part of me fears th end of the trip. Every mile we have made since leaving Alaska has brought us closer to civilization and further from that rugged, wild place, The North. We still have so much to see and do, so many miles to cover, I just cant help feeling like I am leaving something behind, a part of me will stay there and I am worried that I will never be back.
We left shit-pie creek in rain and fog and headed in to the mountains, where it got foggier. And then foggier still. I live in The Bay Area, so I am used to fog, but I do not ride my bike in it. This was thick and cold and we rode in it for about 40 miles.
When it cleared, we were in the High desert. The spruce, alder and aspen had been replaced with scrub brush and rocks.
After a few miles of high desert, the road passed through some rock formations. This was the start of the Frasier River Canyon. What followed was a descent to the bottom of the North American Coniferous Rain Forest. From the high desert the road twisted through a canyon with walls that grew higher as it descended. It seemed to go down forever.
The rain clouds hung low in the sky and seemed to flow down the hills like smoke, sucked in by the trees.
Eventually the canyon road joined the freeway and led us to the border. The crossing was slow and arduous, we sat in line for hours, FREEDOM so near, and yet so far.
British Columbia was amazing. We visited its furthest Easterly, Westerly, Northern and Southern most points, we also went to Vanderhoof “B.C.’s Geographical Centre”, it smelled of saw dust. The land is vast and beautiful, rough, rugged and raw, nature in control and the void never far away. But this trip is not just about wildlife and scenery and forests (so many trees) and lakes, it is also about the people we have met along the way, each with there own story. Thank you B.C., I am not sure if I will make it back again, I do so hope so.
