Vancouver Calling!!

Well as you have probably guessed, once again, the internet opportunities are somewhat limited so I should give you another 'where am I now' update on progress. I'm happy to report that I have reached vancouver and I breasted the city limit sign on July 18th under a deluge of Pacific inspired rainstorms. In fact it seemed to rain for all of the 6 weeks I've been riding in one day which is funny since except for a couple of half days here and there I havent had to break out the rain jacket more the factor 50 sun screen.

The last couple of weeks through the tailend of the Prairies, the Rockies and West Coast Mountains have been some of the hottest that I have ever cycled with daily temperatures in the high thirties each day and often the sensation of literally riding through hot water as the humidity grew into the afternoons.

By my reckoning this means that the total odyssey took 47 days with 7 days of rest intermixed within that time. My basic route involved Quebec, Ottawa, Sturgeon falls, Sault Ste marie, Thunder bay, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Calgary, Banff, Revelstoke, Kamloops, Cache Creek, the Fraser canyon, Hope and finally a 170km burst out to vancouver city.

Its been an amazing trip and I'll be resting and reflecting on the journey for a bit longer in Vancouver staying with friends and enjoying seeing some of the area. Have already spent time with a university friend jamie and his girlfriend Jess and also seen Terry and Kirsten from lane4 Canada over in West Van.

I guess some initially interesting things for me was a feeling more of a relief than outright satisfaction on reaching Vancouver (perhaps because of all the rain and negotiating the traffic into the city on the last day made it a little nerve wracking in places). Clearly these conditions have been wildly different from what I have been used to for the majority of the trip where open roads and dry visible roads have been the norm.

Also that my most euphoric moments have been along the way (as I think back now) with a couple of examples springing to mind. The first was a stretch of road in the Prairies where there wasn't a cloud in the deep blue sky that is so large it envelopes you in its presence and made me feel like an ant scurrying across earths surface. I was riding strongly and the gently ups and downs of the western edge of the Prairies were allowing me to cycle like cyclists dream they can ride on their best days. the combination of the scenery and my sensations were what I had imagined and wanted for months when I had thought about the trip. To paraphrase Ewan macGregor from "long way round' but I was IN THE DREAM I had had and I knew it at that moment. This caused a surge of excitement and euphoria through me that made me shout out loud and have my voice and expression shower out and dissipate into the emptyness of the landscape.

The second kind of moment and one that happened more at the end of particular days, but not everyday, was a reflection of progress made along the way. I remember sitting at Marathon on the north shore of Lake Superior in a very non descript Motel and studying all my 10 A4 photocopied maps (thanks lane4 colour photocopier!!) and feeling bubbles of emotional happiness at the progress I had made that would make me alternate between powerful feelings of pride, excitement, emotion(crying a little) and expectation of what was still to come.

Life and my emotional volume turned up in every direction!!

Whilst this may sound crazy I knew and felt quite alone of that road but happy and also at the same time with the world making something, my thing, happen.

Funnily this feeling was repeated on other ocassions after tough days or nearing the end of tough sections of the route, for example at Drumheller, a town close to the end of the Prairies where I recognised that I had summited a personal difficulty physically or psychologically and was moving on to a new phase of the journey. Again it wasn't possible to predict this feeling as often i was very preoccupied with the process of living and enjoying cycling in a wide and varied scenery over a certain distance most days but it was almost a stepping out of myself and seeing that i was again making my thing happen, moving forwards.

I will endeavour to fill in the fairly large blanks that exist in my account, especially cycling through the Rockies, now I have regular e mail access.

In the meantime its been great to receive various messages and e mails from people back home. In a similar way to meeting people along the way it has given me great burst of energy that have helped me through the tough passages!