Home is the Rider, Home From the Road...

With an allusion to the Robert Louis Stevenson poem I begin the final blog of this epic journey which began on July 31st.  Monday was the final riding day before Garry and I arrived home and as such it was bittersweet.  On one hand we were finishing what will undoubtedly be one of the great experience of our lives.  On the other, we would be arriving home after three weeks of riding, camping, staying in motel rooms and eating at fast food restaurants.

Whenever I leave for an extended trip I often wonder how I will feel when I have returned.  I wonder if the experience will change me in some way so that I look at things differently.  When I ride the final kilometre to my home I refelct on that question and review the events of the time away.  This time the thought that was uppermost in my mind was about the vastness of our continent both in terms of space and time. 

We rode every day for twenty-one days and yet we saw just a small portion of this continent.  In several places including the Bighorn Pass and the Flaming Gorge in Wyoming, I witnessed several hundred million years of geology on display in cliffs often hundreds of metres high.  The rocks in the Bighorn Pass are half as old as the earth itself and some of the rock faces themselves spanned up to 150 million years.  In the Flaming Gorge the cliff along the reservoir displayed 300 million years of geological history.

We saw evidence of the vast age of the earth on display almost every day along with the tremendous drive for life to survive.  In places where the soil was dust, grasses and small shrubs manage to eke out their existence.  In steaming hot pools in Yellowstone Park bacteria have evolved to be able to survive in very hot water while others thrive in alkaline pools that would kill most other forms of microscopic life.  A trip like this points out how insignificant we are in terms of our physical size and the time we spend on this planet.  And yet it also points out our tremendous ability to have an impact on our world.

However, on Monday morning we left Burlington, WA under cloudy skies and cool weather.  At least it seemed cool to us, although the the previous two weeks of riding in temperature from the mid nineties to 105 degrees F.  have accustomed us to higher temperatures.  The ride was smooth and we covered the almost eighty kilometres to the border very quickly.

I love Duty Free.  It is one of the few places where a regular person who isn't rich enough to hide their money from taxes can get a break.  As someone who loves a good glass of Scotch, it is very satisfying to be able to buy an expensive bottle for the price of a brand that costs half as much in the liquor store.. 

We picked up a bottle of very good tequila and one of excellent Scotch before crossing the border.  The Customs agent was efficient and we crossed the border in to Canada without any problems, although, by this point the major item in both of our stuff was a growning pile of dirty laundry which even Customs agents wouldn't want to approach.

We made it to the ferry just after 11:30 and had time for a visit to Starbucks.  It is great to be back on the Coast where a person can get a Starbucks within a reasonable distance. In Nevada I checked for the nearest Starbucks and found that it was located in Fallon, NV, 176 miles away!

While we were waiting we met two American riders, Ziggy and Dan who were rididng BMWs, not that we held that against them.  Ziggy is from Colorado and Dan is from Texas.  They have been riding together for many years.  Their last big trip was to the Yukon and Alaska in 2003.  This year they rode to Canada and were on their way to Ucluelet, on our west coast for a few days.  Ziggy was looking forward to having a mess of oysters when he arrived in Ucluelet.  I don't know howw successful he would be but I wished him luck with it.  We met them again later on the ferry. 

 

Dan's & Ziggy's BMWs and our bikes on the BC Ferry.

Dan (l.) and Ziggy getting ready to leave the ferry

It was a beautiful day for a ferry ride and the Island mountains were visible through the haze as we moved closer to Duke Point, near Nanaimo.  At one point we could see four ferries at one time.  Probably not that rare an occurrence but the first time I have noticed it.

The view from the BC Ferry

Another view from the ferry.

The Queen of Alberni headed to Tsawwasssen.

Ferries from Horseshoe Bay & Departure Bay.

At this point it was really feeling like home and Garry and I both wanted to make it to Campbell River as quickly as possible. We did the 168 kilometres from the ferry to CR without stopping except for stop lights. 

Just as we began the ride with a photo, we finshed it the same way.  Gerry's next door neighbour was available so I set up the camera and she snapped the photo of us in Garry's driveway.  I then left and rode the final kilometre of the trip.  Parking in my driveway I checked my odometer.  Final total; in twenty one days of riding I had covered 7513 km.  One of the epic rides of my life and one that was almost perfect.  No serious mechanical problems, no rain, no close calls, and no *@#holes.  As I characterized last year's trip, this was what a friend calls a 'blessed trip'.

The final stop on our 21 day, 7500 km ride, Garry's driveway.

 

As I did last year, but perhaps to a lesser extent after what I saw this summer, I'm still awed by the land that we live in.  To our west are lakes and mountains and to our east is the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the coast mountains with a variety of islands thrown in for good measure.  We have lush green forests with trees that sometimes stand 70 metres tall, salmon runs that fill the Campbell River with tens of thousands of fish, and eagles that can be seen almost any time one cares to look.

 

Right now is the height of the salmon fishing season.  People fish for Tyee (spring salmon weighing 30+ pounds) in small rowboats and with special gear and line that can be no more than 20 pound test.  On the Campbell River people are fishing for pink salmon with fly fishing and spin casting gear, while others snorkel down the river and watch and swin with the pink salmon as they return to complete their life cycle.

 

Tyee (30+ pound spring salmon) in the Tyee Pool.

Fly fishing for pink salmon in the Campbell River.

Spin casting for pink salmon in the Campbell River.

 

Finally, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my wife Darlene for indulging my need to go a-wandering for an extended period of time for the second time in as many years.  She has understood and tolerated my absence from home so I can go riding for weeks at a time seeing places I've always wanted to see.  I suspect that next summer I may remain closer to home but this summer I have had one of the opportunities of a lifetime to see a part of the world that is spectacular by any measurement.  For that I am grateful.