Trans-Canada

Just as I was about to leave Vancouver the focus on my camera-lens stopped working. It was bound to happen sooner or later due to all the bumpy roads that I have travelled on. Likely it was when I dropped my bag in Bolivia that caused it to properly fail. I guess I was lucky that it came to a head in a developed world city where I could resolve it. $300 and an extra day later the problem was resolved. The morning I was leaving Whistler I came back to my room to find that my net-book had jumped off my bed and onto the floor. It is a little top-heavy and so the door-slam from the cleaner and the ensuing draught was all it needed to fall off the bed. Again, I was lucky in that I was able to operate it once more to save some files but other than that it was toast. The net-book has proven to be a gem as it saves hugely on www expenses; Wi-Fi tends to be free whereas computer access can be up to $6 per hour. In addition it allows me to back-up and organise my photos on-the-go as opposed to having to go through hundreds of photos at the end of my trip. Of course, it allows me to write up the blog and watch TV shows and movies as an escape on the road. More worryingly, I noticed a wobble in my rear-wheel. It was obvious the cones were loose but I thought I had tightened them in Portland only a 1000k before. The wobble was pretty big and although the bike was rideable the gear-changing was really sloppy due to the resulting play in the hub. Poor shifting is really annoying, especially when climbing and descending. On the flat you can tend to work with whatever gear you have but of course, Canada is far from flat.

I departed Whistler on Highway 99 north. This is not the conventional way for bike-tourers to go as it is a fairly mountainous route inland. To be honest, this section from Whistler to the Rockies was the section that I had never really thought about. The map I was relying on was a 'Days Inn' location map for the whole of Canada. I picked up the map for this budget hotel chain on the ferry and felt that it would do me until I got to the Great Divide Trail-head in Banff for which I have very detailed maps. Naturally, such budget hotel maps do not include topography and so I was in for a lumpy surprise. While the road up to Whistler was a drag it was really easy as Whistler is only at 600ms of elevation. Thus, my first big Canadian climb was to Joffre Provincial Park. I love climbs because they feel like a friendly duel. The climb does its level best to beat you but rarely does it topple you. Every climb tends to have its own personality and this makes them fascinating to bike up. This was an alpine climb in the truest sense; a monstrously steep lower section where the road was pitching to 15% with lots of switch-backs early on before easing off somewhat. It took almost two hours to climb the 14k monster but it was fun. The road passes in the Rockies are supposed to be long straight drags of 2-3% over 50 or 70 kilometres. That kind of riding is dull to say the least.

Soon the terrain changed and I was hearing all about the forest fires that were blazing in BC from the locals. Apparently there were 400 fires on the go at once. I could neither see nor smell smoke so I wasn't too concerned. What was bothering me more was that I was having difficulty trying to camp for free or cheaply. As I moved inland I was heading out of the Alpine terrain and into a part of BC which receives about 12 inches of 'precip' a year. This makes for very little snow, which for Canada is unusual. The terrain was very arid making for limited tree cover for camping. What's more, most of the land was private ranch-land and too lumpy so I had to rely on regular camp-grounds. In the US the state camp-grounds are very bike friendly but in Canada I had to pay as much for a patch of grass as a hundred thousand dollar rig. In addition the showers are 'coin-op' making camping expensive. In fairness, they do have free recreation sites but these tend to be way off the road such that a cyclist can't reach them. In other words, they turned what were once free 'rec-sites' into 'pay-sites' as they are more conveniently located to traffic. Indeed, Canada is just not set-up for the likes of travellers (me). The whole tourist industry is set-up for people who are on 2-3 week vacations and are road-tripping the Rockies. Indeed, Canada has the most expensive hostels in the world. A hostel should never ever come to more than $30. In Canada they were generally $35. Hostels are more lucrative than motels as you can squeeze between four and eight people into a dorm whereas a motel room is about $70 per night. When I asked one attendant at a camp-ground to reduce the rate or to let me off he responded that I should get a higher paying job. Unfortunately, Canada is missing the point: travel should not be exclusive to those with money. The whole reason for hostels is that it allows for young people (who typically have little savings) to experience the world and broaden their mind. I'm not sure that Europe is any better as I have not done the hostel scene in Europe, however, I was a little surprised that the hospitality sector in Canada was so closed-minded since I have met so many open-minded Canadians around the world.

Despite all the ups-and-downs (and there were many) I eventually limped into Kamloops. This is the first proper city between Vancouver and Calgary. I was totally stunned to find that it is a fully set-up bike-town. The hills, sunshine and limited rainfall mean that cyclists from all over come here to live and train. In addition, it appeals because it is a four hour drive to both the Rockies and the coast making for good variation in terms of weekend getaways. It is somewhat off the radar meaning that it is cheaper than the bigger cities. On arrival my priority was to get my net-book and my wheel fixed. Obviously the wheel was the more important of the two.

I managed to lose my way in strip-mall heaven. Kamloops is surrounded by chain-stores and so I had to pull-over to look at the map as I couldn't see the down-town area in the valley. Next thing, I hear a friendly shout from a driver who pulls in to help me navigate my way into the centre. It turns out that Bud is a cyclist too who does his fair share of touring and so invited me around for a 'cold one' once I had done my chores. A 'cold-one' turned into a three night sojourn on his and Sandy's couch as I somehow managed not to resolve what should have been straightforward tasks. $200 later my net-book had a new hard-drive but then I was told that I needed to do a Win7 reinstall. The net-book costs $350 so I can't justify spending any more on her. I can use her but I just can't use her Wi-Fi as that file went MIA. As for the wheel, well it turns out that the play in the hub managed to erode all the threads that the axle screws into. The mechanics had never seen anything like it. Unbelievably the quick-release skewer was keeping everything together. Still, they didn't have a wheel I could use so I had to limp out of town in the hope that I could organise a wheel in Banff.  I rolled in on a faulty wheel so I should be able to roll out of town on same. It turned out that my hub was part of a faulty batch of Shimano ones where the right-hand cone was never tight enough. I had always understood that my XT hub was reliable so I never questioned it. Of course, it could have been remedied if I had noticed it earlier but being the back wheel you tend not to look.

To be honest, I had already made my mind up that both the bike and the net-book fall under the definition of 'stuff'. Thus, as important as the bike is to my trip I never get worked up over 'stuff' as it really isn't important at all. One can travel without a bike and although the blog would suffer I could travel without a net-book The real lesson in all of this was that it is really adversity that brings you into closer contact with the locals. This kind of contact is great for both morale and the travelling experience. If I bike around the world totally sure of myself and 100% organised then nobody will ever approach me as I don't look like I need help. The result is that I rely on the hospitality industry, which is really a step removed from the real world. It is only when you meet people like Bud and Sandy who so generously took me in, cooked for me and shared all their local knowledge with me that you realise that there is a whole other dimension to travelling. This is what frustrated me about travelling through Latin America; I didn't have good enough Spanish to make these human connections. I am very grateful to Bud and Sandy for making Kamloops a real highlight to my trip through Canada. Despite my grudge with the hostels and camp-grounds in Canada I am immensely impressed with Canadians. They are very friendly, worldly, open-minded and often you can see this wild glint in their eye. This is the glint of a real 'beatnik' ... of whom I have met very few on my trip. It seems that Canada harbours a fair few of these entertaining characters.

Right so, I'm off to buy some fake blood ... that should work wonders for improving my international relations.

Take it handy

Marco

ps - working with IE in libraries is preventing me from posting photos to the gallery. Why libraries insist on using IE as their only browser on a linux system is beyond me. Goddam you Microsoft!