Alex’s Bike Trip

Alex made it to Hope, BC today. There was a bit of light rain, but he had a much better day overall, and enjoyed biking surrounded by majestic snowcapped mountains.

He’s camping at Coquihalla Campground thanks to a German couple who let him stay on their lot for free. He also wanted to thank Anita in Hope for the directions to the camground and for watching Carmen while Alex went grocery shopping.

Tomorrow he’s going to take on his first mountain pass, Allison Pass. It’s a 4265 foot (1300 m) climb over about 60 kilometers from Hope to Allison Pass, so it certainly won’t be easy. He’s going to be passing by Hope Slide, the site of one of the largest landslides ever recorded in Canada (be sure to check out the picture and map link in the Wikipedia article).

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Just got an update from Alex – he’s staying at the Diamond Head Motor Inn in Mission, BC. He didn’t make it to Hope today because the weather was very bad – he’s wet and cold, and his jacket isn’t helping much. He considered heading back to Burnaby 30 minutes into the ride when it started raining hard, but he kept on going. His highlights of the day were a shower and racing a train next to the Fraser river – from a safe distance away, I hope! He wanted to thank Seth and Steve from Wenting’s Cycle in Mission for the free tuneup.

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Hi Gang,

I’ve had a very interesting stay in the Vancouver area. Wow, this city is fabulous! When I arrived at Dan and Isabelle’s house I was invited to go hike up Burnaby Mountain. Molly, Isabelle and I ended up hiking for about 2 hours in a rain forest ! The woods are full of trails for mountain bikers and hikers and are very well maintained. Isabelle acted as our very knowledgeable eco tour guide, she knows plenty of interesting facts about the flora and fauna.

Last night Elena, Molly, Isabelle and I visited the Richmond night asian market. We shared lots of laughs checking out the different stands and the strange merchandise. I’ll always remember the big bag of popcorn that we devoured in no time even though the kernels can be a health hazard… not that we choked on them… Isa got the great idea to do a secret santa gift exchange at the market. I was lucky enough to receive 2 more pins (I collect pins along the way) and some killer ninja swords! Today we took the skytrain downtown and ate some sushi in a boat (check out the pics to understand what I mean by that) But first, we passed through China town and toured the Chinese gardens. After that, we walked to english bay to watch the triathlon world championships. We were all extremely impressed by these runners, swimmers and riders. I’ve never seen a race of that caliber in person. The speeds they reach are incredible. The pictures of me and Elena crossing the race course during the race are hilarious. I’m just acting but it seems like Elena was seriously scared, hahaha! Just nervous according to her:)

Walking back to the train station, we grabbed some ice cream. Yes! More Carbs! Now we are all watching a movie and relaxing at the condo. Tomorrow I should make it to Hope, BC. Rain in the forecast, yes Dan more rain! How are you enjoying the weather in Orlando bud?

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Alex sent me an instant message a little while ago, he’s still in Burnaby hanging out with Isabelle, Elena and Molly. Dan had to leave for a business trip – Isabelle is Dan’s girlfriend, Elena and Molly are her friends from Ottawa.

I wanted to thank everyone that we met in Vancouver: Molly, Elena, Jodi (Alex’s second-cousin), Jodi’s friend Kate, and especially Dan, Isabelle and Alex’s aunt Kate (I hope I got all of those names spelled correctly!). Alex and I had a great time and really enjoyed the company.

I also wanted to give a quick shout-out to that cyclist from Ottawa that we met at the ferry terminal on Friday now that I’ve managed to track him down. His name is Mike Shives and you can read about his trip on Facebook (you need to have a Facebook account, sorry!).

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Apologies for not posting an update in a while, Alex and I returned to our hotel in Vancouver pretty late last night and were a bit rushed earlier today, so we didn’t have time to post.

On Friday morning Tom drove us to the Victoria ferry terminal to catch a ferry to Vancouver. We had a great time at Tom and Laura’s place and really appreciate them letting us stay over for a few days – they were excellent hosts!

The ferry ride was quite enjoyable – not too long, and we got to see some nice scenery. When we arrived at Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal Alex had to repair a flat tire on his trailer, but that didn’t take too long, and we ended up meeting two other cyclists from Ottawa who were also cycling across Canada (they were on their way to Victoria to tour around there for a while). We took the bus to Vancouver from the ferry terminal, and a nice bus driver named Andy gave us a free ride (we were the only people on the bus).

Once in Vancouver we dropped our stuff off at the hotel and met up with Alex’s cousin Dan and some of his friends and family at Saltlik in downtown Vancouver. We had a few beers and some food there, then stopped by Dan’s office to play Rockband for a bit, then ended up visiting Chill Winston’s and the Library Square Public House.

This morning we stopped by the Apple store in Vancouver so that Alex could pick up a new iPod nano – his old MP3 player broke. He’s got it loaded up with his music, pictures, and even a TV show, so he should enjoy that while on the road. After that I had to leave to catch my flight back to Toronto – I just got back a couple of hours ago. Alex was biking from the hotel in downtown Vancouver to Dan’s place in Burnaby to stay the night – I haven’t heard from him yet but I’m guessing he made it without too much trouble (it wasn’t very far away).

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Well it looks like I lost the “who has to write the post” fight. Today Gavin and I visited Victoria by bus and by foot. We covered mostly the inner harbour area and downtown. Victoria has plenty of green space and wonderful gardens. Gavin absolutely wants me to say that I ordered a burger at a fish & chips place right on fishermen’s wharf! There we got a up and close look at some seals, who terrified Gavin. The inner harbour is a really happenin’ place with lots of upscale condos that overlook the ocean, float planes and boats of all sizes. This afternoon we did the second wheel dipping ceremony. This time I dipped the rear one, since Gavin decided that it would be best. We also visited the famous Mile 0 marker of the Trans Canada highway which is right next to a statue of my hero, Terry Fox. Back at Tom and Laura’s house we met their friend Brendan who has cycled from Calgary to Vancouver. He reassured me that for every hill climbed there is some downhill, which is obvious according to Gavin! In all seriousness, Brendan gave me plenty of tips and fortified my decisions about which route to take. We are taking the ferry over to the mainland tomorrow. There I will most likely have to bike to the hotel in downtown Vancouver.

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Alex and I have landed in Victoria. We’ve met with my second-cousin Tom who lives here with his girlfriend Laura, and they’ve graciously offered to let us stay at their place for a couple of nights.

The flight was early, so we had to wake up at 4AM Halifax time to get to the airport. Add in the 4 hour time difference and 6pm Victoria time feels like 10pm, so we’re both pretty tired. The flights went smoothly. We had a ~2 hour stopover in Edmonton, but it wasn’t too bad. We had lunch (breakfast?) at the Tim Horton’s. I dozed a little bit on both flights – first was 5 hours and the second was an hour and a half.

Alex put his bike and trailer back together first thing, and luckily the packing/handling/unpacking process didn’t cause any problems. We tried visiting a bike shop for a tuneup but they were too busy to take it in, so Alex cleaned it up and did a tuneup of his own.

I think we’re probably going to go to bed pretty early tonight given the long day. Tomorrow we plan on visiting as much of Victoria as we can, and perhaps do the wheel dipping ceremony along the way. The alternate wheel dipping location is Vancouver – we’re heading there on Friday to meet Alex’s second cousin Daniel, who lives in nearby Burnaby.

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This morning we took a nice long walk to Point Pleasant Park for the wheel dipping ceremony. The weather was perfect and we got some neat pictures and even a few videos (now that I’ve realized I can take videos with my camera).

Watch the Atlantic wheel dipping video

The walk took us through some beautiful neighborhoods and through the Dalhousie campus. Point Pleasant Park also offers some WWII ruins and a few defense structures from the 1800s. We noticed that a lot of trees in the park are dead – turns out the area took quite a hit during Hurricane Juan. After the walk through Point Pleasant Park, we had lunch at the hotel restaurant and then took a walk down to try and get a closer look at the Halifax Naval Dockyard. We weren’t able to get very close since the area was closed off to the public (which is to be expected for a millitary base, I guess). After that, we reluctantly decided to go on a harbour tour on an amphibious boat named the “Harbour Hopper“. I enjoyed it but I wish I had brought my jacket, it does get quite windy on the water. It was easy on the legs and it also gave us a better view of the naval ships. All together we ended up walking approximately 13km around Halifax – you can see our exact trajectory thanks to Gmaps Pedometer.

Gavin and I will be taking a flight to Victoria, BC tomorrow morning, and meeting up with his father’s cousin Tom. Flight leaves at 7:20AM so we need to get up early.

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Sorry for the late post, we got carried away today touring the city. Halifax has a lot to offer for tourists. First off, we spent about two hours visiting the Citadel military fortification (that is right in front of our hotel). We both enjoyed the fort and the military museum. The period actors, bagpipers and drummers also added to the atmosphere. After that, we walked over to the nearest bike shop to get a cardboard box for Carmen (the bike) and Bob (the bicycle trailer) in preparation for the flight to Victoria. Everything is packed and ready for the flight. I really wanted to get everything ready ahead of time to avoid last minute panicking. However, I got a bit carried away and forgot about the whole wheel dipping in the ocean ritual! Now that the bike is all disassembled, I’ll just grab one of the wheels and dip in at the dockyard tomorrow. haha

It was great sleeping in this morning! Unfortunately, I missed the complimentary breakfast  but we made up for it buy having a big lunch at the hotel.  For supper we ate at the Cable Wharf right by the water. Best fish and chips I’ve had in a while. Now we are relaxing at the hotel and watching the hockey game. Go PENS!

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Alex and I have arrived at the hotel in Halifax. We’re staying at the Cambridge Suites Hotel, which is right across the street from Citadel Hill with a view of the Halifax Harbor from our room. We were lucky to find a cab driver with a van that was willing to take Alex’s bike and trailer – much easier than it was in New York when we had to carry three boxed bikes through the subway!

Alex barely slept last night, it was really windy and rainy, and the sound of the tent flapping kept him awake. He got an early start and managed to bike 124km to the airport in time to meet me as my flight landed. It took him 10 hours of biking to do it, so he’s pretty wiped.

We’re just relaxing a bit after having gone out to get some pizza, building up a list of places we’ll visit tomorrow. We’re pretty interested in checking out the navy ships in the harbor, and we’ll have to do the Ocean bike-wheel-dipping ceremony.

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