One hell of a learning curve

Wow, what a place. I've made it to Lytton, a small town about 110km from Hope where I stayed yesterday morning. I'm in a campsite called the Kumsheen river rafting resort about 3km east of Lytton. It's lovely here, I have a hot tub to fall asleep in and showers, a pool, everything I could need. Unfortunaly there's been a tanker crash just up the road overnight, and a chemical spill, so I won't be able to leave here until tomorrow. Fortunatly Canadians are the nicest people in the world, and because I turned up at the campsite looking "kinda beat up" I was offered a free night tonight; she even said she felt bad for making me pay $20 for the first night. On top of that she drove me into town so I could buy bananas, tuna and doughnuts, and bought me lunch. See what I mean?

The first day was pretty miserable. I got off the ferry and started cycling at about 1400h, and made it to someones house at about 1900h. It rained all the way, which is odd for this time of year, and this combined with the stresses from flying and packing meant I was not a happy bunny. I stopped with some nice people, in their garden, and found out in the morning that just down the hill was where a mother bear lived with her cubs, and they had been spotted climbing in the tree about 20 metres from my tent. I hurriedly knocked on my hosts' door, who said something along the lines of "yeah, it's fine, they're often there, in fact I saw some bear crap just next to where your tent is the other day". I felt like a silly English tourist for being scared of something as minor as a few bears.

Day two was better, I totalled 99km that day, and stopped just north of Hope, with a guy called Kurt. I turned up at his house just off the highway, and asked to pitch a tent in his yard. He said yes, but then offered me an RV that was abandoned just on the other side of his land. Perfect. I got my tent dry in his barn, and slept with a roof over my head. He even gave me the leftovers from his Chinese takeaway.

He then took me for a drive around Hope, because I was going the other way and wouldn't get to see his town. It had a population of about 5,000 and had a beautiful lake. Unfortunately the tips of the mountains were misty, so I could only see a wall of green forest surrounding the town.

We got talking about my trip and what I had planned for the next few days. As he was leaving he dropped into conversation that he did something similar when he was 19. He moved up North in the Yukon (waaaaay up North) and lived off the land. Pretty impressive, no? He did it for 10 years... I was speechless. We shook hands and he left me to ponder that little revelation.

The next day I cycled to Tim Horton's, a sort of coffee/doughnut takeaway place for breakfast, and bought a tramp a B.E.L.T. (bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato sandwich). The road took me up 'The One' (highway 1 East) through the Fraser canyon, which was stunning. The first part of the day took me through occasional drizzle and misty mountains, but this cleared up to reveal a baking sun and LOTS of hills. I was expecting to stop in Boston bar, a little town about 60km north of Hope, where I'd started, but it was a bit of a dive, and a crazy lady kept complaining about her weeds to me. So, I cracked on to Lytton, about 50km North.

I was almost in Lytton when another tourer came down the hill the other way. He pulled over to me and said hi. His name was Uk and was from Korea, and he had got here from New York in two months. I'll put this into perspective for you. For me to get to Halifax in three months, a trip of similar distance, I'll need to average 50 miles per day, and I'll have mostly tailwinds on the plains. For Uk to get to Vancouver from NY, he will have had to average 75 miles per day, and he will have had headwinds most of the way across the plains. (FYI: headwinds are horrible to cycle against, and tailwinds are easy sailing). The man deserves respect. He gave me an apple turnover, and we got a photo each. He said he had enjoyed it, but he was tired now, and wanted to go home. It was really good to meet him, but I never got his email. Lame.

I cycled through mountains with snow on the top, which was surreal because I was cycling in the burning sun. It was beautiful, but the hills are brutal when you're pulling about 50kg of kit.

Here's a map of my current location, as well as some markers for the other places I've stayed

View Bens Transcanada for Help for Heroes in a larger map

My next update should be sometime on the 4th or 5th, as I'll be in Kamloops with some pre-planned hosts, so I'll try and get some internet time to check in.

This place sure is beautiful, eh!

Ben