From Anchorage to Ushuaia by Bike

Yup, we’ve lost 6 kg! And yet our calves and thighs continue to develop. Since getting to US, we’ve decided to wage war against extra kilos... we found 6 kg of extra stuff in our bags: maps, clothes, backpacks, etc. Everything we hadn’t used in a while we mailed back home. And we feel so much lighter now!

We’re in one of the wettest areas of the US, and we’ve only had one downpour so far. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Heidi and Dick, our hosts for the past couple of days, took us out for a trip to Olympic National Park. We hadn’t planned on staying in Sequim for 2 days, but we just couldn’t turn down such a good offer. Thanks again for their hospitality!

This is a long weekend for North Americans. Monday is a holiday – labour day. And it’s the end of summer vacation for the schools. Everyone makes the most of the weekend, staying a couple of extra days out of the cities. All the camping sites say “no vacancy.”

Yesterday, we arrived at the only camping site in the area, only to find a big sign saying “full.” The next campsite was 50 km away. We had just turned around to try and find a little corner to pitch the tent, when we were stopped by a cycle-tourist who invited us to camp on his neighbour’s site (it was bigger than his), and cycle-tourist! And little bit later, another biker arrived, a student from Korea.

Sara & Sébastien

So we are in the United States now. Canada is behind us, and the first big leg of our trip is over. We’ve already had so many adventures, met so many people (and animals), even though we’ve crossed over mainly deserts, and covered only an eighth of the total journey.

We’ve decided to change the itinerary, following some good advice from some of the people (cycle-tourists) we’ve met: it was too ambitious to try and cover more than 5.000km by bike in less than three months (because of the visas), especially considering the time spent on microfinance and that the route took us through deserts and mountains.

So we won’t be biking to Yellowstone National Park or Las Vegas. We’re basically going down the Pacific Coast, through the states of Washington, Oregon, and California. Even though the coast is mountainous, it is apparently one of the most beautiful cycling routes in the US. And this way we get a lot more time to study microfinance along the way.

Sara & Sébastien

After our adventures in Tofino and Uclueclet (on the West coast of Vancouver Island) with their long beaches and very touristy elements, we took the ferry to Vancouver. As soon as we got off the ferry, an older couple came up to us and were super interested in our trip. Then they left. A few minutes later, the husband hurried back and told us that he really wanted to buy us a latte. We were a bit taken aback, and only asked for a small tea. He came back with two big mugs of tea...then ran away again. We sat and drank our tea, and wondered what exactly Vancouver would have in store for us.

We used the “warmshowers” network again in Vancouver, and it’s a good thing we did: there’s only one campsite in Vancouver, and it’s out of the way and always full. This way, we were able to meet Adrienne, a nurse in North Vancouver, as well as Ouri and Jergus. Ouri’s mother is Indian/Native American, and he’s an architect from Yellowknife (in the far North of Canada). Jergus is Slavic and is a set designer for theatre and opera productions. We have really enjoyed using the network because we’ve been able to meet lots of really different people who’ve travelled a lot and don’t think that we’re nuts! All the members have been really welcoming and willing to help us out. This time, for example, the one night that we were supposed to stay with Ouri and Jergus turned into three!

The city itself had a relaxing effect on us, and we pretty much just wandered around Vancouver, on foot and on the bikes. We saw Granville Island, the market, the Seaweed trail that goes all the way along the bay, etc.

We did some research on microfinance, and found that there were several microfinance institutions in Vancouver. We went to the governmental one, a department called “Western Economic Diversification Canada,” and talked to the receptionist. She listened to our project and tried to find someone for us to speak to , and a few minutes later introduced us to Greig, a senior business officer. He was really interested, and called Catherine who is the manager of the Microfinance department at Vancity, a bank in Vancouver. We were able to arrange a meeting with both of them two days later. It was totally beyond our expectations – the French are generally so bureaucratic – that we never thought it possible to get access so quickly to people so high up in the chain of command. So the four of us had conversation about microfinance over coffee Thursday morning at 9:00 am! It was incredible!
To get back to the ferry docks, we had to take a bus for a couple of kilometres because bikes were not allowed on the road: what an experience! In British Columbia, all the buses have special bike racks at the front, with enough room for two bikes. So we had to take all the bags off, throw them into the back of the bus, attach our bikes to the racks at the front, and then pay the fare. And we did all this in record time! The driver was really nice and understanding, though, and even struck up a conversation with Sebastien, asking for advice on bike trips!

So we are back on Vancouver Island, after a little detour to Salt Spring Island, a beautiful island that we weren’t able to fully appreciate due to the pouring rain. Right now we’re in Victoria, where we’re going to meet with the director of the microfinance project at Coast Capital Savings (another credit union).

Tomorrow, we’re taking the ferry to Port Angeles in Washington, and then off to conquer the US!

Sara

When we left Port Mc Neil (on Monday), we saw again Natalie and Josh, a young people by bike who we had met on the ferry. We talked a little and they left. They live in Courtenay and wanted to get there that evening … 250km! But we found them again in Woss the same day, in the evening, drinking a beer! They decided to keep going a little, while we decided to stop in Woss for the night. We saw them again the next day on the road. It was raining.

Since Wednesday, we are so so hot: it is about 30°C. Our first summer days! In fact, before now, we were lucky when the thermometer was showing more than 20°C! Traffic is denser now. A lot of log trucks passed us: the forest here is very much exploited in the region. We had our first fears with the traffic … We finally arrived in the “civilization” and it s hard for us, even if we were waiting for that, especially for the practical things (for example, numerous grocery store so we do not have to carry a lot of food with us). The drivers do not care about cyclists …

When we arrived in Campbell River, we saw a cyclist coming to meet us : it was Ed. We had contacted him via the network called “warmshowers.org”: cyclists who host other touring cyclists. Ed came to look for us that day. But we had planned to stop in Campbell River for the night after 60km. When he told us that a bed and a nice diner was waiting for us at his place, we could not refuse … et we have done 55km more! What a long day: 115km, a great diner, a hot shower and a real bed! Those few elements of comfort did a lot of good to us!!

We feel as if we were on holidays as we follow the coast of Vancouver Island. We follow beaches for about 200 km. We had some stops on the way for picking and eating blackberries on the side of the road… There are so many that we feel like making jam as we used to! We also finally had our first summer fruits, 3 days ago (the 12th of august): peaches and nectarines are now in our panniers with tomatoes, strawberries and blueberries!! It is so nice!

After a stop in Qualicum Bay and in Parksville to see the sand castles, we are now in Nanaimo, at Cathy and Lee’s house, members of the warmshowers network.

After 410km in 6 days, we (our bikes and ourselves) will have 2 days off. We are going to the beaches on the west side of the Island. People told us that it was a hard and dangerous road on bikes. So we are going to go there by car.

From Terrace to Prince Rupert we followed the Skeena River. The salmons began to run. We saw a lot of fishermen on each side of the river. We were lucky to get nice weather in Prince Rupert, as it is one of the towns that have the most of rain in Canada. Close from a rain forest and the coast, it rains over there more than 300 days per year. This town lives from fishing and tourism. In the evening, the fog comes back at once, as well as humidity.

We were in a campground 1km away from the ferry terminal. It fills up and empties not with the tides, but with the arrivals and departures of the ferry. Some tenters woke us up while there where putting up their tent on … no no … next to ours! They had all the room to leave us some space but they still put it one meter away from our tent … When we woke up at 5.30am we almost fall over their tents!

The crossing with the ferry was long: 16 hours stuck on the ferry. Our legs are not used to stay still for so long anymore! Fortunately the landscape was beautiful: corridors, islands, main land, and rain forest. We even saw many whales!

We arrived on Vancouver Island at night and had to bike 3km. Our light on our bikes worked for the second time!

The climate and the vegetation are very different from what we have seen until now: it is more humid, lots of vegetation. The forest here is exploited. Many small roads go from the main road to the forest. We feel that we will soon be in a civilized area … We will enjoy the next 2 days of quiet wilderness that are left…