Sunshine Valley to Manning Park Lodge

July 29, 2021 

56 kms

We had a great ride up to Allison Pass from Sunshine Valley. Our knees were fine and although the climb was hot we both felt strong. We treated ourselves to a room in the Lodge and enjoyed a gluttonous dinner in the restaurant. 

If Gord has been a tad over optimistic in his predictions about our abilities to skirt the fires and smoke, I have been Chicken Little. In my defence (spoiler alert) the sky will actually start falling. I have been endlessly trying to plan contingencies in case the smoke is too much for me. Do we go on? Do we head back? Is there a taxi in Princeton? Could we buy a car? The last was a definite NO from an exasperated Gordon. Manning seemed to be a decision point to either turn back or continue on. The fires and smoke forecast even for the park do not look good. 

Hope to Sunshine Valley( Formerly the Tashme Internment Camp)

July 28, 2021

The Hope Slide, the high point on today’s ride.

Today’s ride: 25 kms (but 850 metres of climbing)

Trip total: 255 kms

Ruth: Well, the mystery tour carries on, but the jury is still out on whether or not we will be able to continue. The Garrison Lake fire is raging a few kilometres away from the highway between Manning Park and Princeton. Air quality plummeted through that corridor today and it is very possible Manning will have to be a turn around point. Gord has informed me that this is contrary to his magical thinking about unicorns, rainbows and clear skies through BC. I think he may have suffered a stroke. 

We are camping at the RV park in Sunshine Valley after a short but hard day of climbing. The owners kindly told us that there is a bear in the area and suggested we:

1. Put our food in a cooler?!$#*! 
2. And bring it into our tent **#%$&?!!!!  

I guess that’s how they feed their wildlife. 

Sunshine Valley was “home” to BC’s largest Japanese internet camp, Tashme. More than 2,000 people in more than three hundred shacks survived four cold winters in this valley. The population was largely made up of women, children and the elderly. The men had already been separated from their families and sent to build three of BC’s highways,  including the highway between Hope and Princeton. Our tent is sitting in a field where rows and rows of tar paper shacks once stood.

There is a wonderful little museum here that was opened on our request. It’s really worth a visit. The owner and curator, Ryan Ellen, gave us a tour and shared a lot of his knowledge of the Tashme camp. Less reliable was the NFB film made at the time.  It continued to refer to Tashme as a town rather than an internment camp and suggested that the Japanese became healthier once they were relocated. 

Leaving the Lower Mainland

Today’s ride: 86 kms (Mission to Hope)

Trip total: 230 kms

Gordon:  I’ve lived in B.C. for more than 35 years, yet I had never taken the highway to Hope along the north side of the Fraser River.  “Pity”, as they said in the Red Rose tea commercial, because it is a varied and beautiful route.

By the time we reached Mission, last night’s stop, we had surrendered the excellent cycling infrastructure of the Lower Mainland, and entered a world where bikes are rare and barely acknowledged.  Mission appeared to still be within a (long) commuting distance from Vancouver, and traffic in the late afternoon was fairly heavy.

Leaving Mission early this morning, the traffic was light and the light was beautiful.  We passed through some rich looking farmland, mostly producing blueberries, corn or dairy products, until the farms were crowded out by the hills.  It was a generally flat road, but eventually we found ourselves surrounded by heavily treed mountains.  

Tomorrow we climb into those mountains as we cycle towards Manning Park on Highway 3.  Our ability to continue the tour has been rendered doubtful by the fires that are burning throughout the interior of the province, and indeed, across the western half of the continent.  I’ve been telling Ruth that “I have a good feeling about our chances of getting through the interior”, which she is treating as some sort of flaky spirituality.  Judging by the highway camera pictures that Ruth has been reviewing each day, smoke conditions do appear to be improving along our route.  Perhaps I’ll have to sacrifice a goat near the Alberta border.

Victoria to New Westminster on the Local Trails

July 25, 2021

Ruth: 

Gord got up before the crack of dawn to make us fresh bread 

for our lunch on the road. I’m a pretty lucky woman. 

We have always wanted to start a tour right from our doorstep. No planes, no airports, no bike boxes or jet lag, just rolling off down our local bike trails. 

Today’s ride was a huge surprise as we spent almost all of it on paved and unpaved local bike paths. Right off of the ferry we followed a dyke path around Boundary Bay and then took smaller roads to connect with a path that goes along one side of Burns Bog. This delivered us to the base of the bridges over the Fraser - all with sidewalks to cycle over safely. We have travelled all over the world using the routes the app Pocket Earth provides for us, and it has only led us astray a few times. 

The world seems to have opened up from Covid restrictions, regardless of whether that’s wise. This was our first venture off the island in 17 months. It was strange to see most people on the Ferry without masks. Stranger still to arrive at our friends Bruce and Marg’s house to stay!!!

Strange but wonderful, I hope it lasts. 

The Mystery Cycle Trip Begins

July 24, 2021

Victoria B.C.

Tomorrow we start out  on a Mystery ride. With Covid border closures and forest fires burning in southern B.C. We are not sure how far we will get. We are heading East to see if we can dodge the smoke and make it through B.C.