Day 7 - Chilliwack to somewhere on Coquihalla Hwy

Greetings y'all.

Chilliwack to Zopkios Rest Stop (Coquihala highway)
115 km, 700 km closer to home base.
Temperature in am = 11 degres, overcast, occasional drizzle.
Temperature at arrival = snowing, few degres above zero.
Wind – until 20 km after Hope = light, favourable.

Wow. Oh C C C Canada. Just kidding, not that cold (only cool).

I am close to where I wanted to get for the evening. Actually, the rest stop I chose, I thought it was the one I chose as my destination for the day. I am currently sitting on the bathroom counter, plugged in (charging the computer and the mp3 player). The tent is set-up behind the rest-stop, in one of the rare areas where there is no snow. Seriously. I am near the summit of the highway, where there is frost in the tree tops. More on that later.

The day started late – I slept in until 9 or so. Could it be the almost 1.5 litres of beer I drank? Probably not, as I didn't have a spin-on before bedtime. It was cold when I got up. For the first hour, I was biking with the entire gear – toque, coat and gloves.

I planned on going to Minter Garden, just 40 km or so from where I was staying. Very beautiful spot – not all the flowers were blooming yet, but I can imagine what it would look (and smell) like in a month or two. I took tons of pictures. I am trying to be creative with the camera, but I dont know what the hell I'm doing (I'm a health care professional and a semi athletic type, not a photographer). Before the trip started, I planned on taking that free one-hour lession where I bought the camera, but didn't get a chance to do it. Oh well.

I wish I could make this picasa thing work with this computer, as the pics I have tell so many other stories. We'll see, I might be able to find another program or make picasa work when I'm in town in a few days (well, next scheduled rest day).

Food! At Minter Garden, I decided to eat at their restaurant. For starters, the seafood chowder was delicious, big chunks of everything. Plus it was hot, which was nice considering the temperature outside. The main dish was Salmon Pesto Bruscilla (creamy sauce) pasta. Delish, for sure. It also came with two pieces of garlic bread – simple hot-dog buns with garlic butter and some parsley.

I continued the trek towards Hope, where I would stock up (new gas can for cooking, water, and food supply for the next two days). In Hope, I saw a sign – Rambo, 1982. I wasn't aware it was filmed there. I also realized that I am starting to get older in life if I can remember that.

Oh, I forgot something yesterday. In Abbotsford, during supper at Subway, I heard something on the radio that I had to ask what year it was. Honeymoon Suite is playing at so-and-so, Cindy Lauper is on her “True Colors” tour, and Boy George is playing at this one club. What the heck is going on? Next thing you know Genesis will get back together, so will the Bee-Gees, probably Van Halen, and who knows, Jimmy Hendrix might come out of retirement. Weird. Plus, at that “restaurant”, well, how can I put this, they were nice people. Few fries short of a happy meal, but they were nice. Not as “nice” as the folks in Renous, N.B.

(some guy just walked in to go to the washroom, and probably thinking to himself “what the hell's this fruitcake doing here?”)

I also was able to get a java and use the Internet to upload the latest post. What the hell is with these places naming their sizes “tall, grande, and whatever” instead of small, medium, and large? Sheesh.

I also got the chance to read the comments you guys post. You dont know how much those mean to me, thank you. I like hearing nice things, hearing how you guys are enjoying certain things I do, and what's going on in your lives. I try to make this interesting for me (when I read things later on, it's like my own little diary), interesting for you dear folks, and it's my way of talking to you guys. Plus, since I can't be with you guys at the moment, nor can you guys be with me on this trip, I try to “bring you along” as we are doing this thing together (a bit), hence the description. I kind of wish you guys were here. Most likely though, for the long entries, it's probably because I can't be short and sweet, and I always try to be funny (sometimes too much, I know). Oh well, better to have a bad sense of humour than none at all, correct? Plus, I usually make myself laugh, so that makes my life more pleasant.

Coquihala highway. Uphill, constantly, for the past 45 km. Apparently, there's still a bit more climbing (another 2-5 km?). The first hour went by quick, going at a fairly quick pace (slight wind at my back and the “current” from the ++ transports). The grade was fairly low at first (maybe 4%). For the last 25 km, things picked up. I was in grinding mode for a while, with speed often from 9 km/h to low teens (i.e. eleventeen). It was fun watching the mountain range from afar – seeing some snow peaks. Later on, I would see frosty tree-tops. A bit later, signs of “Avalanche Zone”. Then further up the road, another first, an avalanche shelter covering the highway. What was also interesting is slowly going into territory where there were patches of snow on the sides of me, then seeing those patches of snow slowly invading all the space around me, until there were no more bare spots. Freaky.

The road itself has nice shoulders for the most part. Where the grades are higher, there's 3 lanes. All trucks are quite respectful, sometimes too respectful (they pull into the middle lane, way too far to get a bit of that draft effect). No crazy drivers (yet). There's (unfortunately) always a few out there. Things are alright. (no worries ma and pa).

What road did Tanya and Al take to go through the mountain ranges? I'll have to do some investigating to find out. I am currious now.

The start of the highway, I took off the jacket (I didn't have the toque at that point). As the climbing kicked into another gear, I would slowly peel stuff off – unzip the jersey, gloves came off, arm warmers came off. All this as there was more and more snow around me, even when it was snowing. Very bizarre. This trip has a lot of firsts, as expected.

I wish I could post the pics. There are a lot of interesting ones today. I even did a lot of playing on the highway too (with the camera, that is).

There are so many pics I want to post. It is very hard to chose to the max that I decided to post per entry. Sure is tough being on this trip, with all these dilemas such as this one.

At the rest stop, I fing this big chip wagon. How convenient. I was still planning on cooking, but since it's 10:30 pm, and I am almost finishing this entry (bedtime soon), I think I wont bother cooking more tonight. I do have those chocolates left over, hmmm, maybe I'll try another one. Bizarre thing at the chip stand – they have a sign for different herbal teas they offer. I find it hard to believe a trucker will come in and ask for a herbal green tea.

Well, time to wind down this entry. Thank you all for the encouragement. Tanan.

(Chantalle R, can you forward the blog address to Pierre B, as I forgot to include him on the list, following his request. Tx, ppppprrrrrrrrooooooouuuuuu ppprrrrrrrrrooooooouuuuuu).

Thinking lots of all of you, miss you, and hear/see you guys soon.

Pierre