Day 7 Clear sailing in Peace River country
With a good night’s sleep and a beautiful start to the day,
Bryan headed out just after 7am. When we compared notes after the Pine Pass
Summit, his first reaction was, “You call that a summit?!” There were many long
downhills and only a few short climbs, nothing to compare to the first days of
cycling. His only concern on this sunny, calm day is the cough and phlegm he is
battling perhaps due to the pine pollen and dust. Anyone who sees this masked biker dude might
have second thoughts!
The only other question is the bears…he saw one and we
both saw another very large black bear. As the smaller bear started to cross the
highway just ahead of him, Bryan bellered and growled so that the poor animal
took off into the bush again. He also saw a group of muskrats scurrying along the riverbank. Bryan enjoyed the sight of hundreds of
Steller jays, a bluish purple, at Bijoux Falls.
Continuing on, I found our next stop, a pullout beside the
Pine River that we would follow into Chetwynd.
What a beautiful place to have a nap when I had finished the novel and
cleaned the RV. Bryan woke me up when he arrived!
Chetwynd certainly knows how to welcome visitors! There were
bikes to borrow and a barbeque to use at the spacious information centre. I
updated the blog on a comfy sofa beside the coffee bar available free to all.
This town has a world famous reputation for its chainsaw carving festival that
starts this Thursday, with participants coming from as far away as Japan. There
are examples of this art from the past 13 years or more scattered throughout
town. Amazing!
Bryan wasn’t quite ready to stop when we met, but headed off
after supper for another 30km of his total count for the day of 176 km, to our
no-frills camping spot. It was a great
day for cycling!
Here’s a view out or window of the Pine River. We chose to
stay inside rather than feed the mosquitoes. As it turned out, they snacked on
us all night anyways but we had our final say this morning.
Chetwynd was a welcomed piece of "civilization" in the midst of my tree-planting experience way back in University days. :)
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