Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Arrival in Tripoli
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Adventures in Libya
First thing, details. My sister and I are visiting our dad in Libya for just for 3 weeks. Our plane leaves at 8:20 pm tomorrow and arrives in Tripoli, the capital of Libya the next day, with a stopover in London. Libya is on the South shore of the Mediterranean Sea, this means warm water... and swimming in late October! Score one.
I am not sure what to expect of Libya, it is an Islamic country and most of my information or lack there-of comes from stereotypes roaming around my head. I am certain it will be nothing like what I expect, and wonderful none the less. Except for the sand, I'm certain there will be tons of sand and I can't wait to go to the desert... and throw a frisbee as far as I can in the desert, just so I can say I have.
Until I arrive in the land of sand, farewell.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
in Thunder Bay
Winnipeg was a fun stay, we were with another one of Mike's air cadet buddies. He is an avid hunter and we had deer for dinner there. It was awesome. Winnipeg is also the slurpee capital of the world, and has been for the last 9 years. After that we saw Dark Knight the new batman movie. Amazing movie.
Next up we are following Lake Superior to Sault Ste. Marie. It should be a scenic bike ride, and the first time we will be able to swim since we left the coast. In sault we're meeting up with Mr. Brent Gerhart for a fun time at his cottage for the long weekend.
Probably won't have time to update anymore until Kitchener, I will post some pics then.
Adios!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Calgary to Regina
In the morning our host, Bob came out to talk to us for a bit and his wife gave us blueberry pancakes. Then we started off towards Drumheller and the badlands. Nice picturesque rolling hills on the road, got some good prairie shots. As it would turn out, we didn't take many pictres in the prairies after the first few days. But the prairies also weren't as boring as everyone said they would be. They were flat and long, but there are little differences in the meadows that you probably don't notice ripping by in a car, but that make all the difference on a bicycle. That being said, once we got out of the prairies, I was glad to have hills. Anyways, we get to Drumheller and there a nice big hill into the Valley. We stopped for ice cream then worked our way to the biggest dinosaur in the world! This is another pattern that would repeat itself in the prairies. Each town has a sudden urge to attract attention to itself with giant objects. Or in one case, some town has the second largest pop can, pretty lame. After the dinosaur we hit up the Royal Tyrrel Muesuem of paleontology. It's a pretty good museum, but I was expecting a bit more than the usual dinosaur stuff. Call me picky if you will. Then we finally started out way out through the badlands. They are pretty sweet. Surronded by hills and layered so that you can see all the different colours of ocean floor from the different eras. Quick history lesson. This area used to by the shore of Bearpaw lake 70 mil years ago and the different layers of sedimentary rock were formed by rock depositing slowly over time. We also passed by the hoodos, which look like little capped peaks. You'll see in the pics. We expected these to be huge from all the ads, but they were only twice the size of a person. After a photo session there, we headed towards East Coulee, just past Drumheller and set up camp in a secluded grassy area after no one answered at the house we knocked on.
Next day we arose and tried to tie our longest distance of 130 km. For frisbee folk, we passed by a little village called LeHigh in the middle of nowhere. The true home of the LeHigh's untalented frisbee team. We climbed out of the Badlands valley and back into paririe landscape. Made good time, started seeing illusions on the road because it was so straight. It looked as if it just morhped into the sky and trucks simply floated on the road. Eventually made it to the small town of Duchess after a tiring ride. Splurged on some ice cream and bought dinner. We decided not to go to Dinosaur provincial park as originally planned because it was too far. Instead we made it to the sketch town of Brooks and lawn camped again. Made the 130 km.
Next day Mike and Pat wanted to stop at Macdonalds for breakfast... no further comment. Ran into a guy going from Calgary to Moose Jaw on an old 3 speed bicycle. We started off with a good pace. Also started doing pushups on breaks for fun. This didn't last too long. Very hot, stopped outside a little gas station for lunch and boiled away. Kept up good pace to Redcliff, greenhouse capital. From a hill in Redcliff you can see the prairies spread away all the way to the Cypress Hills at the Saskatchewan border. Very forboding. We made it into Medicine hat and saw the giant tepee. Spent a good bit of time at the info centre. This is where we foudn out that Walmart allows overnight camping for RV's. So we decided to see if they'll let us camp there. Surely enough they did. And so begins our classy streak of camping at Walmart. Smart move on their part, as we spent quite a bit of money there, and I'm sure the RVers do too. After dinner, we were still hungry, so we ordered a pizza to the Walmart parking lot, classy act number 2. We then bought chips and dip and stuffed ourselves until we were fairly sick. Classy act 3. So far we have camped at a WAlmart 4 times in desperation/excitement.
Next morning we woke up feeling sick and started off. Pat went into walmart to buy something and the lady asked him to leave his bags upfront because he looked scruffy. We were all pretty scruffy and sketchy looking at this point. Biked along, raced a train for a bit. Arrived at the Saskatchewan border and stopped to take silly pictures. After lunch I started feeling sick from something, this would continue on until night. Also I got a cold a few days before so it didn't add anything good. We stopped at a gas station later on and saw a huge storm cloud building up north of us. At this point I was very sluggish as we continued on. Eventually the storm started closing in and there part of the cloud was spinning and dropping towards the ground. We stopped outside a ranch and asked the local farmer there if we could hide somehwere on his property. He was very nice and put us up in his bunkhouse. Just as we pulled in the storm started. 5 min later it was haling like mad outside. By far the worst storm I've ever seen. The winds were so strong that it was over us in 40 min. Then it cleared up perfectly. Anyways, this guy was a rancher who has had the land since his grandfather. Legitimate cowboy, and all his sons are in the business too. We learned a lot about the cowboy lifestyle out here, its not just big belt buckles and cowboy hats (all though that is a part of it). A tree branch broke off onto their roof and they were out there in a flash working to get it off as it was blocking their tv signal. Big football following in the prairies.
Next day we headed off to Swift Current. More details to follow. In the meantime some highlights.
- Biked 170 km Swift current to Moose Jaw
- STayed in Regina
- Biked 200 km from Brandon to Winnipeg
- Manitoba has terrible roads, almost got run over 5 times
- Manitoba is thus named the most disgraceful and pitiful province
- We are now in Kenora, Ontario, back in the hills
- Have biked almost 4000 km so far
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Calgary
The day after, we slept in again. Mark went off to pick up more people from the bus station who were visiting for the weekend. So there would be 7 people staying at his place for the night. We got denied a free Stampede breakfast because we were too late, so we went for shawarma. After that it was off the the Stampede grounds. Huge grounds, Midway, stands and best of all... rodeo. We went to the rodeo show for a bit. It was pretty impressive, all done very professionally, and I couldn't understand any of the cowboy jargon being tossed around by the announcers. But we got to see some calf wrestling, bull riding, bareback riding, and other stuff. This was part one of the "cowboy experience." The other half would come from staying with a Rancher going through Alberta. After the rodeo, we wandered through the agricultural show for quite a while. Every brand of edible meat was being promoted, lets just say it wasn't meant for vegetarians. I did a survey that tested who you choose your pork chops. You went through a catalogue and had to choose what chop you would buy out of 30 on each page. My slections ended up being pretty random. I also got a hilarious I heart alberta beef sticker that now adorns my waterbottle. We then headed off to an italian restaurant for dinner. The main catch was that they served legitemate Italian pizza. It was awesome. Best pizza I've had in a long time, simliar to the stuff I ate regularly in Croatia. I then biked back to the bar to retrieve my VISA, it took awhile to find a manager and through the idiot bouncers, but I got the card back eventually. That night we stayed in to conserve money.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Golden to Calgary
At this point we had entered Yoho National Park. We bugged the people at the info centre for a bit, then decided to find a campsite as it was 7 pm. It was late enough that we didn't want to push it, even though we had only done 60 km for the day. We stopped at the Monarch Campground, just 3 km up the road from Field. Quiet little spot, no registration desk, self pay. We hadn't had an early day in awhile so it was nice to be able to read and chill. I had a nice spill along the way that added to the gashes on my left foot to be seen later. We ran into a French girl hitchiking across Canada. We slept among the mountains.
Next day we began the final ascent of Kicking Horse Pass, 15 km away. Similiar to the Rogers Pass encounter, but a much further early trek. The climb wasn't too bad. All of Kicking Horse is mostly a gentle incline, as opposed to a few brutal hills. We passed by lake O'Hara and the top of the pass. This one was much less spectacular, with no signs saying you were at the summit. At this point we also crossed into Alberta, so we stopped for shots with the sign.
From then it was all downhill... technically all the way to Ontario. No sharp decent like in Roger's Pass, but you slowly lose elevation as you descend into the flat part of Alberta. We made it to Lake Louise for lunch. Pricey town, but scenic. We wanted to keep moving to make it to Banff for Canada Day business so we didn't have a chance to check out the hotel on the lake. But we did chat to some recreational cyclists going from Canmore to Lake Louise and back. They seemed pretty pro. We took the less travelled Bow Valley parkway to get to Banff, not much traffic. The road is nestled tightly in between treelines, so it wasn't as open, but still a nice ride, especially with the sparse traffic. We got some good racing in. We stopped to view Storm mountain for another break. There we ran into an older cyclist who we met in Golden. He was also carrying a huge trailer like Mike so he found the climbs tough. That's one thing we noticed, panniers are much more suitably to climbing. The trailer is more convenient, especially if you have a racing bike (which Mike does), but also a bit pricey. We made it into Banff and bought groceries just in time to see part of the parade. Our campsite was all uphill, and farther away than expected, but we ran into Derek again there. He had some troubles with his bike, otherwise he would have been much further ahead of us. Spectacular dinner that night, pork chops, salad, soup. Full multi-course meal. Also beer, tried the local-ish Grasshopper from the Big Rock brewery in Calgary. Also tried bow valley beer, the local bottom of the barrel, it wasn't that bad, much better than lucky. Eventually we took a bus and made it out to Banff from our site for the fireworks. They were fireworks. We met up with Derek at this point and followed the receding crowds to a local drink spot. The local irish pub was empty, had a few drinks, left to find a more exciting place. Got to the Rose and Crown, more entertaining. Much later, around 2 am we walked for an hour and a half to get home, it was a bitch.
Next day we explored Banff for a bit. I checked out the Whyte Museum which had an exhibition with some Group of Seven art. It was mainly artists who tought out west, and not focused on the Group of Seven, but still very relaxing. After that, quickly went to see the Banff Springs hotel which is pretty sick. Looks like a castle. Then randezvoued with Mike and Pat. The plan was to go to Canmore and stick it out for a day there, but Mike wanted to meet up with some people in Calgary. Had a big arguement, couldn't decide what to do, so I downgraded to just spending a few hours in Canmore and not climbing the local peek so we could push a bit further for the day. So we did the short ride to Canmore, bought some food there and got on much better from the compromise.
We began by going down the mainstreet of Calgary, stopped at the fudge shop where my sister worked, bought a few postcards. Then we sampled some beer at the local Grizzley Paw Brewery. Spent a good bit of time relaxing to some music there. Beer was pretty good, they had a interesting raspberry beer. We then purchased memorabiliar in the form of stickers from the brewery. They had a luring buy 3 get one free deal that Mike and I couldn't resist. Along the way we've taken to buying stickers and patches everywhere, Mike and Pat much more hardcore than me. I have just bought 2 patches so far that I liked, those two buy most of what they find that has the name of a place we've been to. It's a good side hobby, they're bikes are well stickered already. I've sewn my two patches on, one on my backpack, one over the ugly MEC logo on my pannier. My goal is to buy a few more to at least be able to cover all the MEC logos on my panniers. Anyways, after that we attempted to find the elusive chocolate factory in the industrial area of town to get cheap sweets, but it was closed. Bastards. So we kept going down highway 1a, the less busy, more scenic alternative to the main highway. This took us through the booming gas station and convenience store that is Exshaw. We stopped just outside of town where we found a spot to pull off the road out of sight and backcountry camp. Lots of mosquitoes so we ate quickly and retreated to tents. Nice night out, late sunset as we had just crossed the border.
Next day we were up and off toward Calgary. We joined up with the main highway again and made our way down. Stopped at Olympic Park, which is a mountain biking spot in the summer. Lots of Stampede ads everywhere. Talked to my friend from Explore program Mark with whom we were to stay in Calgary. Everything was set, we biked into town via the scenic river route, then down Kensingto to Mark's place. Good times, went out for food at a local pub. Pat went to his cousins, Mike met up with friends of his own, so Mark and I wandered downtown. We were lured into the movie theatre to watch Mongol, a sweet asian produciton about Genghis Kahn. Very epic movie, It satisfied my need for ridiculousness. Went back home via Subway, where we saw some mean looking cops brutalize a local punk for swearing. Police brutality at its finest. Got home, Mark went with his roommate to pick up Lisa who had flowin in that night.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Kamloops to Golden
Canadian Tire making its way out west behind the mountains.
We woke up late next morning and slowly wandered out. I had a flat in the morning, but pumped it up and it was ok. Very strange behaviour, this lasted until Calgary. Each night my tire would deflate, I would pump it up again and it would be fine for hte day. Right before Calgary, it went completely flat and it turned out the tube had a whole right on the valve. Anyways, we started off knowing it would be a testing day through Rogers Pass. It was very hot and there weren't any big hills at the start. We stopped at the Skunk Cabbage Trail and did a short hike through a marsh. Very unique thing to see in that area, a marsh. As we started, a tourist bus pulled up so there were lots of old people going by us. Here's some pics from the trail.
The bog
We passed by the Albert Canyon Hot Springs, where we originally wanted to stay. But it was too expensive and too far at the time. After this there was a slow hot climb. Started shirt soaking again because of the heat. The worst part of climbing a pass is when you start going downhill, because you know that you will have to make up for it later. Another phenomenon that occurs in the mountains is that you can't tell uphill from downhill because you've lost all idea of hwere the horizon should be. So you could be going uphill but it feels like you should be speeding along. Strange mountain hallucinations. We had lunch by a nice waterfall.
After this we began to get tired so our pace slowed down. We passed by a forest trail that we had originally planned on hiking. We gave up on it as it was too late. Our trip today took us through 2 parks, Revelstoke Mountain provincial Park, then into Glacier National Park. The latter is where we camped. We slowly pulled into the Illucillawaet campground expecting a desolate place. However it was booming with campers, an unexpected surprise. We had some pasta for dinner, and checked out hte map of the park. As it turned out there were a lot of trails in the area. So we decided to go to bed early and wake up in order to climb to a Glacier the next day.
Next day was June 29th, my birthday, booyakasha! We were up at 6 am to hike up to the Illucillawaet Glacier, which is very difficult to spell. It was tough to wake up, but as soon as I remembered what the reason was I was pumped. The estimate was 2.5 hours, but we made it to the head of the Glacier in 1 hour. It went through the forest and then opened up and went right beside the valley of the mountain. At the trail end, we began scampering up rocks to get to the actually snow/glacier. It was far from the trail end because the glacier has been retreating so much in the past century. Spectacular scenery, tempting to stay the whole day and ascend the nearest mountain.
But we had to head back. Down and packed up by 12, we made the short uphill bike to the top of Roger's Pass which had eluded us the day before. Then it was 20 min of 65 km/hr decent through 4 snowsheds. The snowsheds ensure snow doesn't block the roads during avalanches. On the way down we met a fellow cross country biker named Derek who we would bump into agian. He stopped with us for lunch, probably thought we were mad because of our random sugar-high shenanigans. Our lunch diet is solely sugar - trail mix, nutella, pb, jam, and honey sandwiches. VERY high in sugar. The way I see it is we burn that up on the ride and then refuel with carbs at dinner. As we continued it became scorching hot, more shirt soaking followed. We were hoping to pass through the elusive town of Donald to fill up on water, but as seems to be a pattern, there are many towns listed on our maps that don't exist. So we filled up at an RV park and bought choco bars. Eventually we cruised into Golden our stop for the night. It lies in between the two passes in the Rockies, Roger's Pass and Kicking Horse Pass. Unfortunately the only available campsite was a the top of a brutal hill that killed us. Before making it up this, we stopped at a Timmies for some ice cap (for the record a poor choice when you are so hot, soup would be much better). Mike had almost passed out from heat stroke in the past half hour. After setting up camp at the overprice Golden campsite, we drudgingly went down the hill to find dinner (knowing we would have to climb it on the way up). We had dinner at a Greek Restaurant for my birthday and went all out. PRetty sweet. Came back and passed out.