Bike
Trip
Day 2
A woodpecker pecking the tree woke me up. I was a little worried about my sore legs last night. But they had been back to normal. Thanks God. I'm still young!
It was 6:00 a.m. and very cold in the tent. Although I didn't want to go outside, it was too cold to go back to sleep. Got up and watched sun rising. Sunrise and sunset are special things to Japanese. Mystique of rising sun in the absolute quietness made me believe existence of something like Supreme Being, even though I'm not a religious person.
By the time I packed everything I realized that I didn't bring anything for the breakfast. Fortunately I remembered there was a McDonald's at around the corner. Went there and had a bacon & egg muffin meal. $5.23. I thought I could make it by myself so I could save some money. I bought plain English muffins in a grocery store later for tomorrow's breakfast.
At 8:10 I left McDonald's. I saw many signs which read "Go Canucks Go". Canucks fans are everywhere. Sechelt looked a bigger town than Gibsons. It's got many stores and they seemed to be busy even this early morning. Hwy101 goes along the shore. I enjoyed the beautiful blue color of the ocean which sometimes appears between the cedar trees lining a road. It was like magic. You see it, now you don't.
All stores and houses were gone after 1 hour pedaling. The Hwy got hilly and requires me some rests. Few cars around. After cars were gone, I was alone on the road between the trees of wildness. I wouldn't be surprised if some bears showed up.
I was hot. Almost no wind and the sun's rays struck against the helmet. I was out of water again. I enjoyed the scenery of Sechelt despite the condition. It was kind of fun to gather my energies and challenge something.
I stopped under the shadow of a tree for the lunch of English muffins with butter. They tasted great. Well, anything would.
Arrived at Earls Cove at 12:45. I just missed ferry by 20 minutes. The next ferry wasc 4:20! I had to wait for more than 3 hours doing nothing. I was going to stay at Powell River tonight. But it would be too late to go there at that time. Well, I could've gone for it. But I didn't want to run in the dark. I spent time by taking a nap and by chatting ferry officer who seemed to be bored. We talked about nothing particular, but it was nice to talk to this guy. 3 hours and 45 minutes passed by quickly. At 4:30 the ferry took me off the sea. "Take care, eh!", the ferry officer said.
The ferry ride was absolutely excellent. It takes 50 minutes for the 16 km ride up Agamemnon Channel into Jervis Inlet. The view of sunshine coast fjord was spectacular. I took some pictures, although I knew the pictures would not show what exactly it is like.
I found something like a Japanese national flag, red circle on white background, which of course attracted my interest. I asked a few people around me if that was a flag. They didn't know either. I still don't know exactly what that is.
Probably I should've chosen Katherine Lake campground for tonight. Oh well, too late. I decided to stay at Saltery Bay Provincial Park. The campsite in this park is free of charge at this time of the year. No service no charge. Tap water has not been available. Other than no water it was a good site. There is a creek providing nice sound. You have enough privacy, as well. I bet this park will be very busy in summer.
I phoned Lucy & Dave, my home stay parents. Nobody was home, unfortunately. Instead, answer machine answered. Before I finished speaking to it, line got connected. I found no coins left in my wallet and no stores around for small money. So I gave up. (I found $1.50 for a long distance call expensive.)
Had a piece of apple pie for supper, as I couldn't cook anything without water. I wished to have some water. Made a campfire and enjoyed watching fire for a while. Being alone didn't bother me at all. I enjoyed just watching the firewoods in raging flames. Campfire has something that recalls old memories in the brain that probably are connected to our ancestors. Though I was still hungry and wanted to have a cup of tea, I was a happy camper. Went to sleep at around 9:00. Full life. I was tired, but satisfied.