Bike
Trip
Day 6
I felt a drop in my tent, or so I thought. I got up at 6:10 and took a look outside. It was drizzling. I turned the radio on and listened to weather forecast. It said it wouldn't be so bad that afternoon. Meanwhile, it stopped drizzling. But sooner or later, it would start drizzling again, I thought. That's okay. Vancouver Island had been a paradise to me. Paradise needs some rain.
I could've stayed at the campsite until it gets better. Despite my expectation the front seemed to be moving from north to south considering we got continuous south wind yesterday. If the low-pressure system were north to where I was yesterday, the yesterday's south wind would make sense. Today, we would get rain in the middle of the low and probably this afternoon or tomorrow morning the low would move south to us. At that point I should be able to enjoy bike ride under the blue sky and in the tail wind from north. But just thinking of staying in tent all day long would put me down. Probably I'm stupid. But I wanna go.
I packed everything very carefully not to get them wet and left the campsite. It was dead quiet. Other campers seemed to be still sleeping.
Learning a lesson from yesterday, I decided to use Inland Hwy 19. Inland would be calmer than shore line, I thought. I would miss some scenic points by using Inland Hwy, but they wouldn't look great under this weather anyway. So I thought what the heck.
Although it wasn't raining, the road was wet especially on the shoulder. The main part of the road on which vehicles run was well drained whereas the shoulder on which we cyclists prefer pedaling was poorly drained. I don't know why, but that's what it is. By the time I got Nanaimo I saw some blue sky and felt slight tail wind. The wind seemed to become stronger. I assumed the low pressure had already passed away to south. I was lucky. Thanks to the tail wind I pedaled very comfortably.
At 1:30 arrived at Chemainus. I suddenly remembered being offered to stay overnight by Mrs. Schiller, our neighbor Bess's, sister who lives in this town. I thought it was too early for ending today's ride and too late to ask her to stay overnight. So I continued bicycling. (At least I should've made a phone call to her just to say hi.)
Chemainus is famous for a number of the unique painted walls. It was tempting to go by see them off Hwy 19. But I decided to rather go further, because I've been there before.
The Hwy became hilly. The sky became clear. The tail wind also became weak, but it was still there. No stores no houses. A family of deer was sitting beside the small channel. Smaller ones were drinking, while bigger ones, probably parents, were watching me. Nobody burning up cars seemed to notice the deer. I started pedaling glancing admiringly at the enchanting farm. In the mean time "TAKE ME HOME COUNTRY ROADS", one of my favorite songs, pop up out of nowhere.
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* Country roads take me home To the place I belong West Virginia Mountain Momma Take me home country roads Almost heaven West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains Shenandoah river Life is old there older than the trees Younger than the mountains blowin' like a breeze * All my memories gather round her Miner's lady stranger to blue water Dark and dusty painted on the sky Misty taste of moonshine teardrop in my eyes * I hear her voice in the morning how she calls me The radio reminds me of my home far away And Drivin' down the road I get a feelin' That I should've been home yesterday yesterday ** |
I hit Hwy 18, Cowichan Valley Highway. I had been told before that Lake Cowichan was beautiful and worth visiting. I decided to go up there rather than to stay at Duncan for tonight. Hwy 18 was a nasty road of constant uphill to a tired cyclist with full load. What made it worse was that the strong wind blows against me for some reason. I started regretting my decision of going up to Lake Cowichan. The constant uphill and strong head wind really exhausted me.
I gave up going to the lake today. I decided to stay over night at Cowichan River Provincial Park which locates half way to Lake Cowichan. I encountered some unpaved area to the provincial park. I got off the bike and started pushing it, because I really didn't want to get the tires flat at this point.
At 4:30 arrived at Cowichan Riv. Provincial Park. Nobody was around. I heard no sound but strong wind. Being densely forested, the campsites had some spots where trees might fall down by the wind tonight. I picked up one site carefully hoping the surrounding trees wouldn't fall on my head when I was sleeping.
I was so tired that I did literally nothing on a bench for one hour. Then I started collecting small branches on the ground for kindling for tonight's campfire.
Meanwhile one party showed up. There were 3 kids the age of 4, 5 years old probably. One girl started talking to me and later on we all became good friends. (I like kids at this age). We collected branches on the ground for kindling together. One younger brother and the youngest sister (I forget their names) were running around for the kindling and the oldest one judged whether they were good or bad. The oldest one was the boss. At this age, only a year difference is huge. The boss's order is absolute. It was hilarious to see little kids working hard. They were camping in RV. Seemed to be very interested in my tiny tent.I lit a fire and started cooking. The water in this park was served by hand pump. I really like one of those old things. Had supper and slept at 8:30. The wind seemed to stop, but it was still cold.