PPP Day

Day 7: Squamish to Mount Currie. 80 miles. 6806 Ft elevation. Weather perfect

When your route follows the Sea to Sky Highway, you have some concerns about elevation gain. It turns out that concern was well-founded. After a few beautiful miles of wooded trail along the river leading out of Squamish, the trail started up and kept going up. An airplane rather than a bike would probably be the best way to navigate this trail.

It did make a momentary drop down to Alice Lake, where I enjoyed an incredible meal at Fergie’s. The experience of riding this route is quite bizarre. One minute you’re alone in the woods and figure that if a bear got you, no one would know for days. The next minute, you’re sitting with a bunch of hoity-toity people on a balcony overlooking a river and eating eggs Benedict. Actually, a pulled pork eggs benedict. Sure, I could rough it, but I figure pedaling uphill for most of 80 miles a day is rough enough. Plus, I am a senior citizen.

So what does the PPP day stand for in the title? Pecan pie powered day. Laura gave me so many pieces that I was able to enjoy them yesterday and today. However, I couldn’t carry them all, so I shared some with the motel staff yesterday. I’m sorry, Laura, but it sure made them happy. Despite being powered by pecan pie, it was a tough day, and I did a poor job of recording it, being too tired to take out the camera.

Suffice it to say, it was just your typical day in BC, with wooden causeways across lakes, waterfalls around every corner, beautiful lakes, and incredible trails. One picture above I did want to make note of is the one with my handlebars and the bushes on either side. These are thimbleberries, and I rode through miles of thick thimbleberry bushes. Thankfully, there are no berries yet, or I would likely have already been eaten by a bear.

By the time I got to Whistler, the rest of the pie was gone, and I was pretty beat, only running on eggs Benedict fumes. The scenery was spectacular, but I was too tired to take pictures. Suffice it to say that Whistler is essentially the Canadian version of Vail, except prettier, and it has probably the best skiing in North America, unlike Vail.

Undoubtedly, there are wonderful places to eat in Whistler, but I still had 24 miles ahead of me, and it was 5:00 p.m. Hiking a bike up much of the trail didn’t exactly get me to Whistler quickly. The local gas station was my refuel stop. I bought some health food: chocolate milk, Coke, and potato chips. It’s actually surprising how well those three things go together and how much energy you get from them. Just don’t tell the grandkids.

Three wonderful things happened to me near the conclusion of today’s ride. First, I got to do a service, which is my third goal each day. Second, as I was nearing Mount Curie, a bicyclist pulled up beside me and chatted with me for a couple of miles, helping the final few miles go by quickly. Third, there was a Thai restaurant literally 200 meters from my motel, and they were willing to serve me. The food was wonderful.

Now, let me tell you about number one, the service. I don’t want to boast, but I was grateful to have an opportunity, even on the trail, to help, although I kind of created the problem. If you look at the two pictures above, you’ll see a lady. She had a dog. She saw me coming and leashed the dog. I approached them slowly and carefully. But the dog was skittish and literally jumped off the wooden causeway into the grass about 3 ft below. I laid my bike down, went back, and jumped off the causeway to help the dog back up. And just for the record, the lady who served me at Tim Hortons this morning smiled. And near Whistler, I ran into two ladies hiking on the trail, and they visited with me, as did my new friend on the bicycle this evening. It was a long day but a very good day.