Pressing through B.C.
Michal Brichacek
For The South End
This morning I had the biggest craving for two things: chocolate milk and cereal. I decided it was best to kill two birds with one stone, and ate cereal with chocolate milk.
The grocery store was having a sale on Raisin Bran at $2.54 a box, so how could I pass that up? I must say that it was actually quite good.
Perhaps next time I'll have a craving for orange juice and cereal, although I'm not sure how that will taste! However, on my to-do list under the food category are: drink a gallon of milk in an hour, eat a gallon of ice cream in an hour and eat that burger with two pounds of beef.
Why, you ask? Just to see if I can!
While in the village of Skeena, I took a seat on the steps of a church, where there conveniently happened to be a WiFi hotspot. Many locals passed by, many of whom I chatted with.
A teacher from the local school also passed and, after finding out what I was doing, insisted that I be a guest speaker at their school. Of course I agreed!
I distributed several of my cards, told them about what I was doing and answered some questions. It was actually fun.
Today I also had quite the adventure. When I made it to New Hazelton, I looked at the cargo rack of my bicycle and nearly had a heart attack — one of my Crocs had gone missing! I occasionally strap loaves of bread in the same place in order to save space in my bags.
At the last rest stop I had removed a loaf of bread from there and put it in my bag, but I forgot to tighten the bungee cords holding my Crocs. Needless to say, I backtracked 10 km to that rest area searching for my Croc.
I searched high, and I searched low, but to no avail. On the way back, I searched the ditches, and, as luck would have it, I managed to find my Croc!
It would have been very bad to lose it for several reasons: I had grown attached to it after 2,000 km, I would have had to pay $44.95 for a new pair of Crocs, and they're my only pair of non-cycling shoes. Needless to say, disaster was averted at the cost of an additional hour and a half as well as 20 km, which, may I add, are not included in today's total.
I broke a speed limit on my bicycle today! On the way into New Hazelton, I reached a speed of 54 in a 50 kilometers per hour zone. I kind of wish they had given me a speeding ticket — how cool would that be? Although my maximum speed is 65, it still feels pretty cool to break a speed limit.
Two days ago, I saw six black bears. The first proved to be the most trouble. I yelled at him in order to try to get him to move, but he just wouldn't.
I'm not daring enough to just roll on past him and hope he doesn't do anything, so I got a ride past him on the back of someone's pickup truck. I managed to get a picture of him while driving past. The other bears didn't prove to be too much trouble.
When I'm far away, I just start yelling and waving my hands. If they move, I just keep on rolling by yelling some gibberish. If they don't, which has only happened with that first one, I'd have to stop and back up.
