Day 16 – Careful What You Wish For

I woke happy to see my camp from the night before. Such a good spot. I was getting pretty good at my morning routine now, I washed my face, made the bed, stowed my curtains, made breakfast, ate breakfast, brushed my teeth, all while listening to a BBC news podcast. I was on the road…

Day 15 – On Paper, A Bad Day

Good morning! Flat tyre… I thought when I woke up that I wasn’t quite lying level. That slow leak on my right rear tyre had sped up, probably had something to do with the bogging escapades from yesterday. I noticed when I walked back to the car after going to the bathroom. On the one…

Day 14 – Zero Plans, Zero Coordination

It was below freezing this morning at 7:30am! I had an early start because of my early finish yesterday. I’m not kidding, it was 0oC in the van which meant it was definitely colder than that outside. There was ice stuck to my windscreen wipers! Brrr… I used the bathroom at the trailhead, had a…

Day 13 – Round the Bend

The grey skies of last night were replaced with blue ones this morning and my outlook improved, I was excited about riding, but I was also in no rush about it. I was still in bed at 8am when Scott called to say hi. He is the first friend I made in California, we went…

Day 12 – Learning

Having stayed at least 15 hours in the rest area, I had no troubles despite a police officer rolling up and talking to me the night before. I enjoyed my first round of cereal, definitely much easier than dicking around with the camp stove (I’ll be happy once my kitchen is installed). On the road,…

Day 11 – Stupid America

Compared to the events of the last few days, today was pretty eventless. I woke up to find that the rest area carpark was mostly emptied of the residents of the night before, except for one van. There was still some drizzle around but most of it had stayed outside of the van. I got…

Day 10 – Bike Park Madness

I’d resolved the night before that I would do the bike park. I was in Whistler, I had only one day left, how could I leave without hitting the famous trails? I was up at 7am to give me time to pack my van before heading out. Everyone had left the house already, so I…

Day 9 – Luckiest Girl In Whistler

I was up at seven with an alarm since there had been talk the night before of a possible canoe trip with Sheilagh, Graham and Jake (who is one of Sheilagh’s sons that I also worked with at Tesla). I resolved to make a decision between that and the bike park in the morning, but…

Day 8 – Queen of the Mountain

It had rained all night, which is great for the trails, except that it was still raining. Dan messaged me in the morning and said as much, that it would be a miserable day on the hill and Sunday was looking a lot better. So we decided to postpone until tomorrow. That meant I had…

Day 7 – First Day in Whistler & I’m Shattered

Graham came over right on 9am, while I was out in the van putting the last touches on organising myself for riding. I was happy to discover I was kitting up very similar to him, so I’d dressed appropriately! We rode off from Sheilagh’s house on the street like bandits and used some of the…