Western BC Circle Tour

Burns Lake to Vanderhoof
120km

 The next morning Tim went to the bike shop, Larry set off early again, and I waited at the campground for Tim to return. Eventually he did come back and said that when the wheel arrived it was a front wheel! Great! The bike shop guy then decided to take Tim's hub apart, and found that luckily the cups had not been scored, so with some new ball bearings and cones and then re-fitting the cassette, everything was hunky-dory.

 A hot day! Hot? Yes it was true, but headwinds made it a long day for Tim and I, as it was close to 11:00 a.m. when we left Burns Lake. We arrived on Vanderhoof's main drag to find Larry going the other way. He'd pitched his tent, dropped his gear and was heading for the food store, where else? We did our shopping and, ahem, due to the heat, bought a six pack to celebrate the good weather! The young lady attendant at the Riverside Municipal Park was very accommodating and allowed us to pitch our tents on a grassy area next to the actual campground, as all the spaces were kind of gravel and mud, OK for vehicles not tents. A very nice park all the same.

 
[The only reason it was damp and soggy (as were many other campgrounds in Northern BC at that time), was that heavy spring rains and run-off from a record winter snowfall, had caused flooding in many of the areas that we were travelling through. These floods had only subsided a couple of weeks prior to our arrival.]

 

 The same young lady asked us... "How come all you cyclists always have beer with you?" We thought that was kind of funny, as it was the first time on the trip that we had bought beer (brandy yes, beer no), but I suppose lots of other cycle tourists arrived with beer at that spot. So I'm glad we didn't disappoint her!

 

Vanderhoof to Prince George
100km

 Our last day on the Yellowhead Highway. We were heading for Prince George where we planned to stay for two nights and have a rest day. Larry has an uncle living in this town, so he had previously planned to contact him for a visit.

 This was the worst day for flats, Tim had one and I had three in the space of a half-hour! First I ran over a fork, yep, an eating fork, why was it there? Who knows? And the other two flats were a bit of a mystery, but I finally figured out that the end of my Mr. Tuffy tire liner was probably pinching my inner tube. I remedied this the next evening.

 We passed the Blue Spruce Campground, a few km west of the town at the top of a hill, but the campground we planned on staying at was south of town, so down the big hill and south we went. But after checking out the Roblyn Motel & Campground we found it to be more suitable for RV's, big gravel pads, not really good for our tents, plus the fees were really high. So back to the west of town and the Blue Spruce, up the big hill we just went down, we were foolish! This turned out to be a much better choice though and the lady there let us pick our own spot, as once again it was a choice of damp, damper or dampest! At least the weather was finally changing for the better.

 Larry contacted his uncle Carl and we all went out for dinner together. Carl offered to drive us around Prince George the next day and show us the sights and take us to the bike shops for our needs.

 

Prince George
0km - Rest Day

 Carl picked us up at the campground and off we went on a day of chauffeured touring! Downtown Prince George has a few decent bike shops, but we still couldn't find any suitable slicks for Tim and no 27" tire for Larry, although he was still balking at buying a spare, so he wasn't looking too hard. Chinese food for lunch and an offer of a BBQ at Carl's house for the evening, made for a pretty relaxing day.

 I opted out of the BBQ and did some bike maintenance back at the campground. The problem with the Mr. Tuffy was bothering me, so I stripped it out and decided that, at the overlap, the liner was cut off too abruptly, providing an opportunity for a pinch flat. To remedy this, I tapered the end of the liner with a sharp knife, to give it a smoother transition at the overlap. This fix proved to "do the trick" as I didn't have any more problems with flats for the rest of the trip, and no more "mystery flats" in the future either. A quiet dinner and into my tent for a read of my book; actually I fell asleep and didn't even hear the guys coming back from the BBQ!

 

Price George to Quesnel
118km

 After a good night's sleep and a rest day we were all raring to go, so we packed up and before we knew it, the sun was out to make it a perfect start to the day. Finished with Highway 16, our route was now Highway 97 south, the Cariboo Highway. Larry seemed to have found his "bike legs" and was sticking with us.

 The miles went by quickly for me and pretty soon I arrived in downtown Quesnel, but the guys were nowhere in sight. I suppose I must of been daydreaming and not noticed them stopping (easy to do if you don't check your rearview mirror for a while). So I rode through town, stopped at the local Travel Info Centre, and pulled up a stump in the shade out of the reach of the hot sun. I was lucky that a young girl selling ice-creams happened to cycle by. She had one of those old fashioned three wheeled bikes, with one rear wheel and the cooler mounted over the two front wheels. I didn't even have to move, I bought two of the largest ices she had, mmm! Just as I was finishing these goodies, Tim and Larry rode up, but the ice cream girl had already left, too bad for them! Turns out that Tim had a flat, and that's what held them up. They also stopped at one of Quesnel's bike shops and Tim managed to find some slicks and coaxed Larry into buying that elusive 27" tire.

 Off we went again, to the grocery store first, and then to our campground 2km south of Quesnel. Robin's Roost was the name of the place, and although it was full of massive RV buses and trailers, they were very accommodating and had a large grassy area for us to camp, complete with picnic tables. It turned out that the campground was being used for a dog show at the time, and the influx of RV'ers were dog fanciers. It was interesting to watch some of the events and see the fancy RV rigs that these people had. But the absolute best at this campground was the washrooms! They were in a block of about 16, each one separate and individual, just like your own private bathroom, super clean, nice linoleum, flowers on the countertops. In fact, it made my bathroom at home feel shabby! I know it's hard to get excited about bathrooms when you're at home, but when you're touring, it's the little things that mean a lot!

 

Quesnel to Williams Lake
120km

 The sun was already peeking out when we hit the highway the next morning, so we put on our sunscreen as it looked like being a scorcher, and it was! The scenery in this part of the country is quite spectacular and in many places, one can literally see for miles and miles.

 We stopped at just about every small town (there aren't many) we passed through to replenish our water and Gatorade, as the heat was really taking it's toll on us. What a difference from the start of our trip!

 About a third of the way to our destination of Williams Lake, we were climbing quite a long hill, with Tim in front and Larry bringing up the rear, when I heard an almighty BANG! I thought a car going by had backfired or somebody was shooting at us, but no, I looked around and there was Larry with the remains of a tire on his back wheel. I guess he developed a cut, then the tube started poking out, and with the poor condition of the tire it just blew a massive hole in it. But how lucky can you be? He just bought the spare tire the day before! After this event, it was "Lucky Larry." Eventually we had a nice downhill ride into Williams Lake and on the way into the town there was one of those large digital signs displaying time and temperature, it was 98°, phew, no wonder we were beat!

 The Travel Info Centre informed us that the only campground in town was at the Williams Lake Stampede Grounds; now this place is really downtown! Very reasonable though, and showers too. After we pitched our tents, the consensus was to find an air-conditioned restaurant for a cold beer and a large meal; this was all found within a short walk from our camp. Afterwards back at camp, we were performing our usual bike check, and Larry found that his rear wheel bearings needed adjustment. Good job that I brought those cone wrenches along, Lucky Larry!

 Although we were quite central to the town, the campground was amazingly quiet and we had no trouble laying our weary bodies to rest.