Shrubs flanked by stubby evergreens make way for towering birches guarded by fireweed and goldenrod. The empty pavement waves and winds under a celestial sky of wispy, white clouds, and we pedal, three in a row, in the middle of the road.
To get to this point, we endured two 12 hour plus days of driving. Gerald and Ray Bock (a family friend to whom we are forever indebted to for putting up with our insatiable need to cycle in remote places) shared the driving. Being sore from moving is much preferred to the sore that comes from sitting—at least in Amelia’s opinion (and she is quite vocal about this!)
This day, our third day since leaving Winnipeg, began with breakfast at Lakeview Inn and Suites in Fort Nelson. From there we drove over two hours to Fort Liard in the North West Territories, and we almost got there! 10km from our intended starting point the road became messy gravel sludge made worse by recent rain. We took a picture with the Fort Liard sign, and then, 2 km from the town, we turned around to return to where gravel became wanna-be pavement that made our bodies vibrate from the outside-in. Before we could experience this sensation however, we first had to wait out a thunderstorm. We felt very grateful to have a vehicle to shelter in! Around 1pm, local time, we finally began pedalling.
The afternoon included a stop for berry picking, a face off with a rather large hedgehog thing with menacing front teeth and a shimmy past a herd of bison.
There was also a report of a wild boar crossing the road into the bush, but thankfully, we did not make its acquaintance.
After 70 km of nearly deserted road, the last of which felt like a never-ending uphill climb, we found a great spot to begin tomorrow and returned to Fort Nelson. Boston Pizza once again satisfied our stomachs (for the third night in a row—for some) and we’re now tucking ourselves in at Lakeview, gearing up to dream of sunny skies for tomorrow’s ride.
Adventures on a bicycle 