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A quick announcement to my dear readers from future me before I continue with today's story:
It's quite apparent that I got a bit delayed over here. Thanks for baring with me. I just have rough notes of my adventures on the back roads in the Chilcotins and took some time off afterwards. Currently I put them into text. So stay tuned for the next days.
However, I do have something for you. Every now and then people let me know they'd like see more photos. Completely get it. I just didn't find a proper way to deal with them on the blog here in the past. Please check out my Instagram for a daily picture:
@ridewithjonas or https://www.instagram.com/ridewithjonas/?utm_medium=copy_link
[Since I don't want anybody to be sucked into the claws of Instagram just for checking out my pictures I made a public profile. You should be able to see my latest posts without having an own account]
I usually don't write about what I take photos of [that's why I take pictures, right!?]. So I decided to not post pictures along with my daily diary anymore [sorry!]. Instead I will post my favorite pictures per country into a single folder for now. This will be irregular [most likely very very irregular]. So just check it from time to time. I am happy to announce that you can now check out my favorite shots from Alaska including short comments and also photos from Canada that I got so far. Enjoy!
And now, back to the Chilcotins...
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The first rays of light let the frozen tent sparkle and make it looks like a little chrystal palace. I am still sleeping in great and warm comfort but the mornings simply are a bit too cold for me to really make use of them before the sun is sending some warmth towards me. Since it's dark early I also sleep early. So I usually lay around waiting for about two hours in the morning. I don't do anything, I just let thoughts pass by, sometimes sleep in again... I really do enjoy this.
After my daily morning philosophy, I set out into a wonderful sunny day. I would love to make it to Gold Bridge, but with 110km left and my track record of the last days this probably will stay a dear wish.
While climbing towards the 1600m elevation mark I am still in the monotonous, planted pine forests. But suddenly at the horizon there is a change, snow capped alpine mountains and I am travelling towards them. A unique and raw surprise. I haven't done any research on the route via Gold Bridge, so no expectations. I can't do much than smile. It's when two rangers looking for hunters stop next to me with their car. "Are you okay?" - "Oh hell yeah, look at these mountains!" - "Are you hunting" - "No I am not" - "Where did you learn about this place?" - "I didn't. I just went"... They smile and leave me behind with best wishes.
About an hour later I meet them again. I just jumped over the gate of Red Mountain Road that is closed from here due to mating season. I am slightly worried to get in trouble but they came for the complete opposite reason. They want to head down to the canyon and check whether the bridge is passble to make sure I can continue on my desired route. 10 minutes later they come back to give me a go and restate their best wishes for my trip. Incredibly friendly guys and in fact the first and last people I saw today.
Red Mountain Road is just amazing! Beautiful canyons, untouched snow covered road, after climbing up from the canyon beautiful mountain views again... the silence, the solitude. I have certainly traveled more remote in terms of distance on the long stretches in Alaska and Northern Canada, but without any traffic and the slow progress [hence unpredictable when to get somewhere civilized again] this is something of a different kind. It's hard to describe this feeling. I love it!
After a while the road degrades more and more and ultimately becomes a single trail, deep puddles, mud, ice, fallen trees, every corner a new surprise... I have to push Klaus a lot who generally seems to be in better shape again today, but even pushing is tough. If not all three maps that I have would indicate that this is the way to go it would certainly be the time to think: "I am lost!"
After a steep, rocky descent where Klaus and I where more sliding down than walking, I even have to cross two creeks. The first one I manage to ride but it's deeper than expected so my shoes are under water. Halfway through the second creek I get stuck and have to jump into the water. My shoes and pants are completly soaked. Yay!
Eventually my single trail passes under a bridge. Out of the blue there is a proper forest service road, even one of the bigger ones. However, none of the mapping apps show me that road. Doubting my GPS and the maps I now slowly get the feeling of beeing lost...
It's a huge effort to lift the bike up over the boulders but with the crazy single trail I am on right now [made 6km in the past 3h] I decide to try the road since it goes more or less in the same directions.
After 5km of climbing on the road I unfortunately have to accept that this is the most stupid thing I can do and turn arround. I have no clue where this road leads to [there are a lot of dead end logging roads here, sometimes hundreds of kilometers long]. It's 6:30PM by now, the sun is gone, I am at 1500m and in half an hour it will be dark and freezing cold. Needless to say that my soaking wet feet already now feel like ice cubes.
Back on the single trail I manage to find a nice place to camp quickly. I love the efficiency in those situations. Within 30 minutes my tent is pitched, everything is prepared for the night and I sit at a hot fire with the Milky Way [no clue but the sky looks like it] above me and with my pants, shoes and socks steaming next to the fire. What an adventure!