On Sunday 29th. I left Vancouver by Burnaby to the east in the general direction of the city called Hope, definitively not the nicest part if town. I saw a hamradioshop in that district with some vhf and microwaves on top of the roof. Further down the broad freeway with nice shoulders I was overtaken by a Calgarian couple cycling their way to Newfoundland. Rain started to fall in the afternoon and I skipped some expensive campground to end up at a desolated one that was partially flouded.. I placed my tent under a bigger one but it was flouded in the morning by the river extending her width.. I was able to dry everything later that morning thanks to a 2kW heather in the washingroom. I think I used more electricity than 5 dollars.. For the remaining of that day I cycled for Hope, on better weather. It came as I approached it.. Did some shopping and ate some expensive pizza and stopped in Boston Bar were I put my tent at a remote place for RV-people, they allowed me to stay on the premise of a turned down building with water-hookup and room for an antenna. I once again was active on 40 meters in the streetcorner on 7177 kc. The valley were I was going trough is the Fraservalley, quite narrow and steep. The Canadian Pacific railroad goes through here and does that in almost every route up here. The Fraser has also some nice tunnels on its stretch, people warned me they were dangerous but it you're used to the Norwegian ones the inestimable over here are a childsplay. Still I switched on the ledlights and , as always, wore the fluovestje jacket. In one of the longer tunnels there was some traffic catching up on me. One car stopped just after the tunnel and the driver stepped out, should he be angry on me because I was on his road ?.. Nope, he congratulated me with the good lights I have on the bicycle. So, they are edeluxe light with a Son dynamo. The drivers name was Peter and let me try one of his favours of his drinks, Mona Vie. Very good as a matter of fact, he wanted to be active on the European market next year. It surely makes a lot of noise and they are about 1,2 km long. Leaving for Lytton the other day it was raining again. Some crazy guy was 'controlling' the city but a real officer showed me a place to setup the tent. A former landingstrip just north of the town. A helicopter and its owner that lived in his next-door RV were parked up there. Was bugged by some really nasty muskitoes over there. Cash creek the other day was the entrance to a different kind and style of landscape. It was clearly visible that this should be dessert-style hills but they weren't because of all of the recent rain. It had green plants and hushed almost everywhere ! The following day a young French guy Lionel kept up with me, he had been touring the North American continent since October last year. He was cycling to Calgary to fly back home again next week. In Kamloops I was warmly welcomed by Jim and Ann, we previously met on a campground in California. The tentpoles my brother-in-law send over to him just arrived in the mail that day.. I had a nice meal over their place and slept very well on a clean bed ! In the morning I cycled to the downtown area of Kamloops and as the sun was shining , end up in the public parc next-to the river for an hour. Cycling back north in the valley towards Valemount I used a ferry to cross the North Thompson river. In the evening a lady - grandma Alice - invited me in her summerhouse in the back of her yard. It had running cold water and I hung up the 40.mtr dipole again. Alice sels hamburgers and stuff in the center of Barrière in her wagon so don't stop at the mainroad for the A&W but continue for the centre.. In Vavenby I slept next-to a baseball field. The very little town was empty as everybody was watching the hockeygame that was on that night between Boston and Vancouver.. As I was peddling up north again the road got steeper above 700 mtr. ASL and the hilltops were covered with snow. I ended up in Blue River were I was invited to have a dinner at Laura's place with three friends of her, I slept in the garden next to a lake of one of the friends that are into the gold-digging of this generation. On the stretch in between Vancouver and Valemount I tried every repeater on my path, like 30 of them but on none of them I got an answer after they opened up.. Are they al deaf here of is the hobby in a really fast decline into .ca ? The signals and location/coverage of the repeaters was excellent ..
Arriving in Valemount after a very sunny day and seeing a rather big brown bear 5 meters next to me of the road .. people gave me some tips on where to find a good spot. But, al of a sudden Lionel was standing in front of me again ! He had found a place to sleep trought warmshowers and asked him if I could camp with him also, it turned out that it was no problem. I met Tom who was a carpenter over here and enjoyed dinner with all of us. Tomorrow I head out into Alberta and into the Jasper National Parc. It will be a great route and many glaciers will be visible. Right now I'm at a height of 800 mtr. ASL in the valley and it will go up to a 1450 level into the Parc where many bears live and no trucks above 4,5 ton are allowed..
