Day 8. Bruce Port County Campground, WA – 64 km
A further brief observation from yesterday. At the Lake Sylvia campground, which was only perhaps 1/4 full, there were just three bike-touring couples. Sophie & I, Colin and Cass (late-20s from Vancouver – we had met them previously at Potlatch), and a retired couple from Vernon. All of us Canadians. The Vernon dude is hard core. He’s cycled this route previously and last year rode a route from Vernon to Southern California through the mountain passes. He says he gave up in Yosemite (he called it a “brutal ride”) and headed for the coast to complete the trip. He and his wife are doing 90 kms per day – about double our average daily distance,
Today’s ride has brought us to the west coast of WA. It wasn’t particularly long, but featured five long climbs and descents. As we got closer to the coast it levelled out and we had long straight stretches. When you work up a long hill or sustain a pace on a long straight road your mind can go blank – well anyway mine does – and into a kind of meditative state. The repetitive skreet-skreet, skreet-skreet of the chain over the chain ring becomes like the tick tock of a clock, or a mantra, and everything – your breathing, the motion of your body, the cadence of your pedal strokes – comes into rhythmic alignment. The effect can make you feel like a machine; the finely-tuned engine of the machine you’re riding. It’s very satisfying.