Changing My Plans and Myself

Day 53: Grand Forks, BC to Rock Creek, BC (74 km) 

The only constants on this trip have been my direction (west) and destination (Vancouver). Otherwise, my plans keep changing. Today was a good example. I started out with ambitions of following the rail trail that I’d travelled on briefly yesterday. I was hoping that the sandy surface would stop once I got out of town. My bicycle doesn’t like sand … or maybe it likes sand too much since it kept trying to lie down in it. Anyway, I realized that this trail would have been lots of fun on a mountain bike, but for now it’s a better idea to get off at the next road crossing and turn back to the highway. I’ve being enjoying the challenges that occur naturally on this trip (wind, hills, heat, etc.) but there’s no need to go out of my way to create difficult situations.

After I returned to the pavement, it was quite an easy ride to my planned stop at a town called Midway. Just one little 500 m hill to climb today and not very steep either.

An old tunnel I saw along the way

I arrived really early in the afternoon, claimed a spot in the campground by setting up my tent, and then rode back into town to run my usual errands. First stop was the library, which claimed to have no wifi access despite there being a network called “library”. I sat at a desk and used the internet on my phone for awhile, but apparently they have a time limit on this too? I’ve never seen a library so discouraging of people using it. Perhaps that’s why only one person came in during the hour I was there. Next I stopped by the grocery store / liquor mart, where I was weirded out by the sketchiness of the other customers: middle aged men reeking of alcohol hunched over pushing child-size carts down the aisles. Overall I was getting really bad vibes from Midway, and decided to leave — another change of plans. When I arrived back at the campground, at first it looked like my tent had been replaced by an RV. But no, some people had just parked their massive vehicle six inches beside my tent. A final confirmation that I’d made the right choice to leave town.

Just 10 kilometers down the road I found a peaceful and friendly campground where I had a very relaxing evening thinking about some of the other changes I’ve noticed on this trip:

• Trusting my intuition: Whether making a judgment about a town’s culture or picking a route travel, I don’t overanalyze the decision like I used to.
• Fat loss: Not that I was very fat to begin with, but what little I had came off in the first few weeks and the snug-fitting pair of jeans that I brought along now must be worn with a belt.
• Patience: It must be because of the slow pace I’ve been moving, but I never get impatient any more, like when I’m waiting in line at a store.
• Stronger Legs: Pretty obvious this would happen, and good thing I’m not just wasting away from the fat loss. I can feel the difference when I’m biking up these hills, and starting to see new bulges too.
• Willing to Work Hard: In my life I’ve generally tried to avoid hard work (especially physical effort) and instead relied on cleverness to get by, but there’s no way to think your way up a steep hill.
• Pain Tolerance: Kind of related to hard work, I’ve never before been in situations where I’m in pain and just forcing myself to put it with it and keep going. Well, there were some multi-hour conference calls that seemed painful at the time.
• Interesting Tanlines: The ones on my hands are especially weird because of the biking gloves I’ve been wearing.

I wonder how many of these changes will persist once this journey ends?