Day 7 - Fixing Things

Today I had to do something about my knee. I stopped into a drugstore and got some ibuprofen and cooling gel. I also mailed home my jeans, chord pants, booties, sandals (they had rubbed my feet raw on the two 140 km rides), belt, headphones, mini speaker, sunglasses, sun hat, and hoodie.

With all this unnecessary gear gone I was 5 pounds lighter and had more space to even out the load. My knee was also becoming more tolerable as the day went on.

I hit the Lougheed highway and pushed east through the outskirts of Vancouver. I stopped at a laundromat along the way which was ran by a funny old Asian man and donned my rain pants and jacket while every other piece of clothing I had was washed.

Deroche, BC

With everything clean again I carried on east eventually getting into the quiet countryside. I stopped in Mission for a cold drink and met a wily homeless man who told me all about the bears in the area. We shared some chicken wings while he gave me advice about dealing with bears. Before I parted he happened to have a can of bear mace to sell which was convenient seeing as how we just talked about  the dangers of bears. I said no thanks and hit the road.

I eventually rode into Deroche, a quiet farm town with a lot of motorbikes rolling around. Turns out they were having a get together at the Sasquatch Inn. I met a guy named Steve that knew the owners and wrote me a note to give them saying I could camp on their yard. Steve also mentioned he worked with a lot of Newfies in McMurray Alberta.and he'd always try to get paired up with one for a laugh.

Anyhow, on my way down the Lougheed (also known as 7) I came across a church and decided that would be a quieter spot and set camp for the night.