Dave through the Americas - 9.24.02 Loving the smell of exhaust in the morning and Malahat Summit

I woke up with an extreme amount of pain in my neck. It seemed to be related to a tight knot I had in my shoulder. I packed up my stuff and headed south out of Nanaimo. There was lots of noisy morning traffic and a pungent exhaust smell throughout the air. After about 10 miles, I stopped at a diner and got a huge breakfast. My neck was still bothering me and all I could do was crave a rest but today’s goal is making it to Victoria, about 100 kilometers away. Then I can rest up nicely. The day looks like it will be nice and sunny again. I called Kelly and told her I was close to Victoria. She decided to hop on her bike and meet me at the Malahat mountain summit. The Malahat is a nice sized mountain that takes you up to approximately 350 meters about 40 kilometers from Victoria. I rode through the nice gradual ups and downs along the trafficy trans-Canada highway (Route 1). I stopped for some water at a gas station at the beginning of the Malahat. As I climbed the never-ending incline, sweat stung my eyes. The sun was beating down as I pedaled up to a nice lookout. There was a great view of Washington’s Mt. Rainer and I took a photo. A couple that I was chatting with informed me that they saw a solo female cyclist pedaling up the other side towards the summit. It looked like the timing would be perfect for Kelly and I to meet at the top. I rode the rest of the way up to the summit and had a 20-minute break before Kelly arrived on her super light, fully suspended mountain bike. We had a little rest at the top, snacked on bananas and power bars, and then rode downhill together. I got up to some high speeds on the fun downhill. Eventually we made it back to Kelly’s and I felt great, like I’d accomplished another milestone getting to Victoria. From what I saw coming into town, Victoria looked like a beautiful city. There was a nice looking parliament building and many commuting cyclists. We reached Kelly’s condo and I took a nice warm bath. It felt so good to soak away some of my body’s soreness after a tough ride. After a bit of relaxing, we went out for Thai food with Kelly’s friend Michaela and had a delicious meal. After dinner we had a few beers at a local bar with lots of personality called Big Bad John’s. We chatted with a couple fisherman from southeast Alaska that were having some work done on their boat in town. Michaela headed home and we followed shortly after. I ended the long day with a good sleep on Kelly’s comfy extra mat. (69 miles)

Peace

Dave

Pic: A view of Mt. Rainer in Washington from the Malahat Mountain. Not quite at the summit yet.

Pic: Malahat Summit