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| Yosemite: Memorial Day Weekend 2023 |
I thought I would do another day in the life, and may do this each month, as even though sometimes the days seem the same every day, they are actually often quite different. Last time, if you recall, it was in the 20s in the mornings and this time, I went through a few days in the 80s, only one month later!
Monday, May 13, 2024
Hydraulic Lake, British Columbia
4:00 am: I wake to the sound of honking geese. This has been my alarm for the past few days, as I have been camping near bodies of water and they are very active in the morning. The other day, I could even hear them walking around near my tent, but when I poked my head out they skedaddled. They are noisy though! Luckily I fall back asleep.
5:00 am: It is light! I wake up to the sound of the dawn chorus. Now this I can get on board with! I notice that they have the cheeseburger bird in Canada too! For those of you who are not familiar, this is a bird that I grew up hearing and the sound it makes kind of sounds like it is whistling "cheese-bur-ger!" When I was a kid, I thought it was just us locals that called it that, but apparently other people do too (this is what is sounds like). The actual bird is a chickadee. However, in BC, this bird sometimes has an extra syllable in its call, so it sounds like it is saying, "three-cheese-bur-ger!"
5:45 am: I think about getting up. It is actually not too cold this morning, which is usually my excuse for lingering, and bonus, my tent is dry, as the site near the lake was windy and not too humid. I rejoice silently, as a wet tent is the bane of my existence.
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| Hydraulic Lake |
6:00 am: I do my normal morning tent routine of dressing and putting things away, with one critical addition. Before putting on any clothes, I put on sunscreen. I have learned the hard way that this is best done before everything else, while you are focusing and not in a hurry on the side of the road. Also, this way I can get that little strip near my watch, the backs of my hands, and the weird armpit-side-area that I sometimes miss when I am in a hurry. Also it's better to not be wearing my helmet and glasses and sleeves and cuffs etc. Preferably when I am at the beach, I would do this naked, as I always miss a spot when I do it after I am dressed, even in a swimsuit. Life lesson learned. However, I am not in the mood to get naked in the tent so I make do.
6:20 am: I exit the tent. The lake is calm and the view is great. I heat up water for oatmeal and coffee. This consists of instant coffee and although I often drink it black at home, while traveling I like a bit of a treat, so I pilfer sugar and cream packets from any motel or gas station when I get coffee and I use a couple of those when I am camping. Normally I would scoff at any fake creamers, but currently I am happy to have anything! For the oatmeal, I put a couple of sugar packets and if I have peanut butter, which I do today, I put a scoop of that in there too. If I have extra creamer packets, I may even throw one of those in (decadent!!), but usually I do not have extras and today is no exception.
While the water is heating, I break down the tent and load the bags onto Bob. After doing that, I eat breakfast while staring at the lake and watching the fish jump; dare I call this "meditating?"
7:00 am: I get going. Today I would like to try to get 50 miles at least, but preferably 60 miles, as I have a town day planned for tomorrow and the more miles I do today, the less I have to do tomorrow. I like to have as much time as possible in towns, as I often have errands to do, administrative things to take care of and also would like to relax a little bit sometimes. Ideally, I would get to town right at or just before check in (around 2 pm usually) so I would have a few hours for errands, and a few hours for admin/relaxing.
7:06 am: Since I was wild camping, I did not have a toilet, but I knew there was one a few minutes down the road. I never pass up an opportunity to use a real toilet, if you can call a pit toilet "real." It is much more real than digging a hole in the ground though, so I use it while I can!
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| Do you see the sign on the wall? Dog poop bags? Who does that? |
8:00 am - 11:59 am: Yesterday I spent the entire day climbing up about 3,500 feet and today, I spend most of the day going downhill (aka losing what I gained, but such is life). However, I am on a rail trail and so it is a gradual 1%-2% downhill, and although you may think that this is awesome, it is not! The surface is gravelly and rocky and sandy and I actually have to pedal downhill most of the time in order to keep the flow going. Also, this kind of riding hurts the butt! If you are a runner, you will know what I mean. When the spectator says, "it is all downhill from here!" and you are like, "my quads are dead, downhill is NOT my friend at this point!" My butt is dead. Bring on the 5% incline (just kidding!)
However, I do have the trail all to myself and it a nice ride through the pine trees. And it is not raining, which is another bane of my existence, so I am as happy as a clam! I am listening to Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena, which is entertaining. This downhill is perfect for audio, as steeper ones with more wind noise make it so I cannot hear well enough.
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| Kettle Valley Railway |
12:00 pm: I veer off track for a bit at Beaverdell, where there is one restaurant open that has pizza and ice cream. I eat half of a pizza and a scoop of ice cream, and wrap up the other half of the pizza for dinner later and put it in my bike bag. While eating, I charge my phone and sit for a bit watching the cars go by until I finally have to get back up and get going. At this point, I have done 35 miles so far. I am still aiming for 60, which would put me right near the Kettle River at a campsite there.
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| Yes please. |
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| Pizza in Beaverdell |
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm: I ride near the Kettle river for a long time. There are a lot of gates, as much of this part of the trail goes through private land. I get tired of getting off the bike, opening the gate, closing the gate, getting back on the bike. I am ready to be done.
5:00 pm: I get to the Kettle river campsite. It is $30 for a tent site. After having a lot of free sites lately, this seems like a lot (however, it is almost summer, so this will likely be the norm more often). Plus they only take cash and I only have $20. Poop. The camp host is very nice and she tells me all about the other campsites further along, as well as the possibility of ATMs. I ride to town, which is about 5 clicks away, the lady says. (side note: clicks are kilometers; however, the town was more like 7 clicks away, and those extra 2 clicks were felt).
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| Spring runoff in the Kettle river |
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| TCT |
5:27 pm: I get to the second campsite possibility. The office is open from 9:30 am - 5:30 pm. I go to the office and it is closed. I peer in and it is dark. Poop. There is a phone number to call after hours. I call it, but nobody answers. Poop! Luckily there is another campground across the river. I know I should get cash before going to the third option, so I go into town and ask at the local pub, which I was told had an ATM. It is closed, but the man working outside directs me to the Petro Canada (gas station).
5:45 pm: I ride to the PetroCan, but their ATM does not take my card. It keeps saying chip read error. I ride to the next possible ATM, which the gas station attendant told me was 2 minutes away. It takes me 6 minutes. I get cash! Yay.
6:00 pm: I ride to the campsite. The building which has the name of the site on the roof has a "private" sign on the front door. I knock anyways. Nobody answers. The next building over looks like someone took a sledgehammer to it, or maybe it was a fire? There is a building that looks like an apartment building nearby as well, but nothing else. There is only one other person in an RV site, and I pass by him to see if he is a host, but there is no sign and I do not want to bug him. I decide to go and pick a spot and maybe someone will come to me for the fee.
6:15 pm: I pick a nice spot right near the river. I eat my pizza, plus four coconut macaroons, while staring at the river in a comatose manner. I am tired. My final mileage is 70.73 miles, which beats my prior one day high for this trip so far of 70.28.
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| Home sweet home |
6:30 pm: I put up my tent, use the bathroom (NOT maintained, maybe this campground is closed?), and take off my bike shorts to air out for the night. There is not enough time to rinse them and let them dry, so I just flip them inside out so the crotch section gets some air. It is slightly gross, but such is life these days. I unpack my bags, spread out my sleep gear and put on my sleep shorts. I start my charging regime. My battery pack has two USB ports, and I have one mini USB with two, so I can charge two items on that one, and one item on the other. I then closely monitor them to see when they are full so I can swap them out with the next thing. Despite having so many electronics, generally I only need to charge my phone and maybe two other items each night.
7:00 pm: I sit with the flap of the tent open and watch a bald eagle land in a tree across the river and try to get a video of him leaving the tree, but he just sits there for a long time. I wonder what he is waiting for. The river near me (still the Kettle) is very high and is moving very fast, so I doubt I will hear or see any fish here!
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm: I read. I am reading Outlander, which I avoided reading for a long time, as it seemed like a bit of a fad. However, I am enjoying it, even though it is mostly just a romance novel. But who doesn't love a nice strong Norse man in a kilt though, you know what I am saying? Aye!!!
9:00 pm: It is not quite dark yet, but I call it a night and am asleep in mere seconds. In hiker terms, this is called "hiker midnight." I guess it is the same in the bike world, at least for me! As soon as it is dark, it's lights out!
P.S. Nobody ever came to get my fee, and when I left the next morning the office was still empty, so I ended up getting a free spot after all!
Have you ever heard (or heard of) the cheeseburger bird? What is your favorite bird sound? What book are you currently reading?
This is Lisa. I had not heard of the cheeseburger bird but we definitely have chickadees! I thought they made a ‘chickadee-dee-dee’ sound though.
ReplyDeleteI love your DITL posts. They are endlessly fascinating! That toilet sign is really something else! Phil could relate. He HATES that dog owners throw their poop bags in our trash can. He has tried putting a sign on our garage and then the garbage company put a professional sign on it for us after they saw his sign so I guess it is a common issue. He has joked about setting up a camera to catch people in action. It is so rude! And in case anyone wonders why, the poop bags can get stuck on the bottom of our garbage can and guess who has to deal with that?
Anyways… I’ve gotten off track. Overall it sounds like a good day all in all. Your sort of meditation morning is as close as I could get to actually meditating. It sounds quite nice. The quiet sounds so very appealing since our house is the antithesis of quiet…
I am so glad that you explained the poop bags in the trash. I have never had a dog that I have to pick up bags for, but wouldn't have thought twice about putting them in the nearest trash can! Sorry Phil! We get a lot of people who walk the dog in the park that I used to run at and pick up the poop and then leave the bag on the side of the trail! Seriously? I am sure they are "going to pick it up on their way back" but there are an awful lot of them. I feel like if you are going to have a dog you have to be willing to do all of the unpleasant things, and properly!
DeleteI have also seen people whose dog pooped and they conveniently pretended not to see. I once yelled at a guy to tell him that (even though I had seen him pretend not to notice) maybe he hadn't noticed his dog had just pooped, and then he had the audacity to pretend not to notice ME!! So he never picked up the poop. PS this was in Crissy Field, that park near the ocean and the GG bridge in San Francisco.
This was soooo fun to read! Also, our lives are soooo different. Reading this solidifies I have zero desire to live off-grid. I like my toilet and soft bed! I am such a delicate orchid with temperature and having hot water/a shower nearby at all times.
ReplyDeleteMy beef with dog poop bags is the people who use them and then THROW THEM ON THE SIDEWALK. If you're going to the trouble of picking up after your dog, could you also just take the bags home to the trash? Argh. It annoys me to no end and happens alot on our walking route to school (I assume it's the same person over and over?)
Currently reading? I'm just about to start a book called The Cloister Walk as part of my "rest" research; I just finished a book last evening called Overwhelmed (also part of my "rest" research).
Yes, re picking up poop bags, as I said to Lisa too, we get a lot of people who walk the dog in the park that I used to run at and pick up the poop and then leave the bag on the side of the trail! Seriously? I am sure they are "going to pick it up on their way back" but there are an awful lot of them. I feel like if you are going to have a dog you have to be willing to do all of the unpleasant things, and properly!
DeleteThe other thing is that there are trash cans along the same trail so they would not have to carry it far before being able to toss it!
What Elisabeth said but sort of - I have no desire to live off the grid but I'd love the 4 AM geese wakeup and to spend my first few hours of the day listening to the birds and the lake. I sure do love reading your DITL posts!
ReplyDeleteYou, Lisa, and Elisabeth will be glad to know that of the thousands of bags of dog poop that I've picked up over the years, all but one have gone into the trash and zero into the toilet. Yes there was "the one that got away" in a snowstorm, but my track record is pretty solid.
Yay for a free camp night and boo for all of the extra "clicks" at the end of the day.
I"m about halfway through The Women and loving it. All ima say about Outlander and kilts is that I appreciated the visual of the TV show very much.
Where did you watch the Outlander? Sign me up now! My family is Scottish and I find a man in a kilt to be very handsome, but make it one from the 1700s who is quite strapping and and I am in. I am glad you are enjoying The Women!
DeleteAlso the poop, we all have our accidents. I was walking my friend's dog for her and the darn thing pooped three times and I had only brought two bags. I won't lie, I kicked it under a bush and then had to go back for it later. Luckily it was kick able!
I love these posts, too, that give us a vicarious ride-along with you. It's as close as I'll ever get (or want to get) to roughing it. It's fascinating.
ReplyDeleteWe get a lot of chickadees (I've never heard of them being called a cheeseburger bird!) here in Northeast Ohio, but mainly in the cooler/colder months. They're so little and perky. Right now we are inundated with horrid starlings and their awful babies. They all sound like rusted gates.
If I were travelling solo, I'd stop for ice cream all the time. I'd probably plan my route solely around its availability. It would be sad and shameful.
Nance the Chickadee we have is the Mountain Chickadee, who makes a short long long chirp. I think your Chickadee may be the Carolina(?) and it has a short long short long call.
DeleteI will support you fully on your ice cream mission. If you need a ride I will be there, and I can help you eat it too! My grandmother had lots of dairies/creameries near her and in the summer we would try them all. It was wonderful.
Hello! It’s Michelle G. I enjoy your day in the life posts so much! What an adventure! I was laughing and gagging slightly at the picture of the toilet with fly strips hanging down. I am way too soft for camping and roughing it! Reading about trying to find a campground made me nearly want to sob! I’m so glad you found a place to stay.
ReplyDeleteYes Michelle that was a long day for sure. Luckily I had the pizza because I would not have really wanted to also cook dinner! Although I would have if I had to, I suppose. But it was nice not to have to!!
DeleteI have never heard of the cheeseburger bird, but I clicked through to listen, and you are right it does sound like that. In Australia all the drop toilets have signs to keep the lid closed to keep the smell down ... did that cubicle stink? I can't imagine it being too flash.
ReplyDeleteIt did not smell too bad. Our toilets also ask you to put the lid down although not everyone does. However, it is the off season still, so maybe this one was not used much?
DeleteOMG, I was so stressed out at you trying to find a place to camp at night! I just know that feeling of wanting to be DONE with something but you have to keep going until you find a place to camp... (I mean, my circumstances are much less dire haha), whew. I'm glad you found a place to camp AND it ended up being free. Woohoo!
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading Planes, Trains, and All the Feels, which is a very fun, light-hearted romance!
Yes, exactly. I just wanted to be done. Plus I was hungry!! Not quite hangry but getting there. Maybe more like Hustrated? I just out that book on hold! Lighthearted sounds perfect!
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DeleteYou looking for a campsite gave me anxiety!!!! Glad it all worked out. Whew. The campsite you found is so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite bird sound is that of Maine loon. It is kind of scary but also relaxing. I'd go to Maine just to listen to them :)
I like the sound of loons too, although they somehow sound sad or grieving to me! And I guess it doesn't help that I usually hear them when it's not light out.
DeleteYay for free camping... although I would have been totally freaked out about camping at a site without paying for it first, haha. I guess that's part of the adventure, but it wasn't for lack of trying to find a person to pay for the night.
ReplyDeleteIn the US, sometimes with FCFS camping, you just go and find a site and a ranger comes and collects money from you. So it is not fully strange not to pay first! Although most of the time, you DO pay first, or reserve online.
DeleteOh goodness, I'm so glad you found a place to camp, I was getting worried about you. I can't see how you're getting enough calories for all of that riding, even with pizza and ice cream. I love these posts, they are amazing.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the people who leave poop bags on the side of the trail, perhaps meaning to pick them up on the way back, but there are too many, they surely leave them there.
I woke up this morning to the sound of a duck flying past my window yelling. I distinctly heard 'quack!' and my husband heard 'what!' Gladly, I just closed the window and went back to sleep.
I love the morning chorus, screaming ducks excluded.
You are right; I am probably not getting enough calories, even with the pizza and ice cream. Some days I only burn about 2,500 - 3,000 but other days it is closer to 6,000 calories! That is a lot of pizza!
DeleteTed hearing what when you heard quack is funny. Sometimes I hear voices in the babbling brooks! If I am sleeping next to one, I swear I hear people talking and it freaks me out at times. Where are they? What are they talking about? But yes, morning duck song is not really a thing for a reason, although they are less obtrusive than geese!
Kyria, I love these posts so much, I think I could read them every day. I'm already wondering, what time did she make it to the town the next day? Did she have time to do everything she wanted? The photos are amazing, and I just love the feeling of you being on the road like this. Somehow I got behind- I'm off to read the next post now.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I got to town and I DID do everything I wanted! I think I may have written about it in my TGIM post (as the next day was my birthday!) https://travelspot06.blogspot.com/2024/05/tgim.html I had a great lunch, including beer, went grocery shopping, bought electronics and camping fuel, got new brake pads and even chatted with a new friend for a while!
DeleteKyria, this is so much fun to read, for me. Sitting here in my air-conditioned apartment with a microwave, fridge, and WiFi. Not to mention, you know, electricity. That said, the idea of camping for a night - even sleeping in my car, if I could figure that out - is very appealing. I am not at the point where I can hike far, physically, but parking the car, not having to figure out too much re: cooking, etc., and still being "away" is so very appealing. Maybe I should start small, though. :) I also worry about your intake - more snacks! Although that's more weight! - and was beyond stressed about the campground. I wanted to go tell Past Kyria to get cash at lunch! :) Glad it all worked out.
ReplyDeleteI know Anne! I actually had cash and many of the campsites are free or are like $20 so the $30 was unexpected. But you are right, I should have had more just in case. The funny thing is that I left Canada with the cash I ended up getting out, so now I have CAD still!
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