July 20 Day 1 on The Canol Road- Pup Creek Camp

July 20

Day 1 - Pup Creek Camp

We called this day one but we actually started the trip the day before from the ferry at Ross River and rode approximately 16 kilometres before deciding to camp. My brand-new sleeping pad was punctured the night before and I luckily found a patch that worked really well. Regardless, my sleep wasn’t very restful since mine and Hannah’s tent was angled a little downhill. I ended up sliding off of my mat and my mat on top of Hannah’s head!

So day one began by having a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee followed by packing up our camp. At this early part of the trip most of us were still trying to figure out the best way to pack our bikes and packs and the food was pretty heavy!

Spirits were high in the group and my legs felt very strong and happy to be doing something besides traveling in planes and vehicles. As the day progressed I felt more and more comfortable riding fast down the hills and had a blast tearing down each one! Hannah kept encouraging us to keep riding and the fact that the days are light for a long time in that part of Canada made it easy to keep going. Many hills up and down were ridden that day.

There was also the unknown of bears. We had been told there were grizzlies, but because the road was still very drivable and open we didn’t think about it as much. I did keep hoping that I would see a grizzly bear because that fear of the unknown was nagging at me. I felt that if I saw one, I would be less afraid. And my wish came true, I saw a bear, a black bear. Hannah was riding up ahead and Caitlin and I were behind her as she zoomed ahead and up a hill, Caitlin and I both saw it and yelled “bear, bear!” at the same time, Caitlin shot off a bear banger but the bear had already run off. We decided to stick together for a little bit and talked and sang very loudly.

A little later in the day we rode through a forest that had been burned in a pretty big forest fire.

A vehicle passed us and since that area is so remote and it’s pretty unusual to see five women biking, every vehicle that did pass would stop and chat. We met an older couple that happened to be the parents of Glenda the hunting outfitter at Godlin Lake, which was one of our planned camps and where our food cache was stored. They were headed up to mile 222 where they would fly into the camp at Godlin to visit.

Our goal this day was to get to Dragon Lake but after riding and riding, we finally came to a nice creek called Pup Creek with a nice bridge to hang our bear bags from.
The day had been quite sunny and warm we were all pretty gritty and dusty and to top it off, some of us were developing some saddle soreness from the long day on the saddle, so the creek was inviting for a quick wash and dip. As our luck would have it, as we removed all clothes to dip in the creek and wash our clothes, a truck with men from a road crew drove by and stopped to talk to Hannah and Caitlin who had just finished their dip and were cozy in their dry clothes. The naked ones of us ducked into the bushes for a few minutes until they drove off.

During our dinner preparation, another vehicle drove by with a german fellow and his partner who wanted to know what we were up to. We had a nice conversation with him and he proceeded to take a picture of us and yelled “RESPECT” as he drove off. Our dinner was tasty and we quickly set up the tents and climbed into our sleeping bags to listen to Hannah read another chapter from The Canol Road book.  

I soon fell asleep before the chapter was done. All in all, we rode 11.5 hours and covered 84 kilometres this day.
-Gabi