August 3, 2025
Wrap-up
I said I'd do a final summary in a few days. Hah! Life has been busy in a fun way since we got home.
We got home a day later than expected, on Tuesday, Canada Day. Jet lagged, of course. It's always worse coming home for us, perhaps because it's not as exciting as starting a trip.
In any case, my one-day-a-week fun job was three days in a row, Friday through Sunday. I don't mind; if I did, I'd quit. As it is, I get to hang out with my young colleagues, learn about new outdoor gear, and never a problem when I want to go away for 6 or 8 weeks.
Then it was two back-to-back BC adventures!
First, our annual ladies' weekend in Sechelt, where my road cyclist friends and I pretend to be mountain bikers. We had a big group this time and not everybody had a working mountain bike. Those who did had fun on the beginner trails, others went hiking and we all swam in the ocean (not a given on BC's Sunshine Coast).
Then I joined my son Graeme, daughter-in-law Rachel, and two-year-old granddaughter and some others to do the Bowron Lake Canoe Circuit. Al and I were originally only going to look after their dog but one of the adults had to cancel and I was asked to go in his place. We left for the 10-hour drive to the start the morning after I got back from Sechelt. Very glad I wasn't driving!
This trip has been on my radar since the late 1970s, when I first heard about it. I've done some sea kayaking trips before but had not really paddled a canoe in 40 years, but I would be paired with Rachel's dad, a very experienced paddler. We spent 9 days paddling the full circuit.
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I've been home again now for over a week so here follows a very short wrap-up.
We were away for 43 days and rode, according to RWGPS, on 30 of them (31 days for Al). The collection includes 35 activities, but there are days where more than one activity was recorded. For example, we rode to Novarey, then to a different village for dinner and back.
You can link to the collection here
Highlights for me include
- Meeting up with fellow Cycleblazers in Pont-en-Royans. I wish we'd all been feeling better but we were all good to go when dinners were the plan!
- La Route de la Soif, the gravel route between Col des Aravis and Col d'Arpettaz. The beaten track of the Route des Grandes Alpes® à Vélo is pretty good and not crowded or busy compared to Canadian roads, but this was better. We were happy to descend on asphalt, though!
- Col du Galibier, Col de Vars, and all the other spectacular passes.
- The people we met.
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Georges, of Le Bacchu Ber in Briançon, the only person I got a photo of. I wish I weren't so shy about asking! Heart 1 Comment 1 Link Log in to comment or replyLowlights? Well, you can't control the weather and there's not a lot you can do when you come down with mystery ailments. We also noticed that the coffee in France isn't as good as in Italy or as we make at home. The food was okay, but not as good as Sicily--admittedly, that's a very high bar. Italy is probably the destination for our next trip and our mouths are watering already!
Other conclusions: We realized on this trip that (1) neither of us really likes to ride flat stuff for very long and (2) we really need our rest days. Given that the flat day was substituted in so I could have an easy day while I recovered from whatever it was that stole all my energy in Pont-en-Royans, I think I planned things very well this time.
Time to plan the next one!
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I agree with you about French restaurant food vs. Italian.
That canoe trip must have been awesome!
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Was there any white water?
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