Its a warm wind

Hi Folks, Lucas here yet again, and like always hoping you are all doing great.

We have been quite busy over the last few days, unfortunately my camera’s batteries are dead, so until tomorrow when I can buy some new ones you will have to just imagine what we have been doing.

We left the beautiful town of Hope, (and I do mean beautiful).  It is nestled in the coastal mountains like a baby in a crib; the steep peaks towering around the entire city.  We left on Sunday morning heading west, roughly following the mighty Fraser River.  It was a nice Halloween day and we managed to not get rained on. 

Perhaps because it was Halloween or perhaps because it was just convenient, Kristi, Garrett and I had lunch in an interesting old graveyard on the side of the highway. 

We were headed to a friend of Kristi, Garrett and Justin who lives just south of Chilliwack in an area called Ryder Lake.  We didn’t end up getting there until way after dark.  We thought we had put mountains behind us for at least a few weeks but we ended up pushing our bikes up a steep mountain road in the dark.  Couple that with no lighting, many recent cougar sightings, a bit of fog, and Hallows eve, it is probably safe to say we were a little spooked.  We made it to Gina’s eventually however, and she had some dinner waiting, and was very kind to all of us.  We stayed up late talking and laughing, all while a huge storm was being unleashed outside.

The next morning we slept in, and relaxed with Gina.  Then Justin, Viera and I saddled up and rode down the mountain and west to a place called Yarrow Eco-Village.  The folks there were very kind and on the account that it was raining torrentially outside we helped out doing indoor volunteering instead, which was much appreciated.  We ended up setting up our tents in an old barn there.

I was fortunate to meet up with an old friend, and he brought us some fresh vegetables which we used to make a delicious dinner with Anne, the lady who had invited us into her home at the village.  Kristi and Garrett arrived right at dinner, and we all felt bad for them as they had rode through very high winds and a huge downpour of rain.

That night my friend Pete, and one of the inhabitants of the village Joé, stayed up late talking about his plan to rid the local stream of invasive plants.  It was a very elaborate plan, and it made me appreciate the huge amount of science and planning that goes into even a small area of forest/stream reconstruction.

The next day it was as if a storm had never passed as the sky was blue and beautiful.  I even found myself taking off my sweater for the first time in my B.C. portion of the trip. 

Anne gave us a tour of the Eco-Village and we video taped a few interesting things.  Look for it soon under the garden section of our website: http://pedalacrosstheamericas.com/index.html/the%20garden.html

And a related note is that we will be in Victoria within the week, where we will be finally be editing and posting all of the interesting things we have seen across Canada on our website.  We are really excited to share some of our experiences with you, so please check that out in a week or so.

After the tour we left for Delta, BC which is just across a branch of the Fraser River from Vancouver.

We left just before lunch, Viera, Justin and I taking old farming roads, while Kristi and Garrett jumped onto the Trans-Canada and then the Fraser Highway.  Justin, Viera and I got to see some amazingly beautiful country but ended up changing our route quite a bit, which pretty much automatically resulted in us getting lost coming into Delta.  We ended up doing a lot of city night biking which isn’t fun, but fortunately Delta has a pretty impressive bike system (lots of bike lanes and bike routes).  We arrived at my Aunt Joan and Uncle Larry’s house and were thankful to enjoy an amazing meal with many fresh vegetables from their backyard garden. 

Today we are going to a large Community Garden, armed with our video camera, so look for that in the next week or so. 

Our current plan is to stay in Vancouver for at least a couple days, then head out to the Island and get our work done before we head south into the states and (hopefully) perpetual winter.

We are absolutely blessed with another warm, sunny day today, which is apparently pretty rare for the coast. 

Thanks to everyone who voted for us on www.youth4sustainability.com.  The voting is now closed, but we are happy for all the support, and excited to see the outcome.  We will keep you posted as we hear more about it.

We have had our first visions of the coast last night, just as the sun was setting.  It feels like we have accomplished something amazing, and we are still so early in on our journey. 

One of the most important parts of this trip is to show the public what we have been learning, and we are all very excited to be organizing and sorting that information out in the next few weeks and presenting it to you.  Please ask lots of questions if you have them; which reminds me, our forums are now up and running at http://pedalacrosstheamericas.com/index.html/forum.html.  Please sign up and join our forums.  I hope that it can become an interesting area of discussing, debate and most importantly sharing.  It is void of content right now, but look for it within the next couple of weeks to start up.  Feel free to post and add interesting things yourself.

Once again, thank you very much for reading and take care out there.

For a while, Viera and I were memorizing poems on the road to share.

I memorized this one and found myself saying it often when thinking ahead to the west coast (and also home in Rossland).

I find it particularly fitting today so I will share it with you if you have the time:

The West Wind

It's a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries;

I never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes.

For it comes from the west lands, the old brown hills.

And April's in the west wind, and daffodils.

It's a fine land, the west land, for hearts as tired as mine,

Apple orchards blossom there, and the air's like wine.

There is cool green grass there, where men may lie at rest,

And the thrushes are in song there, fluting from the nest.

"Will ye not come home brother? ye have been long away,

It's April, and blossom time, and white is the may;

And bright is the sun brother, and warm is the rain,--

Will ye not come home, brother, home to us again?

"The young corn is green, brother, where the rabbits run.

It's blue sky, and white clouds, and warm rain and sun.

It's song to a man's soul, brother, fire to a man's brain,

To hear the wild bees and see the merry spring again.

"Larks are singing in the west, brother, above the green wheat,

So will ye not come home, brother, and rest your tired feet?

I've a balm for bruised hearts, brother, sleep for aching eyes,"

Says the warm wind, the west wind, full of birds' cries.

It's the white road westwards is the road I must tread

To the green grass, the cool grass, and rest for heart and head,

To the violets, and the warm hearts, and the thrushes' song,

In the fine land, the west land, the land where I belong.

John Masefield

Thanks for Reading, Lucas and the PEDAL team.