The Cargo ship I was waiting for in Busan was delayed. We left Busan on the 9th of November.
The ship behind us is also a Hanjin, but not so big as ours.
The transfer was not so exiting but relaxing. It took about eleven days until I saw America for the first time.
We had planned to stop 24 hours in Prince Rupert, Canada. But in the middle of the night when we were going to the port, there was a small fishing boat in our way. To avoid a collision the captain had to go on a sandbank. Many small boats were pulling us back on the trail and finally they succeeded.
Those boats also helped to turn around the ship before I could go ashore at the harbor.
Day 173, around Prince Rupert, 90 km
I only had 20 hours and I wanted to see as much as possible of Canada. First I went to the Museum of northern British Columbia. There I found a lot of items made by native aborigines. I also learned to know that the name Prince Rupert only had existed for 102 years, when the place became a city and that there wer living only 15000 people there. Still i could find it on my worldmap!
I liked the art of the "indians"
There was also a totem pole in the middle of the museum
And many different masks.
After the visit in the museum I took my bike and went to a place behind the island, where the tide and flow made rapids among the rocks. There I found this sign:
It was a very beautiful place
The woods were old and had a lot of giant trees. Everything was mossy and new trees were growing out of the logs of the old trees.
Sometimes new trees even grew out of still standing trunks.
Here you see a movie of one of the rapids. The flood was coming in when I was there.
I listened to the local radio when I was biking about 40 km into Canada. The weather forecast said in the next town the temperature was falling to minus 18 degrees celcius and there would be 20 cm new drifting snow. On the coast they expected a storm with 120 km/h. (Actually they use celsius and metric system in Canada). I was heading to a national park but it was closed and there was signs warning me.
I also saw a sign along the way which made me convinced that I did not choose the wrong option when I decided to continue by cargo ship to Seattle and not to take the road over the mountains (which was 1500 km).
Instead I went back to Prince Rupert to climb up on a mountain near the harbor. It was already 8:00 pm when I started to go up on this 750 m high mountain. After a while there was more and more snow.
In the snow I found tracks in the snow, far away from anywhere.
But I never found any wolves.
After climbing the mountain I went to a pub downtown. It was already 1 am when I came there. I met some aborigines. They told me a little of their history in Canada. Their tribe is called Kitasoo.
Finally I went back to the ship and went to bed 4 am.
Next day we were going south and had a very strong wind from ahead. It was about 70 knots. I learned to know that all forces above 65 knots are classified as hurricane.
Since he waves came exactly from ahead and the ship was 278 m long it did not rock so much. But the speed slowed down from 15 kn to 2,5 kn with the same amount of power. But the engine had a lot of more power: Actually we only used about 10000 out of 54000 hp across the Pacific and still made 15 kn. If we had used all power (as they did 10-15 years ago) the ship could have gone 26 kn but the fuel consumption would have been much more than twice as much.
The waves soon became about 9 m high and there was spray all over the containers!
Next day we had to change our course towards SW, so the ship started rocking and rolling. As most 20 degrees on each side. We were about 24 people on the ship (most Philippinian crew) and the Captain thought it was strange that nobody became sea sick.
After two days we arrived in Seattle.
Day 176, Seattle, 30 km
Here you can see the view from my "Appartment" on the ship.
I was a typical autumn day in Seattle.
I went to the main library. There were a lot of people using the computers and the internet of the library!
I called my warmshower host Reynaldo. He came immediately and together we looked around in the city. He helped me to buy a simcard (40 USD/month all included) and to make a new business card.
Then we went to his home and had a really good time. Here we are in a grocery shop together with his room mate Leonard.
Day 177, Seattle to Olympia, 120 km
Next morning we made a little more sightseeing. We went to the Space needle tower but it was so foggy that it was no idea to go up.
From this place we had a view on the harbor where Hanjin Geneva still was loading containers
To avoid the traffic on highway 5 I had decided to take a ferry one hour east to Bremerton and then go on small roads south towards Olympia.
The ferry was leaving at ten o'clock. By then the fog disappeared. Near the harbor we saw an antique shop where you could buy totem poles
and all kind of native american things.
From the ferry I saw Hanjin Geneva for the last time.
I also saw the center of Seattle
It was quite a big ferry
but not so many people on board.
I was happy to go the same way out of harbor as I came the night before because when I arrived to Seattle it was dark. Now I could see the beautiful landscape.
Actually the houses looked very much like the houses in Sweden.
At 11 am we arrived in Bremerton. I biked on very good roads south towards Olympia.
On the way I realized that everything was bigger in the US
The good thing was that there was a lot of space for bicyclers.
I passed malls where you could buy all kind of stuff
And I was much faster than I expected, I arrived in Olympia before sunset.
The Capital it the third largest in the world.
Here you can see my warmshower host Doug with his dog.
Day 178, Olympia to Kelso, 120 km
First i rode on small roads. The landscape reminded a lot of Sweden but you could see that the clamate was warmer and more humid: All woods and trees were covered with moss.
They also often had lamas instead of sheep.
Later in the afternoon I discovered that it was no legal to ride on the highway which I did when it became so dark that I could not see the landscape any more. Finally I arrived at Phil's house. Also his partner Jan was a devoted bicycler.
Phil had a great collection of bikes in his basement.
And a warm room with a big bed for me.
He said that he had too many bicycles and too many parts so he supported wanted to support my trip. He gave me a professional saddle and two tires, everything as good as new!
He also warned me of Mountain Lions (Cougar) and told me that his Lama was killed by an animal, probably a
cougar.
Day 179, 105 km
From Kelso I rode south on the highway 5 until woodland, then i turned east towards Mt St Helens. This road was not so big and I could see a lot of the landscape and farms.
I passed places were you could have Bed and Breakfast in a Tipi.
I also passed beautiful woods and creeks.
But I had wind from ahead, so when I arrived at mount St Helens it was already dark.
I decided to sleep in my tent at the end of road 830. Early (4:00 am) I started to climb on the mountain.
I reached the timberline at sunrise. In the beginning the snow was frozen and hard but suddenly it became warmer so the snow became soft and slippery.
Sometimes I sank down in the snow so my knees disappeared.
I found strains of lava stones where i could climb up. The gloves I ought in Prince Rupert got distroyed of the sharp edges of the stones.
Here I am quite high in the mountain. Behind me you can see Mt Adams, another giant.
For six hours I tried to climb up and I think I arrived a high of 2400 m (the mountain is more than 2500 m), But finally it was too dangerous; The snow was hard as ice and it begun to rain. It was so slippery that I could not stand without gliding down. I sat down on my bum and rode down on the snow. It took only two hours to get back to my tent.
But I had to avoid the deep ditches made by creeks. The rocks there were hard, wet and slippery.
It was raining almost all afternoon when I rode to Portland. And it was not so easy to find the bicycle path over the Colombian river! Finally at 8:00 pm I also got a flat tire, so I called my hosts and said that I was delayed. They offered me to pick me up with their car! After a looong day with wet feet I thought it was a very good suggestion.
Day 180, resting day
I woke up with a headache and a cold. I did not do anything that day, which was good for my body. Actually I even did not feel to update my blog. I just got spoiled by my hosts. Thank you Julia and Bob!
Day 181
Today I finally updated my blog. Now I will go downtown Portland to explore it!
