Northern Apex

The first day of riding was wet, windy and cold. I had a goal of 600 miles for the day in order to make Anchorage in 5 days but after getting started late from Bren's and pounding rains (even some snow in northern Idaho), 550 miles was all I could manage. It was about 10:30 at night and dark when I picked this little side road to drive down for my campsite. The little road ended at the control shack by the railroad tracks so that's where I set up my tent. I quickly got set up and stripped off my wet clothes (raingear only does so much, and my rain pants were shredded from the headwind and burning on my exhaust over the years and not much protection). I fell into an exhausted sleep and woke to the sound of silence - the rain had stopped!! I poked my head out of the tent and was greeted by the scene in the top picture - the river had flooded during the night and almost completely covered the little road to a depth of 2 plus feet! I had to push my bike out through the flood to the main road in water almost up to the seat and then dry it all off before it would start on the other side - a pretty exciting start to my adventure. There was an osprey nest right by where I camped which I didn't see the night before - that was a major clue there was water very near by and I would have picked a different spot. I found out later that lower British Columbia was experiencing severe flooding all over - not just at my campsite - and that many areas were applying for provincial disaster assistance. The top picture is the osprey nest - there was a mated pair that were fishing and feeding baby chicks in the nest.