Coastal Adventure Day 9: Quadra - Campbell River - Qualicum Beach

Sunday, September 17th, 2023

It's time for me to go. I've heard and read from a couple of sources that you just know when to get back onto the road and I now feel it strongly. My time on Quadra Island has been full to say the least but I'm still searching for solitude and some quiet. The day starts slowly but before we leave our friends have asked us to join them for photos at a place of special significance as they have taken a picture there every year since they first met. This moment is our parting ceremony as Bre and I will both be off for adventures apart for a few days. Before we leave we pass a simple totem reminding us to add rather than remove from the environments we find ourselves in.

It's now mid afternoon and I have roughly 115km to cover before dark. My navigation app Komoot (which I can't recommend enough) tells me I will only climb 600m over that distance and so I set out thinking that this will be a fairly easy ride. How wrong I am. I didn't check current wind conditions and a warm front which has been held at bay for several days by a high pressure system lurks menacingly to the northeast. I am now riding into a gusty headwind and we lock horns for the better part of eighty kilometres, each refusing to capitulate. The progress is slow and I am still tired and now angry; it will take me far longer than I had hoped to get to Qualicum Beach.

As I ride, high altitude cirrus clouds which earlier heralded inclement weather now make good on their threat and the rains begin. I hope the front will pass but its revolution is slow and I must contend with soaking conditions along with the aforementioned headwind and my rear tire is feeling softer than I remember... I push onwards glaring at my progress on my bike's head unit and the rear tire gets ever softer; I have a slow leak in my tire. I am now only 20 kilometres from my destination and the situation is very uncomfortable but this is what I came here for. I have come to confront adversity. I have come to confront myself. I don my rain jacket which thankfully covers my helmet and my headlamp pierces bravely into the growing gloom of evening.

My destination is the sanctuary of the home of the couple I had met a few days earlier on the boat to Quadra Island. I arrive several hours later than expected, wet, exhausted and riding the rim of my rear tire which has all but given up supporting me. My hosts graciously offer me a bed and supper. I gratefully accept the latter but insist on staying in my tent that evening; I am desperate to maintain some autonomy and dominion of my well-being. The remainder of the evening is spent chatting about bikes, travel and how they came to live on the island after fifty years in Quebec. It is a wonderful few hours and I am grateful for their company and kindness.

I am finally alone. Finally in my tent. I feel safe here in my little kingdom but for yet another night I am too tired to write; this journey has its own path that perhaps I must simply accept and allow.

Until tomorrow,