I awoke at 5:00 am; my body is still on Ottawa time. Breakfast was excellent: fresh fruit and yogurt, coffee, juice, toast, strudels, and cereal. I left Graeme's around 9:00 and made my way to the beach for the obligatory photo of the rear wheel dipped in the Pacific.

I passed an outdoor Yoga class (reaffirming the stereotype of west-coast Canadians as a bunch of new-age hippies, spiritualists, and pot smokers - just kidding) and made my way across the bridge into downtown Vancouver. As I came down the hill after the bridge, I geared-down to tackle a small but steep uphill climb. The chain decided at that point to jump off the rear flywheel and into the spokes. Snap, Snap! Two broken spokes and several others badly chewed. I had no spare spokes, I didn't have the proper tools, and I had to get this taken care of right away.

It wasn't quite 10:00 yet on a Sunday morning. Where would I find a bike shop open this early? Would I even find one open on a Sunday?

Surprisingly, it didn't take long to find one. I asked the shop mechanic to replace the broken spokes and he told me that the whole wheel was fubar'd. The spokes were too narrow a gauge to support the weight I had over the rear wheel and most of them were chewed up too bad to survive more than a few hours on the road.

Faced with the prospect of waiting several hours while the wheel was rebuilt, I decided instead to buy a stock prebuilt wheel hanging on the bike shop's wall. It had a heavy, wide rim, but it was definitely nuke-proof. I recalled the cracked rear rim I received on my last bike trip and chose to play it safe with the heavy rim. I had the mechanic cut the remaining spokes on the damaged wheel and threw the axle in my panniers. I told them to keep the rim - it was too expensive to ship back to Ottawa due to the size.

The bike mechanic told me about his bike trip through the Rockies. He flew from Quebec to Edmonton and started biking for the coast, through Jasper, Lake Louis, Golden, and Revelstoke. He originally planned to bike straight down the coast, but he had some problems with his knee and the trip ended in Vancouver. That was several years ago. He liked the mountain biking and the weather so much, he never left.

I was back on the road around 11:30 or so and started making my way out of the city. Lots of traffic and some scary 4 lane major highway biking as I left Vancouver. I stopped in Mission for a late lunch/early supper. A couple of alcoholics took an interest in my bike and my plan to cycle to Calgary and gave me the number of a friend of theirs in the Kootenay's who I could probably stay with. I was going to explain that their friend was about 400 km off my intended route, but decided it was easier to nod politely and thank them. You meet all kinds…

After Mission, the road was mostly flat and I made good time with a slight tailwind. I passed several logging operations along the river. There was a strong smell of Cedar in the air. About 10km outside of Aggasiz, the road climbed a bit, affording some excellent views of the Fraser River. Coming down the hill, I hit my maximum speed of the day (and as it would turn out, the maximum speed of this entire trip).

I could see several snow covered mountains in the distance getting closer with every kilometer and every turn. The prospect of seeing them up close tomorrow is both exciting and ulcer-inducing. The cedar trees keep getting bigger and bigger.

The camping spot I'm at tonight is excellent. There are mountains to either side and I can hear a babbling brook behind my lot. Tall cedar trees everywhere I look.

I forgot to start the bike computer a few times today. The total distance might be more like 130km.

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