I started early, getting up as the sun rose, which in British Columbia is a little earlier than California, around 5:20. I gathered my things onto my bike and set off, cycling over the bridge to the start point of the trail, which gave me a great view of downtown.

Vancouver has some really fantastic bike infrastructure with many fully separated lanes, many signs indicating bikes are allowed to turn where cars aren’t, and many bike specific traffic lights. This continued into the leafy suburbs, where the large houses are. Crossing over into Richmond I followed River Road, a more industrial area; there were large floats of timber presumably being floated downstream. From Richmond I again crossed over some bridges, two large freeways which had bike paths to one side, one suspension bridge climbed high up over the river.

I ended up in Surrey, another borrowed English place name. The similarity ends with the name, Surrey has a large grid system that was full of school and commute traffic, it was not a scenic or fun route to ride. Also unlike England the snow capped mountain peaks are visible off in the distance. By mid morning I had cycled all the way to the border, and, a quick stop in to show my passport, I was back in America.

The US portion started with some long straight farm roads that reminded me of my cycling last year, until I got to Bellingham where I finally met the ocean, or at least Bellingham Bay. I cycled right past the harbor where I sailed earlier in the year, and through to a wooded park system. The final road to the campsite I’m staying at must be a rails to trails route, it was remarkably flat carved into a steep grade. Tonight I’m camping under the firs, my first night under canvas. Tomorrow I’ll have to backtrack a little to get around a closure, which looks like it’ll add quite a few miles to my day. Tonight I’m enjoying a hot cup of tea and looking forward to shutting my eyes, and hopefully not awaking too many times to the railway, which they kept warning me goes right by the campsite. The same tracks I rode on just yesterday!