Letters from a Small Bear (Chapter 2)

James and I have reached Utah, in the South Western USA. It has been an eventful couple of months we have travelled down through Canada to the majestic Rocky Mountains. It was a wonderful trip for the most part, though it does occasionally get chilly, sitting on the handlebars. I prefer to travel in James’s rucksack, looking back at where we have been!

One of the highlights was seeing an amazing display of the Northern lights, it was very late. We were sitting on the banks of a lake in the north of British Columbia with a group of locals, there for the weekend. The campfire was burning out when we noticed a green glow on the horizon. It was very mysterious, then, suddenly it flared much brighter and danced all over the sky. For an hour we were spellbound, no-one had ever seen anything like it, and maybe won’t again. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was, but James and his friends were very quiet for a long time afterwards.

Look! I can see the snow....

Once in the Canadian Rockies, we travelled down a very famous road called the Ice field’s Parkway. It runs for about 200 miles through the most incredible mountain scenery, with glaciers and towering mountains encompassing the route. That road alone James said, was worth the trip, at the end of the road is the scenic town of Banff. When we stayed at the hotel James introduced me to our fellow guests, there were a lot of them that wanted to take me home with them. Of course James would not leave me behind, he says we started the adventure together and we will finish together. I was glad as I am beginning to enjoy these adventures we have.

On the way down through Canada, we have seen 11 big black bears. I waved hello to my cousins but James just kept on pedalling! We did have a too-close-for –comfort run in, with the Buffalo in Yellowstone Park, again James found that he could peddle very quickly. Yellowstone is in the North of the USA and is a lovely place; the animals wander over the plains and through the forest as if the people were not there. I didn’t get to see Yogi Bear or the Ranger however – it must have been their day off!!

We then made our way on to Moab, where we tried to follow a trail through the desert. Unfortunately, we missed the turning and after 2 hours we were at the bottom of a canyon, ankle deep in sand. It is the hardest thing in the world to plush a heavy bike through sand. After 2 hours of this we managed to get out of the sand and retrace our steps back to the highway. Poor James was so tired, and then he had to cycle another 45 miles to Moab, before he could rest.

Moab is really great, it is a town nestled in a big red rock canyon. The surrounding scenery is incredible. It has two national parks right next to it, as well as one of the most famous mountain biking trails in the world, the slickrock trail. Of course, James has to do the trail, I decided to stay behind, so will let James tell his tale.

Let's visit Yogi Bear

Thanks Tolly, he really is a very chatty companion. This was the scariest thing I have ever done; the trail follows a 12.7 mile route through the rock formations, which are fossilised sand dunes. It is all on bare rock and when you fall off it HURTS! I only fell off twice and I was going slowly both times, so it wasn’t too bad. Falling off by going over the handlebars is a special experience! To make up for the pain, the views were incredible-one of the most scenic places ever. You are so high up you can see the Colorado River and canyons and rock towers. I just wish I could have taken the camera. Because the rock is so sticky, you can do some crazy things. At one point you go along a ledge at a 45 degree angle, with a 50m drop about 1m to your left. Most of the downhill parts are around 45 degrees, with some even steeper. It is soooo scary, dropping 30m down a 45degree hill, especially when it is rock at the bottom and you haven’t done it before. It was awesome and well worth doing.

James is such an action man; I never know what he wants to do next. The ride out of Utah took us through an area called Monument Valley. It is an area with many huge rock towers and is located in the Navajo Indian Reservation. The Navajo culture is very prominent, and the people very friendly, we could not linger as we still have a long way to go.

Tolly at the Grand Canyon

From there we rode to the Grand Canyon. The first time you get to the canyon edge you realise where it got its name. It is huge – over a mile deep and 10 miles wide and it just appears from no-where. We spent the day hiking down to the river and back, which although tiring was very rewarding. James thought it would be a good idea to get a photo of me sitting on the edge of the canyon, as I sat there with a big smile on my face a gust of wind blew me backwards. I fell and rolled towards the edge which was only inches away, my very short life flashed in front of my eyes. Suddenly I felt a hand around my middle as James caught me before it was too late. He saved me from a long fall and it scared us both, we were lucky, my part in the story could have ended too soon.

Facing certain death made me think of the bears in this area. Although the campsites here warned of bears, in reality there are very few remaining. We learnt in Montana that there are less than 1,000 bears in the US and many of those live in Yellowstone Park. The pressures of human habitation has caused the almost extinction of bears in the United States. In order to prevent this happening, communities in Canada are becoming increasingly aware of the danger that they pose to the bears, rather than the other way around. Bear-proof rubbish bins were installed in one town we visited and according to the forest service officer that James talked with, this has prevented the creation of ‘garbage bears’. These are bears that learn to feed in rubbish tips, and become dangerous as a result (and must subsequently be put down). Hopefully these initiatives will continue, and that bears in Canada will not follow the same fate as our more southern relatives. This trip, with the sponsorship of ‘Christie Bears’, is helping to support the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and will be directly responsible for helping these wild bears stay wild.

After the Grand Canyon, we headed out to Arizona and then into California. It was an experience to bicycle 120 miles across the un-inhabited desert when the temperature is 42C in the shade. If only we knew then, things were going to get much hotter.

Cycling was difficult as the winds were incredibly strong (up to 50 mph), and were straight in our faces. We stopped for lunch in a town called Julian, in the hills. It is a beautiful town and it is famous for the apples they grow there. James had the BEST apple pie and ice cream ever! We carried on for a few miles to the state park, only to find that it was shut due to forest fires. James rode a couple of miles down the road and tried to hide our tent off the road by some bushes. This was fine and it was a great evening. However, at 9pm there was a voice. It was the Park Ranger. Whoops! He said we were not allowed to camp there, but let us anyway. We could not believe that he saw us, as our green tent was pretty well hidden in the trees. We thought we were really unlucky.

At 4a.m. we were woken up by a familiar voice, it was the Ranger. He told us the forest fire was coming our way and that we had to evacuate. NOW! James half thought he was having him on as a punishment and laid in bed trying to get a bit more sleep. Eventually he decided to start getting out. The Park Ranger came back as James was packing and said we had 10 minutes. It was only when he had gone that James got out of the tent.

What a sight!

The way Tolly would sometimes like to travel (car)

There was a massive forest fire on the other side of the ridge across the road, maybe half a mile away. The smoke was lit red and orange by the fires and shone out in darkness. It was an awesome sight. James packed up at a super fast pace and had just grabbed me when the ranger came back. We loaded up the stuff in his truck and set off down the road. On the police radio the man said the fire was two hours from the road. If the Ranger had not seen us it would have engulfed our tent around 6:30. James gets up at 7am. If that eagle eyed Ranger had not seen our little green tent in the trees we would have been trapped and probably burned to death. Other people in the area were not so lucky escaping the fires.

We were dropped off at the motorway entrance about 10 miles away. The whole motorway was closed and there was traffic, people and cops everywhere. We could see incredible clouds of smoke only a mile over to the west. James talked to a lot of people, some of whom had been there since midnight and others whose houses had already burned down. Scary stuff, but at least I had been able to make the children smile. Eventually, after a couple of hours, the motorway opened for a short time and we hitched a lift to the outskirts of San Diego. Driving there was like seeing Armageddon. The smoke was so dense you could only see 100m ahead. We could see the fire lines and trees and houses burning at the side of the road. The sky went dark. At one point the driver wound down the window and you could feel the heat of the fires as we drove past! When he dropped us off at the outskirts it was just as crazy. San Diego was covered in a layer of ash.

Because of the speed of our escape we did not get a photo of the Ranger or even his name, but we do owe him a really big, Thank you.

We spent a few days in San Diego recovering and found out that the best apple pie restaurant in Julian had burnt down along with a lot of the houses.

Phew! It's Hot!

From San Diego we have travelled down the narrow peninsula of Mexico, called the Baja California. It is a magical place of incredible cacti deserts, James liked the cacti but I did not and I am not surprised that bears do not live in the desserts. Those thorns are pretty sharp! We travelled with three other cyclists which was fun. We saw many coyotes which are like small wolves and seem to have no fear. One walked around our tents while we were sitting there! (I did get rather worried as I am mouthful size, but James protected me). The deserts were amazing; they look more like the Wild West than the Wild West does. The mountains were incredible too; they go right into the sea and look spectacular in the morning mist.

From the bottom of Baja California we took the ferry to the mainland and then rode into the mountains. It was a great road to the highlands. It straddles a mountain ridge and at some points there is a 1,000m drop on BOTH sides of the road. Spectacular. The best thing was that we managed to stay a night in a tiny, tiny village straddling the divide. What a cool sunrise that was, especially with EVERYONE in the village looking at us. We went to a town called Zacatecas, which once produced half of the worlds silver and then to the fantastic city of Guanajuato. There are thousands of cobbled, tiny alleyways, tunnels, cathedrals, churches, museum sand plazas, you could walk around here for days and always get lost.

We then set off for the Caribbean coast going on the most dangerous road of the whole trip. James was run off the road by cars six times in ONE DAY; I hid in his rucksack for that part of the trip. We were stuck in the mountains late in the day and having nowhere to stay, we pulled up to a little house in the middle of nowhere and managed to get invited to stay the night and have dinner. It was really cool to sit there with a real rural Mexican family and share their meal. We were treated like royalty, which was a bit embarrassing, but a wonderful experience!

At the end of 2003 the total miles ridden in 6 months and 4 days, has been 8,647 (that is 13,800km). We are now out of the desert and into the jungle. It is hot and damp but I am sure we will be all right. We are now going to Belize to see really unspoilt jungle and reefs. No doubt there will be more adventures on the way.

Until next time, Adios Amigos

Tolly and James