July 11, 2017, Day 51, Maniwaki to Alcove, Quebec, 95km

My good friend Becky Citra, her husband Larry and their lovely dog Penny   live on a beautiful piece of property east of 100 Mile House in BC. For over 30 years they have built their lives there, living in and working on their older home, knowing and participating in the community. For many years they had horses but no longer. Horses are a big responsibility and with their daughter grown and flown, they now have more freedom to travel or do as they wish. Becky’s twin sister, Janet and her husband own the adjoining property. Vancouverites, they are only there for part of each summer. Beck has texted me about the wildfires and how there is nothing between their home and the burning town of 100 Mile House but dense dry forest.  My heart aches with anxiety for my friends and for all the people and animals whose homes and very lives are threatened or have been lost.

Maniwaki to Alcove, Quebec was a challenge! Hills. There were so many hills. And twists and turns. Hills twisting up, hills twisting down. Four and a half minutes up, 36 seconds down, 6 minutes up, 42 seconds down, 5 3/4 minutes up, 38 seconds down…… On and on….. my heart wasn’t into it. I was tired.

The town of Low was an accomplishment for us! We had done 5000km!   We did it up in style, celebrating with a shared litre of chocolate milk! Then we got back on our bikes and did more hills.

Alcove, a tiny community on our way supposedly had a campground. We stopped at a garage where there were three men working there, all looking forward to 15 minutes from then when they could close up and go home.  (This garage is kinda famous. It has an original V8 sign from the 1930’s and these signs are very rare! They have been offered a lot for it but they have chosen not to sell it. While we were there, a guy on a motorcycle stopped by to photograph it).  We asked about the campground and all 3 looked at each other. They didn’t know a thing about it. Well, there was one, but it was up the hill about 10 miles away….. and oh, yeah, there’s that other one, but it’s about 30 more km east. Then, one guy, Phil,    said “Why camp at a camp ground when you can go around the corner to the river and camp there for free?” “There’s a raft there and a lot of the locals hang out there but they won’t be there tonight because it’s Tuesday. Come on, I’ll show you.” So, we jumped in his truck and drove down to take a look.    Well, given all the options, this was home for the night. We drove back to our bikes and asked if there was a store nearby.  No, but Phil said he was going to the store anyway and that he’d drive us. Excellent! We bought canned food and beer, he drove us back to our bikes and we headed to our campsite. We picked a spot near the water and prepared to setup and  Phil, who decided to hang out with us for a while said it was fine but that it was snake grass. “What does that mean?”, I asked. “Well, there are snakes that hang out around there”. “Ohhhh!. Nooo!!!”

This raft was a raft like none other! It had a 20′ foot table with benches, a sauna, a piano, a sectioned off area for little ones with an interlocking rubber floor mat, swings, a BBQ, a Quebec flag and an upper deck. I asked Phil if we might be able to put our tent up in the kids area and he said, “Why not!” So that’s what we did!    No snakes there! Phil and another local guy, Dave,     who happened by, visited with us for a couple of hours, telling us all kinds of stories about another guy, Dennis. Dennis is a Ryan, and it’s the Ryan family that owns this piece of property upon which we were about to set up camp. He sounds like quite the character! He often goes to the raft in the middle of the night and plays the piano. Another story is that he was in the psych ward of a nearby hospital. He broke out of it, went around to the entrance and told the staff there that he was there to see his brother, giving his own name, Dennis Ryan. Apparently he just sat there and waited as all hell broke out as they searched for “his brother”.

The tent fit perfectly in the kids section on the raft. It was far enough away that there were few biting insects. The night was cool and perfect for sleeping. I’m really hoping Dennis does not show up!