Stories from the road

Rogers Pass And The Thunderstorm

If you can, play R.E.M Everybody hurts whilst reading this story!

Taking shelter in a tunnel that cut through the mountain side, looking out down into the vast valley that would eventually engulf us. We were so high we were literally in the clouds… The thunderstorm was waiting! After one deep breath, I pushed down onto my pedal and began cycling.

Before I knew it I was flying down the windy road from the Rogers pass summit, 1330metres above sea level at an elbow jarring, teeth chattering, fork bending speed, the muscles in my hands and forearms burning from gripping onto the brakes as hard as possible to desperately slow down as the visibility turned from bad to almost non existent. Fork lighting cracked and boomed through the valley illuminating the vast alpine forests and roaring rivers for split seconds at a time, rain continued to pour onto me soaking me through all the waterproof layers to the skin.

Then it happened…over the overwhelming noise of the storm, a song started to play through my headphones. Everybody hurts by R.E.M. Everything slowed down… I closed my eyes briefly, and smiled…I could feel the cold water running down my face, pounding down onto my back, making me feel heavier and heavier, I could feel every imperfection in the road, jolting through my body. I could smell and taste the moisture in the air. All thoughts and emotions just washed away... it was perfect!

The Grizzly

Staring down at the road, day dreaming I was completely unaware that my brother was yelling at the top of his voice for me to stop. So, I continued to pedal. A moment later in the corner of my eye, he pulled up beside me out of breath and still shouting, over the noise of the wind and logging trucks I could just about make out “STOP”! He explained that a construction worker in a truck had stopped and warned him that there was a bear in the road up ahead!

Edging around the corner, gripping tightly onto our bear spray, we slowly started to move forward. The road appeared empty; it had obviously not stopped long enough for us to catch a glimpse. With a long pause and a deep sigh of relief we began to slowly pick up the pace again and cycle on.

A few minutes later, something caught my eye at the side of the road. A giant back of thick dark brown fur a few metres ahead of me… my eyes widened and my heart jolted and missed a beat, I slammed on the breaks and screeched and skidded to a stop. Everything went into slow motion as adrenaline started pumping around my body. The bear now looking at me rose up on his hind legs. I arched my neck upward for a split second and found myself looking straight into its eyes. My first reaction was to turn around to warn my brother who was close behind, but he had already seen and was not going to slow down. Without any respect for the high way code, I gritted my teeth and pushed down on the pedal as hard as possible, swerving into the middle of the road narrowly missing the oncoming truck and eventually found my brother and myself in the opposite hard shoulder pedalling until our lungs and legs were burning, then pedalling some more. We eventually stopped to look back. The bear still visible a few hundred metres away was still watching us, completely motionless. Our first close encounter with a grizzly, but not the last! 

This is the bear spray I had on me at all times in a holster attached to my belt. Fortunately I never had to use it, but it felt a lot safer with it than without it! In an real bear attack, you would spray the bear directly in the face, resulting in extreme burning and irritation of the eyes, nose and mouth that could last up to two hours, Just make sure your not downwind!

The Day We Met Jinder

How’s your ankle doin this mornin?! Yelled the motel owner in a strong American accent. Startled and half asleep I tried to string a sentence together, before I got a chance to answer she was already shouting down the phone to another guest staying in the motel from the reception phone. In the corner of my eye, I could see a very smiley Indian lady staring at my swollen ankle. She stood up grabbed my hand and before I knew it I was on my way out of the motel office on the way to her room as she muttered in broken English, “come, come, I help you, I have medicine”!

Five minutes later, Jonathan was on his way to the motel office wondering what was taking so long, when he walked past a window and had to do a double take. There I was, slouched in a chair with my foot on a bed, now being massaged by Jinder, high dose pain killers in one hand, traditional Indian tea in the other, with a confused but very grateful look on my face. Jonathan pushed the door open slightly and stepped into the room “Tom, I leave you for five minutes and you…” Jonathan paused and scratched his head.

After introducing Jonathan to Jinder and her very pretty daughter Adriana, still slouched in my chair in a daze from the pain killers and extremely relaxing massage for my ankle, I gathered up enough energy to speak. “Jinder, how did you know how to massage my ankle”? Always smiling, she simply looked up, shrugged and said, “God”. Completely intrigued and utterly confused by Jinder, more questions followed…Adriana told us that her mum had written fifteen books on enlightenment, and that she only sleeps up to a few hours a night, she meditates for rest of the night. The more questions that were answered, the more questions I had! I had truly never met anyone that appeared to be so full love before.

Later, our family away from home explained they were taking a charted sea plane the following day to Ketchikan, a small town on a remote island further into Alaska. With a wide grin Jinder said “You come with us”…speechless Jonathan and I both looked at each other in disbelief... “Ok” we replied.

So before we knew it, Jonathan and I along with our dismantled bikes were on our way through the misty Fjords of the remote Alaskan islands on a privately charted sea plan headed towards Ketchikan (the Salmon Capital of the world, apparently). All thanks to the couple we had met only the day before! 

But, before this…

“Where you stay tonight”? Asked Jinder. I had a feeling I knew were this conversation was going, “um, not really sure. Think we may just camp”. Jinder turned to her daughter and smiled, “no, no you stay here tonight, we pay”!

Under the Cover of darkness Jonathan tip toed out of Jinder’s room where we had been spoilt all day, into the motel office to pay for the room as he felt it was rude to accept that Jinder not only invited us onto their plane but would pay for our second night stay. This, turned out to be fatal!

           

“WHY you pay for the room”?! Scowled an unhappy Jinder. “We can’t have you paying for our” before Jonathan could finish, “No, you’re a bad boy. Look at your brother, He is clever, you are Naive”. Not fully understanding what Jinder had just said, but agreeing all the same, I began to nod. Then something that I never thought would happen, happened! Jinder pulled out a one hundred dollar note from her purse. My eyes started to widen as she presented it to my brother. “You take this” she said calmly. “What?! Jinder the room was only sixty-five dollars”?! “I know” she replied with a grin “but this is your punishment”!

Jonathan's Punishment

MORE STORIES FROM THE ROAD VERY SOON!