Underbiking Overload; Hope
Hearstrings tugged, surrounded by a beautiful ride
Today was a very emotionally hard - but beautiful - day, with great riding.
As I rode out, two things were heavy on my heart: a very strong and healthy seeming friend had gotten very bad health news, and Netlify had layoffs yesterday and almost everyone who works at Netlify is someone I am friendly with or consider a friend. So I saw a lot online chatter from good folks who had been let go through no fault of their own. I may need to stop the alumni chat group from showing up on my bike computer, although I was glad to be aware enough to pass out some hugs.
With that as a backdrop, the ride through Chilliwack was great, and the rest of the day was way better than it would have been had I followed my initial plan to take Highway 1 to Hope; my warmshowers host convinced me to take Highway 7 instead. He gave me a great, direct route out of town that was perfect and warned me about the 1.2 mile bridge that would be stressful (I had to block the highway-speed traffic while I hustled over it; they were patient and let me get across and back onto the otherwise-continuous-all-day shoulder of the road before passing me. After that, it was 25 miles of pleasant river valley with minimal traffic, and one well-placed gas station that fed me lunch in the shade.
That highway was quiet, scenic, and low-traffic. It also featured the third emotionally hard (but very beautiful) thing that I stumbled onto unawares: the amazing and heart-wrenching sacred parkland created by a nearly vanished First Nations tribe. The park was gorgeous, had great art and some of the best groomed (green-level) mountain bike paths I've ever ridden - perfect gravel through the trees with mossy shoulders and river views. But, there was signage describing the small remaining population of their tribe due to, effectively, colonization and cultural genocide. This land is their very small remaining tribal land and they have created a wonderful space to share and teach about their culture and history. At first I was giggling because there was much ado about Sasquatch, but as I traveled through the space and read the signs, I learned that they have had experiences with the Sasquatch and consider it a protector, though their tribe was almost wiped out by smallpox and Canada's forced boarding schools for Native children attempted to "train" kids for over a centure to be more Western and forget their heritage. Yet the tribe has persisted and put together a great and informative display that was realistic about the past but hopeful for the future. The best line on the signage I saw was: