After more than 3 weeks of hardly any cycling, being back on the bikes took a little getting used to again. The first day was a hard one; 160 kms (100 miles) from Prince Rupert to Terrace.

But fortunately most of it was flat. We followed a river through (sort of) a fjord and we had great views of the surrounding mountains. We could stay with people in Terrace again and the day ended with a barbeque. The next 2 days the scenery stayed beautiful and kept changing.

The town of Smithers lies in a valley, surrounded by mountains, with (dairy) farming. And it’s a town with a lot of Dutch heritage. Many Dutch people immigrated there and we saw many Dutch names around us. The bakery was opened by a guy named Sikkes (from a town not far from where we live), a real estate agent is called Lubbers and there were many more Dutch names. There also is a store where they sell Dutch foods and ingredients for Dutch meals. We went in and had a look, expecting to see a few Dutch products like cookies (stroopwafels) and drop (liquorice). And those things were there indeed, but so much more! It was like being in a (small) store at home! They had almost everything! It was great and a bit weird to. We were told that many descendants of Dutch immigrants still buy all that food/ those ingredients because their parents used them and they like their food the way their parents cooked it. All of it is being imported by somebody in Vancouver and then distributed over the country. We bought drop (liquorice), spices for fried rice and sugarbread and that night we cooked rice like we cook it at home.

After 2 days of rest in Smithers, we continued to Prince George. That took 4 days of cycling and it got very hot. Here, also, the scenery changed a lot. We passed rivers and lakes and crossed hills and valleys. A very nice route. In the town of Vanderhoof, we could stay with people again. These people, Jolinka and John Alderliesten, are also descendants of Dutch immigrants and they still speak the language very well. Jolinka made us great nasi (fried rice), just like at home.

The last stretch to Prince George was very busy with logging trucks and trucks with pulp for the papermill. A lot of noise around us. We were happy to be in Prince George and surprised to see that there was a pool on the campground. And the water really cooled us down…

Fortunately, the trucks were gone after Prince George so the road became pretty quiet again and we could enjoy the scenery again. Again, many rivers, lakes, mountains and hills to climb and descent.

The last part, we really felt we were in the mountains. We passed Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies. We couldn’t see it at first, because of the rain, but the next day it peaked through the clouds.

At Mt. Robson, we reached the 25.000 kms/ 15.000 miles!

After another 4 days we arrived in Jasper, a very touristy ski town in the mountains.

In Jasper started the Icefields Parkway for us, a famous road through the mountains and passing the large icefield ‘Colombia Icefield’ and 100 glaciers which ends in Lake Louise, another famous ski town. From there you can continue to yet another ski town; Banff.