Seeing every corner of the country, one thing stands out consistently.
Property is more important than people.
In Canada’s list of what our values are, property isn’t one of them. Still, it’s hard not to recognize. It makes sense– some 67 per cent of Canadians own a house.
After 100km in 31 degrees, Jay and I were cooked. We didn’t expect to do this many hills in this level of heat. We had assumed that while in BC, we wouldn’t have summer weather. So far, we've been correct. It had, until now, mostly been cold and windy.
Not today. And not after today either (in the Rockies it started hailing on us in -5 weather).
On one several kilometer long stretch, the road was a thick, black tar that had been paved the day before. We biked up a 10 per cent grade for nearly a kilometer of elevation. The traffic was controlled, and the single open lane went back and forth from one end to the other. Jay manically threw orange cones to make jokes for Instagram, and I slowly worked my way behind him. Jay was fast. I was slow. We’d meet at the top.
After laughing and catching our breath, we moved on. We were both suffering from heat stroke at this point. The small shade provided by the sign refreshed our souls, and we were running out of water, despite having nearly four litres each at the beginning of the day.
After kicking off, and rocketing down the other side of the hill, we finally made it to our destination.
Lytton came over the horizon. It burned down in 2021, the first of several places to get burned to the ground in the constant wildfires that have been ravaging our country for the past decade. Kamloops and Jasper followed suit. We might see it again soon. I had told Jay it was important to me to tell the story of this town.
We parked our sweaty, disgusting selves at the gazebo in the centre of town.
