SR9

Yesterday's ride was longer than anticipated and had its share of ups and downs.

Among the best: State Route 9 all the way the Acme and Nooksack and Sumas. A beautiful ribbon of highway with moderate traffic, a comfortably wide (and clean) shoulder berm and some sweeping vistas of the mountains to the east. (The picture if from the web and looks like it was taken in the winter.)

Odd: Sikh raspberry farmers all over southern BC with huge houses (some looked like compounds) working diligently on their crops in the full beards and turbans. Raspberries are in season right now and the time to harvest is quite limited.

Acre after acre, farm after farm of raspberries with a few blueberries interspersed. And the loud recorded cries of birds booming from loud speakers, in an effort to thwart the voracious starlings and blackbirds, was also quite uncanny. Ever farm seemed to have slightly different recordings blaring from their fields. And occasional shotgun blasts, or other forms of deterrents.

Having taken much longer time than I'd anticipated, I passed back through customs in Lynden, and fortunatley, like an oasis saw the Edaleen Dairy on the right hand side of the road. I stopped there for some much needed energy in the form of ice cream. Bonking in BC was a little frightening, especially ine I was quite lost and there were far fewer stores where I could buy some nourishment (actually there were none), as were the cramps which I never usually experience.

But altogether, it was probably 80 miles or so, excluding the morning and evening rides. Mapquest shows 49.01 to the Canada border. And this morning I am surprisingly not too sore, as the low clouds rolled in and the air turned chilly.