Day 4

I have one word for the day: HILLS! and lots of them! It was actually a long day of hills. We summited two mountains (one was 240m and the other 411m.... but the 240m summit was HARD. it was steep, a lot of uphills with a few downhill/flats. It was MUCH harder than the 240 suggests).
When we woke up and started packing up our gear I went over to talk to the road crew guy holding the stop/go sign to ask about the weather for the day and the roads ahead. He said if it rains it will rain a bit and it won't last long, but it's probably not going to rain at all (there were slight sun showers that lasted like a few minutes and were comparable to the cool zone at wonderland). But regarding the hills, he said there are two really bad ones: Kennedy hill (the hill in front of us that we stopped in front of), and hydro hill. He said once we got to the two lane highway we're in the clear (have a few ups and downs, but the worst of the hills are over until Port Alberny). He was really nice and said that if we hit the road before 8am we could have the whole lane on the other side of the pylons, but after 8am the road crew would be there working on the roads. Unfortunately we left after 8am but they still let us use most of the area on the other side of the pylons so we didn't have to deal with local traffic! Much safer!!! It was a hard hill for sure, but nothing compared to Hydro hill (when I asked the road crew guy how I would know when we reached Hydro hill he just said "oh, you'll know" and we did!). When I started swerving I decided to walk. It was too narrow (one lane), had no shoulder, was INCREDIBLY windy and steep, and had a lot of logging trucks driving past. I just didn't feel like it was safe to bike up and swerve into traffic. Michael, being Michael, cycled it. He has a lower gear set than me so kicks my ass on the uphill. I still beat him at the downhill. ...Unfortunately the uphill is more important, especially when we start tackling the Rockies...
One of the biggest highlights for the day would be the bear sightings! We saw two bears! The first was pointed out to us by a guy driving in the opposite direction. He stopped to tell us to stop and take a look. That bear was on the other side of the road. The second bear was on the same side of the road as us, down a gully. It was really cool to see! The bears were happy out just grazing and both left after realizing they were being watched.
Another thing to note is the amazing weather! So far, three days of great weather! Not too shabby!! (esp since BC is known to have a lot of rain!).
I also want to say thank you to all the drivers who gave us a lot of room on the road! We really appreciate it! (and most ppl did give us our space!!! so thank you bc!!). And no thank yous to those who didn't. Like if there is an empty lane beside you, there's no need to ride close to us, or speed right beside us! We get it, you're faster. Good for you, your motor is faster than our thighs. You win! Now give us our space so we don't get hit!
After summitting the 240m mountain (killer mountain I should say), it was a decent ride into Port Alberni. There was one are where Michael and I both walked up a hill because it was too dangerous to cycle it (it wasn't ridiculously high, but there was NO shoulder, a lot of traffic, and a lot of potholes. the likelihood of falling or veering into traffic was too high). But other than that it was a decent ride into Port Alberni. Leaving Port Alberni was a different story. There was a 10km uphill out of the city (or town?). It was long and difficult climb! It just seemed to last forever! But finally, we summitted it and started looking for a place to
camp out! We found a provincial park on the map and headed for that (MacMillan park) only to find out that there is no camping at MacMillan. Instead we decided to camp out at the side of the road. We pitched our tent behind a concrete barricade so we would be safe, and passed out (Michael was passed out the whole night, I woke up every so often as cars passed by and kept honking for whatever reason!). But our hard day is now over! Now onto Nanaimo tomorrow!