After I celebrated the completion of the PCT by going to a couple of backpacking trips to climb Mt. Langley in the Golden Trout Wilderness and visit Mt. Conness in Yosemite, I hitchhiked back to the San Francisco Bay Area to rest, eat and get ready for the bike trip. Beverly, Brian and Antonia, my friends in the Bay Area, hosted me for a few days. I was so grateful to have friends and places to stay and recover. Then I made it to Vancouver, Canada to begin my bicycle journey.

Originally, I was planning to start riding from Bellingham, WA, the closest US town from the northern terminus of the PCT where I can pick up my bicycle since the US-Canadian border was closed to PCT hikers since the 2020 COVID outbreak. During my PCT journey, the Canadian border opened for the PCT hikers to exit through Canada and I was able to finish the northbound PCT journey at Manning Park, BC. So I changed my plan to begin my bike journey from Canada instead.

I was excited to start from Vancouver because I thought I might be able to visit and reconnect with Naoko, my high school best friend and an avid mountain bike rider, and meet her wife Julie for the first time. The last time I saw Naoko was over a decade ago. When I saw her and met her wife, it was like the time has not passed that much although many events happened in our lives – a sign of a life-long friendship. Their basement was like a bike shop with a full of tools. They kindly offered their knowledge and support to fix some issues of my brand-new bike and set me up for the successful starting of my cycling journey. How incredible!

Since it was my first time visiting Vancouver, they showed me around the city – from giving me a tour of my ride out of Vancouver and treating me at a famous fish & chips restaurant at Horseshoe Bay to visiting Squamish, a well-known climbing area, and walking along the Squamish River to witness spawning of salmon. It was a beautiful sunny day in Vancouver and people were outside enjoying the fall. I was blessed with an amazing hospitality and comfort in the arms of my good old friend and her wife.

So here I am, content and well-prepared, looking forward to the 1,900-mile journey south on my bicycle. Here I go again!