Chilliwack'ed Ep. 4

Ep. 4: Abbotsford, the humchback of the Fraser Valley

Still dehydrated, my more sensible side decided it best to stop after getting off the bridge to refuel with some Gatorade. It's quite amazing how long that toothpaste sucks the moisture from your mouth... It had a discernible effect even 2+ hours into my ride.
As I continued along the "highway" I soon (though it seemed like a long way due to the absence of landmarks, unless you include blades of grass as landmarks which to my perception seem rather similar) made it to Sumas Road. This turned out to be Sumas hill. Crossing a few lanes of traffic, a swift left turn got me to the middle of the road, wide enough but daunting to a small vehicle such as myself when large multi-ton machines of death are careening in both directions around me. Mercifully I found a break so I could narrow my chances of being smashed down to those motorized vehicles coming from behind me. And then I climbed. I climbed methodically, slowly.
It's an interesting situation when you can't see the end of a hill, or even where it might crest to a decreased incline. My body has learned to conserve energy while going up these mysterious mountains, but again the doubt is not far away. Where there is doubt, energy decreases proportionately, and while I knew that there had to be a top to this geographical monstrosity there wasn't a perceptible reason why I should think that way. Being that I could not turn back, I took this opportunity to reflect upon yet another of God's lessons for me: the end is often not in sight. In fact, the largest hills I've gone up are those which I had to wait the longest to see the top; so it is also with life, I find... The most long-term, worthwhile goals are the ones which you can't see the end. Of course, with biking up a mountain, you have to ask yourself "what's the point?" and, consequently, "isn't there a way around this thing which might be... flatter?".
For this excursion, I answered these questions as follows: "I do not know nor care" and "yes, but that would be longer and no where near as grueling", respectively.
Finding the downhill right after I passed under an overpass (to be mentioned later), I pushed as hard as I could so as to make up for any lost time from the careful pushing up Sumas Road... Soon connecting to South Parallel Road, which was an experience all on its own.