This article is based on a real conversation between Gideon Schuetze and Bert Groenenberg.
“Hey, Bert do I have a bicycle story for you,” Gideon Schuetze told me a few weeks ago.
“To take Grade 13 in B.C., I moved to Vancouver from Bella Coola. At the end of the school year in June, I was expected to take the boat home along the coast. But I didn’t want to get sea sick so I decided to bike instead.”
I love hearing stories from earlier times; Gideon Schuetze is in his 90s.
“Of the $35 I had, I bought a used one-speed bicycle in Vancouver for $15. To carry my stuff, I found a baby carriage to tow behind the bicycle,” Schuetze said. “But the buggy fell apart going over the metal grill on the Patullo Bridge” he says shaking his hand up and down. “So, I tied what I could onto my bike and got as far as Langley. That is where my axle broke. I got it fixed the next day and kept going,” he told me.
Having flown small planes for many years, Gideon is hard of hearing and does not speak loudly. So, I sat right next to him in the busy room and kept nodding.
“There was a lot of construction on the road coming up the canyon. Even though it was June, it was so cold near Lac La Hache, I knocked on someone’s door asking if I could warm up there. The lady let me in to warm up and gave me two cookies,” Gideon told me with a smile.
“By the time I got to Williams Lake, I had no money left. So, I got a job at the Lignum mill. They even fronted me $5 so I could eat before starting work the next day.”
After earning enough to travel on, he headed west. I asked, “Gideon, there was no road between Anahim Lake and Bella Coola then, how did you get there?”
“Well,” Gideon said, “There was a trail the army had used to come into the Chilcotin long before.”
"Was it through Precipice Valley?” I asked.
He nodded.
Gideon continued: “I got as far as Stuie and called my Dad to let him know where I was. He came and picked me up right away.”
Bert Groenenberg has cycled for over 60 years.
