Day 15 to 16
Cochrane to Drumheller
Distance: 176 km
Temp: Mild

Tough ride from Cochrane, not only because of the distance, but the scenery oddly enough was mentally draining.

Although we are in the foothills and prairies, the land is still rolling and somewhat hilly; starting first thing in the morning.
Again, my legs heavily objected to the expectation of work so early on in the morning.
This time they took on the persona of two old Jewish ladies kvetching, moaning and crying about having to work so hard under such poor conditions.
I had to agree with them.
But there were no negotiations as it was a long riding day, and one cannot enter into any negotiations with the work force, otherwise you’re setting yourself up for further trouble.

Although the landscape is repetitive is repetitive it still offers beauty; the vibrant yellow fields of the canola right beside the green wheat or barley fields is quite startling.
It was sad to see the ghostly shadows of the Rockies slowly receding into the background as we pushed further into the flatlands; we’re sorry to see them go, as the setting and landscape is almost dreamlike with the snow-capped mountains and mouthwash bluey rivers and lakes that kept us company for much of the ride.

To keep us company on today’s ride were thousands of white little butterflies that flitted about us as we rode.
Some met tragic ends in our spokes and under our wheels unfortunately.
The landscape got flatter as we pressed further east; it looks like whoever created this land (insert Deity here) shook out a massive blanket and laid it down to rest, gradually pulling it tighter at the ends (although sometimes not tight enough, as the first 40 km were definitely rolling as we were bobbing up and down for quite a while.)

Lewis and I found ourselves feeling a little agitated by the endless sameness of the scenery, and got a into a tiff over something silly; Lewis took off in a huff and at first I was slightly alarmed as he had the map, but realized he wasn’t going anywhere as I could see him vigorously peddling for miles.
There is a joke about living on the prairies that involved a man watching his wife/dog disappear for days on end-I could relate.
I later did the same thing.
The emotional disturbance was a good distraction; we should try it again later when found in the same situation.

The other aggravation was that we had a head wind for much of the ride; there are a few things that matter most to cyclists, obviously the weather, and in particular, head winds (and where we can find a good coffee shop is also paramount.)
Due to our sensitive relationship to the weather, we heavily rely on Environment Canada, however, why we still invest so much of ourselves in them is a mystery to me; I think that EC must be running a racket of sort, where they’re purporting to advise on weather, but are really selling illicit drugs or something of the sort.
I mean what are the choices with the wind direction; we’re supposed to be getting prevailing winds from west to east (so far east is winning) so really it’s a 1 out of 2 chance of getting it right, and a 1 out of 3 chance for rain, clouds, or sunshine in the summer, and snow, or no snow in the winter, I mean really-how hard can it be?
They’d probably have better results if they flipped coins for the wind direction as I far as I can tell.
Lewis felt badly as he had read the weather report and gleefully passed on to the group the report that we were to have tail winds.

Sadly, on this ride two years ago with the TDC a cyclist was killed traveling from Cochran to Drumheller, so the organizers had us travel on another road, but some of the group decided to take a short cut and ride that road anyhow.
We took the new route and hit a couple of kilometer detour on really rough roads; our skinny tires don’t do well on gravel, so we had to take it very slowly over that stretch.

Eventually we hit Red Deer Valley which had us on a pretty fantastic descent into the valley, where I hit my magic 65 km/hour; I think I could have gone faster but the roads were pretty bad and I had to be careful about where I directed my wheels.
As soon as we hit the bottom of the valley, we were in the ‘badlands’ as we were met with these very strange-looking coulies, or coolees, which are little hills that have visible striations of the earth’s rock and sediment layers created over time; apparently this is/was the hotbed of dinosaur excavations.
After being under the open skies for the majority of the day I felt a bit cagey being surrounded by these hills all of a sudden-it was a complete change of scenery within a matter of minutes.
Eventually we came to our destination town, Drumheller-a tiny wind-swept desert-like town, which has replicas of dinosaurs at every corner, giving the place a surreal slightly sinister feel (like the anti-Disney-land, as the place is pretty deserted.)

Unfortunately for us, our organizers had us staying about 10 km out of town, which made the group pretty grumbly to be so far out on our upcoming rest day, as it meant either riding into town (which is to be avoided at all costs on a rest day) or taking a cab.

Lewis and I were lucky to get a ride to see the Hoo Doos (for real) which are mushroom type things that are coulies that have been eroded away by wind over time.
We also stopped in at the Dinosaur Museum, but I didn’t stay long as it was crowded with too many energetic screaming children.

Our camp site is a sociological experiment unto itself; camping is not what I remember as a kid, and the camping ‘technology’ is amazing.
People have tents that are larger, and have more room that our condo, replete with eating areas that keep the inhabitants safe from all manner of elements, most importantly the bugs which were horrendous.
Some of the RV’s are absolutely massive, and include the kitchen sink, and of course the dog.
Interesting to note that the people are pretty homogenous, as I didn’t see anyone with an ‘off white’ skin tone-is it the activity or just the area that we’re in?