Day 12 Golden to Field, BC Distance 89 km Temperature: hot Day 13 Field to Banff, Alberta Distance: 82 km Temperature-cooling down Day 14 Banff to Cochrane, Alberta Distance: 105 km Temp: cold this morning, hot later on Tough couple of days, hence the lack of blogging-lots of climbing over the past week, as we’ve been in the Rockies. Day 12 started with a tough 18 km climb, followed by a couple of descents, and then a continued climb up through Kicking Horse Pass. I love the names of some of these places-I can’t remember them now, but all conjure up images of violence, and animals (Kicking Horse Pass is named so because the first person (European) explorer was a doctor who discovered the area, but was kicked in the head by his horse, and went unconscious.) I guess he recovered, and hence the name. I thought maybe it was named so because climbing the pass made it feel like I’d been kicked in legs by a horse! We stopped along the way at Emerald Lake, and ‘Natural Bridge’ both amazing sit...
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Day 10 Canyon Creek to Golden Monday July 3, 2006 Distance 116 km Temperature 36 degrees Today was another tough one; I thought I could be limited to only one psychological toughie per week, but says who? When we started the ride climbing this morning, I knew I was in for a killer ride, since my legs felt like two cement blocks attached to my body and did not want to cooperate with the day’s planned activities, which included a lot of climbing since we’re now in the mountains around Roger’s Pass. Try as I might, I could not get them to go; my energy was just not there, as my leg engines lay dormant-the past few days have included a lot of climbing (measured on someone’s altimeter between 900 and 1350 meters per day,) and my poor little legs haven’t had time to recover, so are quite sore. So when we set out this morning, they said, “You’ve got to be kidding me, we ‘aint doing this again, no way-leave us alone.” What to do when you’re setting out for a 115 km ride, mostly uphill into the...
Day 9 Pritchard to Canyon Creek Sunday July 2, 2006 Distance 128km Temperature 36 degrees “Mercury is in retrograde,” said my fellow TDC cyclist, looking at me expectedly, waiting for me to respond appropriately. I returned her gaze with a blank one, “What?” She said it again, perhaps thinking by repeating it I would understand the second time around, “Mercury is in retrograde,” she stated again. My brain furiously processed this bit of information, clicking through its memory bank trying to locate any semblance of understanding, much like Windows performs a search, with the little magnifying glass moving in circles, and then, “search results: search is complete, there are no matches for this criteria.” She may as well have said something like, “Uncle Jellyfish is a spoon-master.” “I have no idea what that means,” I said to her, not sure if I should feel foolish for not knowing what it meant when it was said in the same one would ask someone to pass the salt. “Oh, it means that on Tues...
Friday June 30, 2006 Day 7-Merritt to Pritchard Temperature: 34 degrees and 50 degrees measured en route Distance: 144 km Another hot one today, with a ride that included the dreaded and much talked-about within the group- 4km climb. There are two groups doing the Tour Du Canada this summer, and we’re traveling a day apart from each other, ours being the second group. Yesterday was a rest day, where the groups overlapped at the camp site in Merritt; the other group was talking about taking a short cut to Pritchard today that would essentially eliminate the 4 km climb, plus take 10km off the route, and remove going to Kamloops. Of course once our group caught wind of this conversation, people immediately jumped at the chance to skip the hill, as hills have taken on the persona of the bogey-man for many people (I’ll admit, myself included.) We have been regaled with stories of legendary hill climbs that we will come across during our trans-Canada ride; one woman from Newfoundland was so ...
Day 4-Merritt Wednesday June 29, 2006 Distance: 66km Temperature-high 30’s Wild-West, Merritt, BC Seriously, we’re in the Wild West here, in this two-bit town of Merritt where their claim to fame is the largest country and western music festival in western Canada, Canada, North America, the World? I am not sure, but apparently it’s pretty big, with lots of unknown names-to-me- but big names to those in the know. The town is set up like a country western town, replete with the western-style shop fronts, and men in cowboy hats. Is this a joke? Do places like this really exist? I keep wanting to ask people if this is for real, or is a movie set? Anyhow, we’re staying in a campsite, situated beside a 24 hour logging processing plant where I can hear the constant bang and clang of these Banging Clanging Machines. On the ride so far we have seen truck load after truck load of lumber-I can’t identify the different type of trees, but have notices the different smells as they clamber past us on...
Tuesday June 27, 2006 Spencer Bridge Distance: 144km Temperature 46 degrees Very tired this evening-had a hell of a ride in oppressive 46 degree heat (measured on route by one of the Ozzi’s bike mounted thermometer. We knew it was going to be a scorcher when we left at 7:30 this morning with warm air already swirling around our legs as we set off. We’re very slow to get going in the morning, as we were the last to leave, before the galley crew who has to clean everything up before heading out. Again, we rode beside and towards mountains that were cloaked in an early morning blue mist which seemed to evaporate near mid-morning. The geography of the ride was noticeably different, as although it started off lush and green, the landscape gradually changed to a dryer, craggy-rock. Our ride started off with a glorious descent, that had us wind through various canyons. To get through the mountains, they have blasted through the rock, resulting in numerous, nerve wracking tunnels-seven of whic...
Monday June 26, 2006 Day 2: Hope Distance: 88 km Max speed: 75.2 km/hour Temperature 38 degrees We got up this morning really early (or really early for me) at 6:00am. Turns out we are both slow (I will share some blame with Lewis) in getting ready, as we were one of the last groups to leave camp this morning. As punishment for my slovenliness, I missed out on the hot oatmeal and was forced to eat cold slop (not really, but I wanted oatmeal.) Off we went at about 7:30-ish, riding into a cool morning. The route took us along country roads, and then onto what turned out to be more of a highway for a while, with monster trucks zooming by us-sucking us along in their wake for a couple of glorious seconds. Since we knew the temperature was going to hit 38, we pushed the pace, and soon passed most of our group. This is not, I am sure, what Dale Carnegie would suggest in his classic book, ‘how to win friends and influence people’, but we didn’t want to dawdle and get caught in the upcoming in...
Sunday June 25, 2006 Our first official ride of the Tour! Our route took us from UBC to Spanish Banks where we had a group photo taken, and then did the ceremonial dipping of the tires in the Pacific Ocean-I thought that I wouldn’t care for this ceremony, but after thinking that we’d be ending our ride on the opposite side of the country on the Atlantic side, I couldn’t help myself from shoving my tire firmly into the ocean. We then took a route that lead us through Burnaby, Port Moody, Port Coquitlam, and then I am not sure after that. It’s nice to meet the places that I have heard about on the news for various reasons or another. I’m running out of adjectives to describe the magnificent scenery; it really is breathtaking countryside, with the view of snow-capped mountains in the background. It’s quite ironic riding in intense heat, with the snow within sight; I kept thinking that at any minute we’d enjoy a soothing, cool current of chilling mountain air that happened to cascade from ...
Tomorrow the ride officially starts! Our first day is pretty easy-about 84 km heading east out of Vancouver and heading towards Mission, BC. They’re starting us out ‘easy’ the first few days, to get us warmed up into the riding, and to ease going through the Rockies, and then will do 124 km on the third riding day. Apparently this is a tough day as it’s hilly and a bit dodgy on some of the roads. After that it looks like most of the days are around 124 to 172km, which is pretty manageable, considering we have the day to do it. So far as training distances back to back, we did the Rideau Lakes ride from Ottawa to Kingston (180km) and then back the next day, a few weekends back. This year’s ride was a lot easier than last year, due to last year’s intense 42 degree heat on the roads (although this year was freezing cold, again, good training for the crazy weather patterns we may be about to encounter.) The ride back to Vancouver from Victoria was very pretty, the cycling route taking us o...
Victoria-BC After assembling our bikes and packing a week's worth of stuff into our day-backpacks we rode to catch the ferry to Victoria. The ride wasn't very long, and quite scenic and pretty. I took me some time to get used to riding with a saddle/trunk thingamaboobie, as I am not used to riding with anything on my bike, plus the massive backpack for our few days stay in Victoria. We got going quite late from Vancouver; Lewis is very slow and methodical in his preparations; he takes about the same time to get ready as an entire class of teenaged girls getting ready for the prom. I pack and prepare more along the lines of a drug dealer moving across a Singaporian border-just get it done as quickly as possible. So we're both up against each other's paces; Lewis was keenly excited to learn from my dad in the car ride to the airport that my mother is very impatient. He jumped at the chance to blame it on genetics, as he made the quick connection between my impatience and ...
Well here we sit at Terminal One Toronto; our adventure almost tangible-the flavor of our trip teasingly waved under our noses and then snatched away, ‘no trip for you’, said Air Canada, or at least not yet. We left this morning in a rush- (as always,) my dad came down early to pick us up and ended up waiting for us to drag our 101 bags, bits and pieces, and bikes downstairs, onto to a rush to sit in traffic, crawling along the Gardiner Expressway. I won’t miss that commute in the morning, with people and their barely concealed rage. The check in process went well enough; our hockey bags each weighed 60 lbs, plus our bikes, and other bags-the nice Air Canada lady let us through without having to pay extra. For the 18th time I forgot to check my Swiss army knife before flying; it’s become somewhat of a traveling ritual for me; if I don’t have to defend myself as an innocent, and not someone who has terroristic tendencies, I feel like my travel experience is incomplete. My girly private ...
Tuesday May 23, 2006
A while ago, my husband Lewis started making some noises about wanting to ride across Canada. I laughed at his idea, and thought it to be silly, irrational, childish even. "Ride across Canada," said I, with a surly smirk- "don't be daft." And, so it's now a few months later, and we are both signed up for this alleged adventure. I think perhaps I was drugged or hypnotized, as why else would anyone sign up for such a thing? (I am asked repeatedly.) I really don't know the answer, but suspect I am soon to find out. Honestly, the riding doesn't so much scare me as much as the camping does. I like camping, but like annoying people, can take it in small doses. 10 weeks of having to set up and tear down a tent is daunting. Riding 7,550 km over 10 weeks somehow doesn't scare me as much as the camping. Am I delusional, or is my brain trying to keep me occupied and have me avoid looking at a grizzly, gory multiple car pile-up? Anyhow, despite myself I am ...