This orginal post was written at about 5am since I couldn't sleep. Having reread it now a few days later, I obviously wasn't quite awake either as the computer seems to have changed things around a bit....I've tried to fix it by remembering what I was thinking....
We're in New Brunswick. Woohoo. From Quebec City we continued along the north shore of the St. Lawrence crossing at Saint Simeon into Riviere du Loup. For the most part, I loved Quebec. It's quite scenic and the route we took toured us through many small, very old towns. I would like to say, however, that the hills are ridiculous. Apparently the idea of blasting for roads is beyond thought.
I know B.C. is a long time ago now, but really, the Rockies were often more doable than some of these steep climbs. The second day out of Quebec City we managed 71 km before I kicked the bucket. I was mentally and physically so drained from standing on the pedals to get up repeated 16-20% grade hills or on the flip side madly trying not to die coming down 10 and 11% grades that I finally couldn't manage to get up a hill. Yup, I went SPLAT.
According to Warren, I needed about 3 more pedal strokes (which translated into about 4 feet of road) to reach the turn where we could stop for a moment. I didn't quite make it, and when I realized I wasn't going to, I put my foot down. However, due to the steep grade and my road shoes having less than any traction at all...down I went and slid slightly backwards, ending under the guardrail. (Still off the road and a bit away from the drop-off, no worries). I know all this sounds fairly dramatic, but given the slow speed at which I was going...it was all pretty minor. A really sweet couple in a car behind us saw me go down and stopped to make sure I was ok. Which I totally was, aside from a slightly scraped elbow and a blow to the pride.
Anyways, so from there all we could see was up. I decided to walk. Warren gallantly walked with me. Up, up, around the corner and up. Around another corner and up...you get the point. When we realized we were still about 20 km from where Truck was parked with obviously more ridiculous-ness therebetween, we ended the day by calling Randy on the cell phone with a "please come get us -- we're done."
We continued along the north shore to Saint Simeon where the real fun began. We'd been having electrical problems with Truck since around Quebec City and despite many efforts of many mechanics, the problem wasn't solved, and was only getting worse. While waiting for the ferry, the batteries died. Completely. Two people tried to start us with portable chargers, but no go. A call to CAA and a big diesel truck later, and we were started. We drove up the hill to a garage and spent the next few hours there garage while they looked at it. Unfortunately, they couldn't fix it and charged the battery enough to get us across the ferry where we might find help in a bigger center. The problem was, the charge didn't hold on the 65 min crossing.
That's right. There we are sitting at the ferry docks, on the ferry, in Riviere du Loup, with a full ferry, and we can't start. Oh and none of us can speak or understand the French language (this has been the bane of our existence since Truck began having problems). So, after what must have been the whole ferry crew coming by to see what they could do, we ended up getting pushed off the ferry. That's right folks. Pushed. About 10 men PUSHED all 11741 lbs of Truck, plus us and our gear off the ferry. Then they left us on the loading ramp. We had about 2 hours to get ourselves off the ramp before the next ferry came in. Oh the excitement.
Another call to CAA and we were off. Oh, did I mention this was the long weekend too? Heh, yeah, so nothing was open. More calls to CAA in the mornings got Truck started so that Warren and I could bike and Truck could limp to Edmunston. We spent about 48 hours there at a garage before leaving, problem still unresolved, and now Warren and I had only 8 days to ride 840km. We could do it, but that left no room for error.
From Edmunston, we stopped in Perth Andover at a lovely little campground on the St. John River. The next morning, we were able to get Truck started, so Warren and I left amid a strong headwind and cold, pelting rain to head to Fredricton...152km away.
About 36kms in (and 2 hours of riding...eek), we saw Truck stopped along the side of the road. We were soaking wet and Warren was cold. Truck was dying and needed help again very soon. The decision was made to drive to Fredriction to another garage.
We didn't make it. We ended up pulling over in Kings Landing at the information center with not much power and the air brakes beginning to fail (meaning the spring parking brake was coming on and thus we were going no where). Another call to CAA and Truck was being towed into Fredricton. We're currently in said town awaiting news on what's up.
An adventure is what we were looking for on this trip. An adventure is certainly what we're getting.
At this point, we're not sure what's going to happen other than we have to be back in Ottawa by the 13th...
Friday, July 6, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Ottawa to Quebec City
So we've left Ottawa. The day out was a bit frustrating as Warren had had 4 flats before noon. Nonetheless, we made it to Montebello where Randy and Joanne managed to find us a campsite even though we had no reservations and had forgotten it was St. Jean Baptiste weekend. These two are fabulous.
The next night was in Saint-Anne-des-Plaines which is basically north of Montreal. The ride was good. I'm finding that after a week off the bike, my muscles seem to have repaired well and we're able to ride quite a bit faster which is kinda neat. The campground was pretty full, again, due to the long weekend, however we got in there. The washrooms were worth noting though. Randy and Joanne said "Don't even look in there, use Truck's washroom." So that's what we did. I did check out the showers though and reported back to the team that they were better off waiting until we found better facitilities. Honestly, it was gross. It cost 75 cents for about 5 min. The shower had barely any pressure (which we've come across lots over the course of the trip), I never did figure out how turning the temperature knobs corresponded to the water temperature change, but worst was a toss up between the colour and the smell. I consider the event as "taking one for the team". :P
The next two stops were Louisville and Portneuf respectively. Both great rides. Pretty quick with over 27km/h averages for the 110+km each day. Granted we had tailwinds both days, but still.
Finally, we rode into Quebec yesterday. It was a short day of only 55km, thank goodness. We were both pretty sore due to our tad harder riding, and we had a headwind. However, as seems to be the trend now and again this trip, just before the campsite there was a big hill. And this one was a doozy. We figure 12-13% for about 200 to 300 m. I thought I was going to loose my lunch. Fortunately, I was so hungry at this point I had nothing to lose. Ha. :)It was the hardest short-climb of the ride so far for sure. Regardless, we made it, checked in and spent remainder of the day and evening wandering around the old city and went out for dinner as well. Warren commented on the irony of the first place we've really decided to stop and wander around being a place built on the side of a cliff where all we do is walk up and down hills. I would heartily agree. So we decided to spend another day here. :)
I'm just about done, but first I must mention the storms of the last few nights. It's rained overnight every night for the past 4 nights now. And I mean RAIN. Then last night while we were eating downtown, we had one of the biggest thunderstorms I've ever seen. Quite impressive. And the rain. Oh the rain. Torrential downpours for significant periods of time. It was awesome.
Let's see what today shall bring....
Until next time....
The next night was in Saint-Anne-des-Plaines which is basically north of Montreal. The ride was good. I'm finding that after a week off the bike, my muscles seem to have repaired well and we're able to ride quite a bit faster which is kinda neat. The campground was pretty full, again, due to the long weekend, however we got in there. The washrooms were worth noting though. Randy and Joanne said "Don't even look in there, use Truck's washroom." So that's what we did. I did check out the showers though and reported back to the team that they were better off waiting until we found better facitilities. Honestly, it was gross. It cost 75 cents for about 5 min. The shower had barely any pressure (which we've come across lots over the course of the trip), I never did figure out how turning the temperature knobs corresponded to the water temperature change, but worst was a toss up between the colour and the smell. I consider the event as "taking one for the team". :P
The next two stops were Louisville and Portneuf respectively. Both great rides. Pretty quick with over 27km/h averages for the 110+km each day. Granted we had tailwinds both days, but still.
Finally, we rode into Quebec yesterday. It was a short day of only 55km, thank goodness. We were both pretty sore due to our tad harder riding, and we had a headwind. However, as seems to be the trend now and again this trip, just before the campsite there was a big hill. And this one was a doozy. We figure 12-13% for about 200 to 300 m. I thought I was going to loose my lunch. Fortunately, I was so hungry at this point I had nothing to lose. Ha. :)It was the hardest short-climb of the ride so far for sure. Regardless, we made it, checked in and spent remainder of the day and evening wandering around the old city and went out for dinner as well. Warren commented on the irony of the first place we've really decided to stop and wander around being a place built on the side of a cliff where all we do is walk up and down hills. I would heartily agree. So we decided to spend another day here. :)
I'm just about done, but first I must mention the storms of the last few nights. It's rained overnight every night for the past 4 nights now. And I mean RAIN. Then last night while we were eating downtown, we had one of the biggest thunderstorms I've ever seen. Quite impressive. And the rain. Oh the rain. Torrential downpours for significant periods of time. It was awesome.
Let's see what today shall bring....
Until next time....
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Days ?? to ??: Shuniah to Ottawa
I'm so lost on the days...I'll have to come back and figure out just what days we're on now. Regardless, the trip from Shuniah to Wawa was pretty good. The hills were pretty rolly and it's definitely getting hotter.
As Warren mentioned, we saw a cougar which is quite cool, though I admit I'm glad he kept to himself.
As most of you know at this point, in Wawa I needed to seek a doctor out. Turns out I had a sore that got infected so we had to remain in Wawa for a couple of days. Once getting the ok to head to my family doctor, we did just that and have been in Ottawa for a couple of days now. We'll be heading out again on Saturday morning to continue onto the maritimes from here. I'm doing just fine and at this point I'm just waiting to heal enough so that I can get back on the bike.
It was disappointing to have to miss about 1/2 of Ontario, but it's really the maritimes that we're all looking particularly forward to, and there's no way we could foresee what happened.
At least at this point we will be able to enjoy the rest of the trip hopefully with less of a worry about time and the week in Ottawa is allowing us to get a pile of stuff done.
So, until next time...
As Warren mentioned, we saw a cougar which is quite cool, though I admit I'm glad he kept to himself.
As most of you know at this point, in Wawa I needed to seek a doctor out. Turns out I had a sore that got infected so we had to remain in Wawa for a couple of days. Once getting the ok to head to my family doctor, we did just that and have been in Ottawa for a couple of days now. We'll be heading out again on Saturday morning to continue onto the maritimes from here. I'm doing just fine and at this point I'm just waiting to heal enough so that I can get back on the bike.
It was disappointing to have to miss about 1/2 of Ontario, but it's really the maritimes that we're all looking particularly forward to, and there's no way we could foresee what happened.
At least at this point we will be able to enjoy the rest of the trip hopefully with less of a worry about time and the week in Ottawa is allowing us to get a pile of stuff done.
So, until next time...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Days 41 and 42: Shuniah to Marathon
Sorry, this will be short as it's past 10pm and I'm BEAT.
Yesterday was a great day. We pedalled 141km and made it just past Rossport to a lovely little provincial campground. Lots of hills and a headwind, but we just kept plugging away.
Today we still had a headwind and the hills are even bigger it seems. I think our average speed was around 20km. Ick. Regardless, the sun was out and it's pretty scenic up here so that makes it better.
No wildlife sightings for the last couple of days. I'd love to see some more moose, but the bears, I can do without.
Oh, and we're in a motel tonight. After a long couple of days, a nice soak in a tub was much needed.
Ok, gotta hit bed. No idea when we'll have internet again...
Yesterday was a great day. We pedalled 141km and made it just past Rossport to a lovely little provincial campground. Lots of hills and a headwind, but we just kept plugging away.
Today we still had a headwind and the hills are even bigger it seems. I think our average speed was around 20km. Ick. Regardless, the sun was out and it's pretty scenic up here so that makes it better.
No wildlife sightings for the last couple of days. I'd love to see some more moose, but the bears, I can do without.
Oh, and we're in a motel tonight. After a long couple of days, a nice soak in a tub was much needed.
Ok, gotta hit bed. No idea when we'll have internet again...
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Days 35-40: Kenora to Shuniah
Ok. So it's been a few days since I've blogged. Lots has happened, but we've not had internet. We started out of Kenora on Monday after happily getting Warren's bike fixed in Kenora on Sunday afternoon. The week started out like this...
I saw a bear.
The bear saw me.
The bear was in a tree, which made me somewhat happy.
Shortly thereafter a CN Rail person in a truck set off some sort of, quite large, explosive device less than 100 m or so from us as we were riding by. Warren thinks he was blowing up a stump. Regardless, it scared the bejeepers outta me. Sprayed me with swamp-water too. I was less than impressed, lemme tell ya. We also saw a moose. Well, a moose bum since he hid in the forest too quickly to really see him. The rest of the 125 km ride to Kenora was pretty good though.
The next day we rode almost to Dryden, a 135 km day. We had a pretty good tailwind. It must have been a pretty decent day, but I honestly can't remember anything else to say about it.
Wednesday after doing a quick RV drive back up the road a bit to a sheepfarm/clothing place where I bought the cutest (and warmest, and softest) hat, we slogged 86 km into a headwind and decided to call it as we just weren't having the best of days. Energy was low and the headwind made it harder. We were hoping to make it to Ignace, but it just wasn't worth it to us. SO, we stopped at a little campground/fishing lodge place called Cobblestone. In the RV area (which would max out at 12 units), there was us and 3 other people.
Apparently the others are all seasonal people that have been coming up there for years, so it was quite something to have newcomers amongst them. One of the fishermen/RV people gave us some fresh filleted lake trout from the lake that we were located at. Warren cooked it up that night, and I admit that although I'm not much of a fish person that it was darned tasty. Really sweet of the fella too.
Thursday was another headwind slog and we ended up finishing at about 84km or so in a "town" named English River, again, much shorter than where we'd planned to end. We hopped in the RV and drove to Upsala to the campground there. Turns out our decision to end early was a good one as we had just finished parking and hooking up when a wicked storm appeared over the lake. You could see it coming across the water -- so
awesome. Take a look at the pictures to get an idea of the storm. Anyhoo, it didn't last long, but it did take the town's power out. Fortunately, with the luxury of an RV we just turned on the generator for any necessary power needs and carried on as usual. :)
After getting a ride back to English River the next morning, we headed off once again with a sweet tailwind. 166 km later, we were in Kakabeka Falls Provincial park. They call the falls the "Niagara of the North". They are indeed pretty impressive, but definitely not comparable to Niagara in my opinion. I also believe it was this day that Warren and I saw 3 more moose. Man, they are big creatures, yet graceful and beautiful.
Saturday we decided to just do a short day of riding and be touristy the rest of it, so we rode about 45km from Kakabeka Falls, through Thunder Bay and stopped at a KOA campground in Shuniah, ON, which is JUST east of Thunder Bay. The ride was great and it started off quite warm. As we approached Superior again though, the temperature dropped dramatically, it was crazy. We went from quite comfortable in shorts and short-sleeved jerseys to being cold with arm warmers on too. Regardless, we made it.
The rest of the day, we drove around the Thunder Bay area to see the sites. We saw the Terry Fox memorial which is just beautiful. The monument is gorgeous, the setting is wonderful....I can't say enough about it and highly recommend anyone passing through to stop at it. We also drove up to Canada's largest amethyst mine where we "dug" for our own gems. It was quite fun, though apparently they salt the designated digging area to assure that people find them...that was rather disappointing. Nonetheless, we carted our about 3 lbs of loot. On the drive back out, we saw a bear and then a cub a bit later...it was pretty cool. From there we went to Ouimet Canyon. On the road in to the park there were suddenly signs saying to park trailers and RVs as the road ahead was steep and windy. So, better safe than sorry, we parked and walked the remaining 3km to the Canyon (mostly uphill). Although the weather was beautiful and sunny, the blackflies were beyond annoying. We walked up, took a quick look, a few pictures and walked back. We were all swatting and picking the blackflies out of our hair, it was nasty. Later that night, my ear actually swelled up to about twice its size from all the bites. Joanne tells me it will likely take 36 to 48 hours for the swelling to go back down. Sadness.
We are currently still at the KOA campground. We decided last minute this morning to stay put for a real rest day since yesterday wasn't so restful. A day without transports is really nice. They have been really scary for several days now. They are big and fast, and the highway is narrow and busy with few places where the shoulder is a decent size for us to be comfortably off the road. I'm looking forward to hitting Nipigon tomorrow where, supposedly, many of the transports take a northerly route and we'll be heading around Lake Superior.
Ok, that's it. I'm done. :)
Until next time...
I saw a bear.
The bear saw me.
The bear was in a tree, which made me somewhat happy.
Shortly thereafter a CN Rail person in a truck set off some sort of, quite large, explosive device less than 100 m or so from us as we were riding by. Warren thinks he was blowing up a stump. Regardless, it scared the bejeepers outta me. Sprayed me with swamp-water too. I was less than impressed, lemme tell ya. We also saw a moose. Well, a moose bum since he hid in the forest too quickly to really see him. The rest of the 125 km ride to Kenora was pretty good though.
The next day we rode almost to Dryden, a 135 km day. We had a pretty good tailwind. It must have been a pretty decent day, but I honestly can't remember anything else to say about it.
Wednesday after doing a quick RV drive back up the road a bit to a sheepfarm/clothing place where I bought the cutest (and warmest, and softest) hat, we slogged 86 km into a headwind and decided to call it as we just weren't having the best of days. Energy was low and the headwind made it harder. We were hoping to make it to Ignace, but it just wasn't worth it to us. SO, we stopped at a little campground/fishing lodge place called Cobblestone. In the RV area (which would max out at 12 units), there was us and 3 other people.
Apparently the others are all seasonal people that have been coming up there for years, so it was quite something to have newcomers amongst them. One of the fishermen/RV people gave us some fresh filleted lake trout from the lake that we were located at. Warren cooked it up that night, and I admit that although I'm not much of a fish person that it was darned tasty. Really sweet of the fella too.
Thursday was another headwind slog and we ended up finishing at about 84km or so in a "town" named English River, again, much shorter than where we'd planned to end. We hopped in the RV and drove to Upsala to the campground there. Turns out our decision to end early was a good one as we had just finished parking and hooking up when a wicked storm appeared over the lake. You could see it coming across the water -- so
awesome. Take a look at the pictures to get an idea of the storm. Anyhoo, it didn't last long, but it did take the town's power out. Fortunately, with the luxury of an RV we just turned on the generator for any necessary power needs and carried on as usual. :)
After getting a ride back to English River the next morning, we headed off once again with a sweet tailwind. 166 km later, we were in Kakabeka Falls Provincial park. They call the falls the "Niagara of the North". They are indeed pretty impressive, but definitely not comparable to Niagara in my opinion. I also believe it was this day that Warren and I saw 3 more moose. Man, they are big creatures, yet graceful and beautiful.
Saturday we decided to just do a short day of riding and be touristy the rest of it, so we rode about 45km from Kakabeka Falls, through Thunder Bay and stopped at a KOA campground in Shuniah, ON, which is JUST east of Thunder Bay. The ride was great and it started off quite warm. As we approached Superior again though, the temperature dropped dramatically, it was crazy. We went from quite comfortable in shorts and short-sleeved jerseys to being cold with arm warmers on too. Regardless, we made it.
The rest of the day, we drove around the Thunder Bay area to see the sites. We saw the Terry Fox memorial which is just beautiful. The monument is gorgeous, the setting is wonderful....I can't say enough about it and highly recommend anyone passing through to stop at it. We also drove up to Canada's largest amethyst mine where we "dug" for our own gems. It was quite fun, though apparently they salt the designated digging area to assure that people find them...that was rather disappointing. Nonetheless, we carted our about 3 lbs of loot. On the drive back out, we saw a bear and then a cub a bit later...it was pretty cool. From there we went to Ouimet Canyon. On the road in to the park there were suddenly signs saying to park trailers and RVs as the road ahead was steep and windy. So, better safe than sorry, we parked and walked the remaining 3km to the Canyon (mostly uphill). Although the weather was beautiful and sunny, the blackflies were beyond annoying. We walked up, took a quick look, a few pictures and walked back. We were all swatting and picking the blackflies out of our hair, it was nasty. Later that night, my ear actually swelled up to about twice its size from all the bites. Joanne tells me it will likely take 36 to 48 hours for the swelling to go back down. Sadness.
We are currently still at the KOA campground. We decided last minute this morning to stay put for a real rest day since yesterday wasn't so restful. A day without transports is really nice. They have been really scary for several days now. They are big and fast, and the highway is narrow and busy with few places where the shoulder is a decent size for us to be comfortably off the road. I'm looking forward to hitting Nipigon tomorrow where, supposedly, many of the transports take a northerly route and we'll be heading around Lake Superior.
Ok, that's it. I'm done. :)
Until next time...
Sunday, June 3, 2007
Day 33,part 2: Winnipeg to somewhere between Elma and Rennie, MB to Kenora, ON
We had an eventful day all around. It took us 25km and just over an hour to wind our way through Winnipeg and out the eastern side. We decided to take Hwy 15, rather than the busier TransCanada that we had been travelling on for the last few days into Winnipeg.
Although the road had a less than stellar surface and only a loose gravel shoulder (though we're finding this seems to be the case for most Manitoba roads), we are quite pleased with having taken the 15. There was hardly any traffic at all, and what little there was, were mostly cars.
We are also back into treed land again. The tree-less prairies were neat to see, but I'm not sorry to see them go. The presence of the forests also help to block the wind somewhat, allowing for an easier ride.
Unfortunately, we have also entered black-fly territory, or what I assume are black-flies. They are HUGE. And they chase you. And swarm you. It's gross, eerie and unnerving. Fortunately, with the slight headwind that we had, coupled with good energy due to a rest day, we were able to ride between 28 and 30 km/h for much of the ride causing enough breeze going past us that these flies couldn't land on us. I have a feeling that drenching ourselves in bug repellant will become a new daily routine.
Near around the 3/4 mark of the day we came to flooded area. It was so neat to be riding at JusT above the water level...except in one area. The road was flooded! I admit this was worrisome for me. I'd never ridden through this much water before and didn't know what to expect. However, we had little choice, so carried on through at what we thought was the shallowest part and what FUN!! We got a little wet, but it was really cool.
We arrived in Elma and continued north on Hwy 11 heading towards Rennie. It was about 2 km north of Elma that Warren discovered he had broken a spoke. This was massively unfortunate. Although the bike is still ridable, it meant that we needed to hit a bike shop the next day. Of course, we're in the middle of no-where. On a Saturday afternoon. Our choices were to head forwards to Kenora and hope for a bike shop there or back to Winnipeg. Right or wrong, we chose forwards.
So, we are now located in Kenora, where we have found out there is one bike shop that may or may not be open today and may or may not be able to fix Warren's wheel.
On the way to Kenora in the RV, we passed Tanya and Attila!! What fun!! Joanne honked the horn and we all waved as we passed by. They ended up coming to the same campground that we are located at as well, which is really neat.
So, today will be an unexpected day off. Hopefully someone here can fix the wheel and we can spend the day exploring this beautiful area. If not, we'll be heading back to Winnipeg.
Wish us luck!
Although the road had a less than stellar surface and only a loose gravel shoulder (though we're finding this seems to be the case for most Manitoba roads), we are quite pleased with having taken the 15. There was hardly any traffic at all, and what little there was, were mostly cars.
We are also back into treed land again. The tree-less prairies were neat to see, but I'm not sorry to see them go. The presence of the forests also help to block the wind somewhat, allowing for an easier ride.
Unfortunately, we have also entered black-fly territory, or what I assume are black-flies. They are HUGE. And they chase you. And swarm you. It's gross, eerie and unnerving. Fortunately, with the slight headwind that we had, coupled with good energy due to a rest day, we were able to ride between 28 and 30 km/h for much of the ride causing enough breeze going past us that these flies couldn't land on us. I have a feeling that drenching ourselves in bug repellant will become a new daily routine.
Near around the 3/4 mark of the day we came to flooded area. It was so neat to be riding at JusT above the water level...except in one area. The road was flooded! I admit this was worrisome for me. I'd never ridden through this much water before and didn't know what to expect. However, we had little choice, so carried on through at what we thought was the shallowest part and what FUN!! We got a little wet, but it was really cool.
We arrived in Elma and continued north on Hwy 11 heading towards Rennie. It was about 2 km north of Elma that Warren discovered he had broken a spoke. This was massively unfortunate. Although the bike is still ridable, it meant that we needed to hit a bike shop the next day. Of course, we're in the middle of no-where. On a Saturday afternoon. Our choices were to head forwards to Kenora and hope for a bike shop there or back to Winnipeg. Right or wrong, we chose forwards.
So, we are now located in Kenora, where we have found out there is one bike shop that may or may not be open today and may or may not be able to fix Warren's wheel.
On the way to Kenora in the RV, we passed Tanya and Attila!! What fun!! Joanne honked the horn and we all waved as we passed by. They ended up coming to the same campground that we are located at as well, which is really neat.
So, today will be an unexpected day off. Hopefully someone here can fix the wheel and we can spend the day exploring this beautiful area. If not, we'll be heading back to Winnipeg.
Wish us luck!
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Day 33: Winnipeg to ?? , part 1
We'll be off pedalling again soon, but we've had a terrific stay in Winnipeg. We stayed with a friend of the Taylor's, Aaron, who opened up his house to us, giving us a wonderful home away from home, and even one of his car's so we could get around town.
Yesterday afternoon Aaron took us on a great trip around Winnipeg with a walk through a huge park (I think it was called Assiniboine Park?) that had sculptures and a cricket field...drove around the University of Manitoba...saw Louis Riel's grave site and this huge cathedral that had burned down, but they had left the remaining walls standing. When we arrived, the bells were just starting to ring...it was almost surreal. At this point, we were all pretty hungry, so we ended up at a delicious Japanese restaurant for dinner. A terrific ending to a terrific day. (Thanks so much Aaron!!)
Looks like we've got a beautiful, sunny, warm day to ride...I'm really looking forward to it. We're headed for Elma, MB at 100km or even possibly Rennie, MB at 136km depending on winds, how we're feeling and what time we get away.
Aaron's pancake breakfast is just about ready, so I've gotta get going for now.
Excitement builds...
Yesterday afternoon Aaron took us on a great trip around Winnipeg with a walk through a huge park (I think it was called Assiniboine Park?) that had sculptures and a cricket field...drove around the University of Manitoba...saw Louis Riel's grave site and this huge cathedral that had burned down, but they had left the remaining walls standing. When we arrived, the bells were just starting to ring...it was almost surreal. At this point, we were all pretty hungry, so we ended up at a delicious Japanese restaurant for dinner. A terrific ending to a terrific day. (Thanks so much Aaron!!)
Looks like we've got a beautiful, sunny, warm day to ride...I'm really looking forward to it. We're headed for Elma, MB at 100km or even possibly Rennie, MB at 136km depending on winds, how we're feeling and what time we get away.
Aaron's pancake breakfast is just about ready, so I've gotta get going for now.
Excitement builds...
Friday, June 1, 2007
Days 27 to 32: Regina to Winnipeg
I'm back. Sorry for the lack of blogs folks. There really hasn't been much to say, I guess, but here's the summary of the past week or so anyways.
Since our rest day in Regina, we've pedalled over 120km/day. From Regina we went to Grenfell, SK. It was a cute little RV park that we stayed in at the back of a sportsplex thingy. One our way to Grenfell we passed a fella from Hungary named Attila that is also cycling across Canada. I believe it was also this day that Mom and Dad had a gal from Vancouver stop in at the RV while they were waiting for us. They chatted for a bit and found out that she is also cycling across with a friend of her's. (We met him the next day, but didn't end up seeing her). It would seem the cycling adventures are well under way for many people this year.
Anyways, from Grenfell we went to the Manitoba border. Literally. We parked the RV in the parking lot of the Saskatchewan welcome center for the night. Attila arrived here later and camped beside the motorhome (and yes, we offered him food and all sorts of things, but he seems very determined to be independant!).
From the border, we cycled to Brandon, then Brandon to Portage le Prairie (an 8 hour day of pedalling....we arrived absolutely exhausted), then finally Portage le Prairie to Winnipeg where we are now. Warren and I are on our rest day today after having said our goodbyes to Tanya this morning who set off after a monstorous MEC outfitting trip yesterday afternoon.
We are sorry to see our teammate leaving us, but completely understand her time constraints at the other end of the trip, and wish her the absolute best. Tanya has been great fun to travel and cycle with...and her endurance continues to amaze me. I am really glad that she will have someone to travel with at least across the desolate Northern Ontario. Yes, we'll definitely miss our third person in many ways. I know I'll be missing her help during the pulling...allowing me to draft that bit longer. We will do just fine however, and I'm excited to see what the rest of the trip will bring.
In general, the weather has been cold, wet and windy....in the wrong direction for us! However, today is beautiful: Sunny and quite warm, so I'm thrilled. Hopefully it is here to stay.
Other than Tanya heading off on her own, the other big change is that Mom and Dad left us yesterday and Joanne is back. Time flies. It seems like we were just in Calgary where Mom and Dad were arriving and Joanne was leaving. I enjoy all of our support crew, so it's been a happy and sad sort of time.
We've got the RV pretty much organized for tomorrow once again having gotten our grocery shopping done this morning, and doing the usual rest day tidying as well as gotten Joanne all moved back in again. At this point, we're just chilling, enjoying the time off and will likely be exploring more of Winnipeg later in the day.
I guess that's all for now. I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't think of what it is right now, so it'll have to wait until the next post if I think of it then.
Ciao for now!
Since our rest day in Regina, we've pedalled over 120km/day. From Regina we went to Grenfell, SK. It was a cute little RV park that we stayed in at the back of a sportsplex thingy. One our way to Grenfell we passed a fella from Hungary named Attila that is also cycling across Canada. I believe it was also this day that Mom and Dad had a gal from Vancouver stop in at the RV while they were waiting for us. They chatted for a bit and found out that she is also cycling across with a friend of her's. (We met him the next day, but didn't end up seeing her). It would seem the cycling adventures are well under way for many people this year.
Anyways, from Grenfell we went to the Manitoba border. Literally. We parked the RV in the parking lot of the Saskatchewan welcome center for the night. Attila arrived here later and camped beside the motorhome (and yes, we offered him food and all sorts of things, but he seems very determined to be independant!).
From the border, we cycled to Brandon, then Brandon to Portage le Prairie (an 8 hour day of pedalling....we arrived absolutely exhausted), then finally Portage le Prairie to Winnipeg where we are now. Warren and I are on our rest day today after having said our goodbyes to Tanya this morning who set off after a monstorous MEC outfitting trip yesterday afternoon.
We are sorry to see our teammate leaving us, but completely understand her time constraints at the other end of the trip, and wish her the absolute best. Tanya has been great fun to travel and cycle with...and her endurance continues to amaze me. I am really glad that she will have someone to travel with at least across the desolate Northern Ontario. Yes, we'll definitely miss our third person in many ways. I know I'll be missing her help during the pulling...allowing me to draft that bit longer. We will do just fine however, and I'm excited to see what the rest of the trip will bring.
In general, the weather has been cold, wet and windy....in the wrong direction for us! However, today is beautiful: Sunny and quite warm, so I'm thrilled. Hopefully it is here to stay.
Other than Tanya heading off on her own, the other big change is that Mom and Dad left us yesterday and Joanne is back. Time flies. It seems like we were just in Calgary where Mom and Dad were arriving and Joanne was leaving. I enjoy all of our support crew, so it's been a happy and sad sort of time.
We've got the RV pretty much organized for tomorrow once again having gotten our grocery shopping done this morning, and doing the usual rest day tidying as well as gotten Joanne all moved back in again. At this point, we're just chilling, enjoying the time off and will likely be exploring more of Winnipeg later in the day.
I guess that's all for now. I'm sure I'm missing something, but I can't think of what it is right now, so it'll have to wait until the next post if I think of it then.
Ciao for now!
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Days 25 and 26: Regina
We made it. Another rest day. I have to say, we deserve it. Yesterday's ride was epic. We originally thought it was going to be 112kms and it turned out to be 120km, but that in itself is manageable. The sad, sad part was that it took us 6hours and 11minutes to do that 120km. The 140km ride the day before took us 5 hours and 59 minutes. That's over 12 hours in 2 days. Impressive? Yes, I think so, for the average person anyways. Sore bum? OH, HO YEAH. Quads also knew we'd worked them for 6 days, but the bum....well let's just say that my bike saddle was feeling as small at it is!
The "problem" was that we had a decent, steady headwind the entire day. And that the vast majority of the day was spent pedalling uphill. What?!?! You say? Uphill? In the prairies? Yup. It may be slight (quite slight in some portions), but it was enough to be noticeable, particularly with that headwind.
Fact is, it took us just under 2 hours to get to Moose Jaw from the campground. A mere 38km distance. Fortunately, the team decided to hit the Tim Horton's for a good wholesome lunch break there which was a nice rest.
For some reason I was also feeling really low on energy during the first part of the ride as well. I tried to keep eating, but nothing seemed to help replenish the energy stores for long. Fortunately, the Tim Horton's stop managed to do just that and we were off again!
If I may go off on a tangent here for a moment... speaking of keeping eating, I have to say the amount of food I've been eating is astounding. I mean, I've been eating more than I thought possible for these past 3 or so weeks and yet, the seemingly impossible happened over the past two days...I was even hungrier than before. (I've been calling them "hungry days"...creative, I know) I eat and eat and eat....it's ridiculous. It makes sense given the amount of exercise we're doing, but still, I'm amazed. Warren thinks that I'm not eating enough at the right times...which would contribute to the next day being especially hungry. In his opinion, he doesn't think I'm consuming enough calories during the ride, then I'm starving at the end of the day and eating tons then. Needless to say, I'm going to try to eat more while riding to see if this helps.
Anyhoo, back to the Regina ride. We finally arrived at the western side of the city (after having seen it coming, slowly, closer for 2 hours prior), then rode through the city and joined back onto the TransCanada on the eastern side where our campground is.
Today, our restday, I haven't done much at all, which was just what I wanted. Although our campsite is the closest to the city, it's still quite far from the downtown core, thereby not making it particularly easy to go exploring. We could have ridden into town, as Tanya opted to do, but my knee was bothering me again (though it is MUCH better than it had been, hooray!), so I didn't want to bike or walk a whole bunch today so as to let it rest. To be honest, with the amount of travelling and moving that we're doing every other day, I really revel in just sitting on my behind reading or popping on the internet for a bit, if available, or just putting around for the restdays at the campsite.
As this day is quickly coming to a close, I too shall do so with this post.
Hope everyone is doing well, and that you're sending sunny, warm, windless weather our way!!
The "problem" was that we had a decent, steady headwind the entire day. And that the vast majority of the day was spent pedalling uphill. What?!?! You say? Uphill? In the prairies? Yup. It may be slight (quite slight in some portions), but it was enough to be noticeable, particularly with that headwind.
Fact is, it took us just under 2 hours to get to Moose Jaw from the campground. A mere 38km distance. Fortunately, the team decided to hit the Tim Horton's for a good wholesome lunch break there which was a nice rest.
For some reason I was also feeling really low on energy during the first part of the ride as well. I tried to keep eating, but nothing seemed to help replenish the energy stores for long. Fortunately, the Tim Horton's stop managed to do just that and we were off again!
If I may go off on a tangent here for a moment... speaking of keeping eating, I have to say the amount of food I've been eating is astounding. I mean, I've been eating more than I thought possible for these past 3 or so weeks and yet, the seemingly impossible happened over the past two days...I was even hungrier than before. (I've been calling them "hungry days"...creative, I know) I eat and eat and eat....it's ridiculous. It makes sense given the amount of exercise we're doing, but still, I'm amazed. Warren thinks that I'm not eating enough at the right times...which would contribute to the next day being especially hungry. In his opinion, he doesn't think I'm consuming enough calories during the ride, then I'm starving at the end of the day and eating tons then. Needless to say, I'm going to try to eat more while riding to see if this helps.
Anyhoo, back to the Regina ride. We finally arrived at the western side of the city (after having seen it coming, slowly, closer for 2 hours prior), then rode through the city and joined back onto the TransCanada on the eastern side where our campground is.
Today, our restday, I haven't done much at all, which was just what I wanted. Although our campsite is the closest to the city, it's still quite far from the downtown core, thereby not making it particularly easy to go exploring. We could have ridden into town, as Tanya opted to do, but my knee was bothering me again (though it is MUCH better than it had been, hooray!), so I didn't want to bike or walk a whole bunch today so as to let it rest. To be honest, with the amount of travelling and moving that we're doing every other day, I really revel in just sitting on my behind reading or popping on the internet for a bit, if available, or just putting around for the restdays at the campsite.
As this day is quickly coming to a close, I too shall do so with this post.
Hope everyone is doing well, and that you're sending sunny, warm, windless weather our way!!
Day 24: Swift Current to Besant Campground
140 kms today. Yeehaw. Our longest day yet, but totally worth it for finding a nice campground with trees, creeks and wildlife (such as beavers and perhaps a muskrat or something similar, other than the plentiful stuffed artifacts in the main office/store...) in the middle of the nothingness of the prairies. Don't get me wrong though, it's pretty cool to see for miles and miles and there only being fields. The lack of trees and shrubbery is odd to me since I've grown up with tons around me.
But I disgress. The weather was pretty good today. We managed to stay in this pocket of sunshine, or mild cloud cover and avoid the serious downpouring that some other poor folks were getting all around us. We thought about stopping in this place called Parkbeg at about the 120km mark, but there wasn't much there (read as anything) but an old, closed down gas station in which Mom and Dad had parked to wait for us. We were all still feeling pretty decent, so decided to push onwards toward the campground (the lure of showers is very strong) and we'd be closer to our rest day destination of Regina for the following day's ride.
I think it was a good decision...
But I disgress. The weather was pretty good today. We managed to stay in this pocket of sunshine, or mild cloud cover and avoid the serious downpouring that some other poor folks were getting all around us. We thought about stopping in this place called Parkbeg at about the 120km mark, but there wasn't much there (read as anything) but an old, closed down gas station in which Mom and Dad had parked to wait for us. We were all still feeling pretty decent, so decided to push onwards toward the campground (the lure of showers is very strong) and we'd be closer to our rest day destination of Regina for the following day's ride.
I think it was a good decision...
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Day 23: Elrose to Swift Current
We decided to start today from Elrose rather than to go experience the pleasure of driving back along that gravel road to the crossroad near Tyner. Turns out our travel distance would be the same anyways as we actually had to backtrack a fair amount to get to Elrose. Tanya, in particular, expressed her delight at not having to drive that road again. :)
The day's ride was about 115 km, which we rode in about 4 hours and 5 minutes. The vast majority of today, we had a massive tailwind making the ride much nicer.
We briefly met up with the RV once, then sent them onto Swift Current to the RV park. (Though we did surprise Mom and Dad awhile later when we caught up to them while they were taking a quick scenic tour of a tourist area in a park.)
Today was pretty uneventful overall. The terrain was pretty rolly for most of it, and we had one pretty decent climb out of a really neat Saskatchewan provincial park called Saskatchewan Landing. One other notable point for the day is that coming into Swift Current, I reached my fasted speed ever of 71 km/h. And yes, I was breaking. I don't think I ever need to see that again :P
We're currently in the Poderosa RV park located on the TransCanada Highway. The showers, though pretty claustrophobic as Warren put it, were the hottest we've had in days which is really exciting.
Dinner is just about ready, so I guess I'll sign off for now.
Until next time!!
The day's ride was about 115 km, which we rode in about 4 hours and 5 minutes. The vast majority of today, we had a massive tailwind making the ride much nicer.
We briefly met up with the RV once, then sent them onto Swift Current to the RV park. (Though we did surprise Mom and Dad awhile later when we caught up to them while they were taking a quick scenic tour of a tourist area in a park.)
Today was pretty uneventful overall. The terrain was pretty rolly for most of it, and we had one pretty decent climb out of a really neat Saskatchewan provincial park called Saskatchewan Landing. One other notable point for the day is that coming into Swift Current, I reached my fasted speed ever of 71 km/h. And yes, I was breaking. I don't think I ever need to see that again :P
We're currently in the Poderosa RV park located on the TransCanada Highway. The showers, though pretty claustrophobic as Warren put it, were the hottest we've had in days which is really exciting.
Dinner is just about ready, so I guess I'll sign off for now.
Until next time!!
Day 22: Kindersley to almost Tyner
Today was ....interesting. After slogging, yet again, with a northerly crosswind we decided to use the wind rather than fight it. We revised our route and headed south, aiming eventually to get to Swift Current, but to stop somewhere before that for tonight since Swift Current was about 218 km from Kindersley.
Anyhoo, we first came upon a field with about 6 or 7 horses in it. Unlike the bison and cattle that run away from us, the horses seemed to revel in our presence and ran to meet us as we rode by, then run with us for a short bit. Given that I'm a wee bit of a horse lover, this was absolutely awesome. We also saw antelope today!! Quite a few, actually. Jen and Pat had just mentioned to us the night before that these small deer-like animals were out and about in the area unbeknownst to us, so it was really cool to see them!
Oh, and the 20-25km/h (with higher gusts) tailwind was ok too :) Definitely beat fighting it.
We continued along came upon our next turn. It was a gravel road. Sadness. Fortunately, the RV had passed us and were awaiting instructions on the side of the road just ahead. We continued to the next crossroad and fortunately it was paved, so we turned down it. Hooray.
We ended our day at the most unlikely of places: a crossroad in the middle of nowhere. A teeny, tiny little town called Tyner was about 1 km to our left, but otherwise, all we could see was field upon field, upon field.
We loaded into the motorhome and headed off. Mom and Dad had read the campground pamplet and decided that an RV park in a town called Elrose appeared to be the most promising destination. Off we went.
We started on a paved road, but shortly there was a sign that trucks over a certain weight were to take the gravel road at the next turn, so being good tourists, we, or rather driver Dad, turned. Here's where the fun really began. The RV started swerving in the front and fishtailing in the back. Apparently it was like driving on marbles. And we weren't going fast. At all. Dad's bigger worry, he mentioned to us later, was that he was afraid the RV might get stuck. This unnerving dancing of a 34' vehicle continued for 10km. It was insane. Fortunately, I was absolutely exhausted from the ride and managed to fall asleep for some of it. Dad did an excellent handling job. Eventually, we did reach the end and turned up the highway towards Elrose.
We finally arrived, and found said "RV campground" which was located behind this smalltown sportsplex. We followed the road around back, as directed by the signs, where we quickly found out the "RV park" was a looser term here than in Alsask, and more to the point, it was very muddy back there. Once again, Dad did a phenomenal job of not getting the RV stuck in it (Oh but did we leave some massive impressions :P ), we turned around and headed back to the FRONT of the building.
Now the task was to find someone to see if we could stay there for the night. Dad wandered into the nearest building that looked occupied. Turned out it was the hospital (The public school was on the otherside of the parking lot too. Busy place.). The nurse at the hospital ok'd us to stay in the parking lot where ever (Dad mentioned the mud in the RV designated places and apparently she said "Oh yeah, it might be a touch muddy out there, it did rain". Ha. So we settled in. During dinner, we had a knock on the door and this wonderfully friendly woman stopped in (who apparently worked in the rec department) to see if there was anything we needed. She even let us into the pool showers, which was really kind. (We found out shortly thereafter that they were darned near ice cold which was rather sad, but a few of us set our jaws and sucked it up anyways) The lady also mentioned that tonight was the big heart and stroke fundraiser with the 30-seater bike...and you guessed it, it was all to take place in our homey little parking lot as well. Heh. Nice of her to mention it though as not long after, people started arriving. The event didn't last very long though, and we were soon left with peace and quiet to dream of what tomorrow would bring.
Anyhoo, we first came upon a field with about 6 or 7 horses in it. Unlike the bison and cattle that run away from us, the horses seemed to revel in our presence and ran to meet us as we rode by, then run with us for a short bit. Given that I'm a wee bit of a horse lover, this was absolutely awesome. We also saw antelope today!! Quite a few, actually. Jen and Pat had just mentioned to us the night before that these small deer-like animals were out and about in the area unbeknownst to us, so it was really cool to see them!
Oh, and the 20-25km/h (with higher gusts) tailwind was ok too :) Definitely beat fighting it.
We continued along came upon our next turn. It was a gravel road. Sadness. Fortunately, the RV had passed us and were awaiting instructions on the side of the road just ahead. We continued to the next crossroad and fortunately it was paved, so we turned down it. Hooray.
We ended our day at the most unlikely of places: a crossroad in the middle of nowhere. A teeny, tiny little town called Tyner was about 1 km to our left, but otherwise, all we could see was field upon field, upon field.
We loaded into the motorhome and headed off. Mom and Dad had read the campground pamplet and decided that an RV park in a town called Elrose appeared to be the most promising destination. Off we went.
We started on a paved road, but shortly there was a sign that trucks over a certain weight were to take the gravel road at the next turn, so being good tourists, we, or rather driver Dad, turned. Here's where the fun really began. The RV started swerving in the front and fishtailing in the back. Apparently it was like driving on marbles. And we weren't going fast. At all. Dad's bigger worry, he mentioned to us later, was that he was afraid the RV might get stuck. This unnerving dancing of a 34' vehicle continued for 10km. It was insane. Fortunately, I was absolutely exhausted from the ride and managed to fall asleep for some of it. Dad did an excellent handling job. Eventually, we did reach the end and turned up the highway towards Elrose.
We finally arrived, and found said "RV campground" which was located behind this smalltown sportsplex. We followed the road around back, as directed by the signs, where we quickly found out the "RV park" was a looser term here than in Alsask, and more to the point, it was very muddy back there. Once again, Dad did a phenomenal job of not getting the RV stuck in it (Oh but did we leave some massive impressions :P ), we turned around and headed back to the FRONT of the building.
Now the task was to find someone to see if we could stay there for the night. Dad wandered into the nearest building that looked occupied. Turned out it was the hospital (The public school was on the otherside of the parking lot too. Busy place.). The nurse at the hospital ok'd us to stay in the parking lot where ever (Dad mentioned the mud in the RV designated places and apparently she said "Oh yeah, it might be a touch muddy out there, it did rain". Ha. So we settled in. During dinner, we had a knock on the door and this wonderfully friendly woman stopped in (who apparently worked in the rec department) to see if there was anything we needed. She even let us into the pool showers, which was really kind. (We found out shortly thereafter that they were darned near ice cold which was rather sad, but a few of us set our jaws and sucked it up anyways) The lady also mentioned that tonight was the big heart and stroke fundraiser with the 30-seater bike...and you guessed it, it was all to take place in our homey little parking lot as well. Heh. Nice of her to mention it though as not long after, people started arriving. The event didn't last very long though, and we were soon left with peace and quiet to dream of what tomorrow would bring.
Day 21: Alsask to Kindersely
Brutal is a good word for today. It was cold, wet (and only got wetter as the day wore one) and windy. Oh the wind. (Doesn't this just make you want to be here pedalling along with us?!!?!) Our original destination point for today was Netherhill, about 21km past Kindersley, then we were going to hop in the RV and drive back to the Kindersley to stay there the night to visit with some family of mine.
Anyhoo, our plan was not to be. Quite early on in our ride, we unanimously decided to stop at Kindersley. Mom and Dad were leap-frogging with us a lot today. It was really nice to keep seeing that big, white beast in the distance waiting for us. By the time we arrived at the RV park, they had soup and hot chocolate ready for us, and even gone into the showers and pressed the button numerous times to get the water hot for us. Now that is dedication! It was wonderful.
That night Mom, Dad, Warren and I headed off to Jen and Pat's place (family of mine) for a ton of absolutely delicious food. These dears also let us steal their laundryroom and internet while we were there as well. It was so nice to see them again.
Jen and Pat: Once again, thanks to both of you for your wonderful hospitality!!!
Jen drove us back to our RV around 11pm, where we promptly fell into beds.
Hopefully the weather tomorrow is better!
Anyhoo, our plan was not to be. Quite early on in our ride, we unanimously decided to stop at Kindersley. Mom and Dad were leap-frogging with us a lot today. It was really nice to keep seeing that big, white beast in the distance waiting for us. By the time we arrived at the RV park, they had soup and hot chocolate ready for us, and even gone into the showers and pressed the button numerous times to get the water hot for us. Now that is dedication! It was wonderful.
That night Mom, Dad, Warren and I headed off to Jen and Pat's place (family of mine) for a ton of absolutely delicious food. These dears also let us steal their laundryroom and internet while we were there as well. It was so nice to see them again.
Jen and Pat: Once again, thanks to both of you for your wonderful hospitality!!!
Jen drove us back to our RV around 11pm, where we promptly fell into beds.
Hopefully the weather tomorrow is better!
Day 20: Richdale to Alsask
The ride to Alsask was pretty uneventful. I found it to be a pretty long day and was glad when we arrived. It was pretty encouraging to cross another border, though I admit that given said long day (I believe the total was 122km) it was rather anticlimatic. Mom and Dad had found a campsite for us. Though I do use the term "campsite" loosely as there was a concrete pad, old picnic table, and two pit toilets. That was about it. Though the one pit toilet was roped off as apparently it was falling into the hole provided beneath it.
Apparently there was quite a neat old ghost town not far from where we were located that Mom, Dad and Tanya all checked out at various times.
Other than that....off to Kindersely tomorrow.
Apparently there was quite a neat old ghost town not far from where we were located that Mom, Dad and Tanya all checked out at various times.
Other than that....off to Kindersely tomorrow.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Day 19: Rest Day in Hanna
As mentioned in my previous post, Warren and Tanya ended up stopping in Richdale (a place which seems to consist of a cluster of about 6 or so buildings). We piled the bikes inside the RV and drove back to Hanna, the closest town that had an RV Campground.
After a cold and very windy night (causing much lost sleep for everyone), we finally were all awake and semi-functioning by about 9:30 this morning. However, given the -6C windchill temperature and the 30, gusting to 50km/h winds from the SE, we decided to stay put and take a rest day.
Given that it has now rained considerably, and the wind hasn't given up a bit, I think we made the best decision. I admit I'm particularly happy as it's giving me a chance to get over my cold and rest my knee (which seems to be better today!) yet again.
Supposedly the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow with a decrease in wind, and change of wind direction so that it will be coming from the west (hooray tailwind!!). It's still supposed to be unseasonably cold, but we can deal pretty well with that via many layers.
We shall see what tomorrow brings!
After a cold and very windy night (causing much lost sleep for everyone), we finally were all awake and semi-functioning by about 9:30 this morning. However, given the -6C windchill temperature and the 30, gusting to 50km/h winds from the SE, we decided to stay put and take a rest day.
Given that it has now rained considerably, and the wind hasn't given up a bit, I think we made the best decision. I admit I'm particularly happy as it's giving me a chance to get over my cold and rest my knee (which seems to be better today!) yet again.
Supposedly the weather is supposed to be better tomorrow with a decrease in wind, and change of wind direction so that it will be coming from the west (hooray tailwind!!). It's still supposed to be unseasonably cold, but we can deal pretty well with that via many layers.
We shall see what tomorrow brings!
Friday, May 18, 2007
Day 18: Drumheller to Richdale
Sad day today. Aside from apparently getting a sore throat and a cold, as we set out this morning, my knee decided it had had enough and basically would not bend much at all. The bit that it would bend was agony. I had to make the obvious, but incredibly tough and disappointing decision to not ride today. Warren and Tanya decided to continue on, so I have been parked on the RV couch pretty much the entire day resting, hoping that tomorrow will be better.
I hope it will be.
I hope it will be.
Day 17: Carbon to Drumheller
We had a really short day of 35 km today into Drumheller. The landscape is really cool. It goes from long rolling type hills then all of a sudden the ground drops away. Anyhoo, we actually made it to the campsite before Mom and Dad had the RV parked. We spent most of the rest of the day at the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum. What a fantastic museum. For dinner we went to a Chinese restaurant called Sizzle that was really tasty.
Not much else to say. My knee is still bugging me quite a bit. Grr. Anyways, I guess this short post makes up for the really long one not so long ago. :)
Not much else to say. My knee is still bugging me quite a bit. Grr. Anyways, I guess this short post makes up for the really long one not so long ago. :)
Day 16: Cochrane to Carbon
Warren and I started out from Cochrane about 8:30 this morning and were going to meet Tanya at a crossroads north of Calgary about 36km into our ride. After an initial 8km of climbing out of Cochrane (what a way to start the day!), we continued along what Warren had told me were going to be "flatlands" which in fact turned out to be pretty darned big and steep rolling hills. Ah well. We had a tailwind for much of the ride, so that helped considerably.
We finally met up with Tanya and carried on. The days total (for Warren and I) ended up being just over 138km. Our longest, by far, day yet, with an average speed of about 26.8km/hr. And we still feel pretty good. WOOHOO!
Oh, I have to note that one of our highlights of the day was seeing a herd of Buffalo. They were so cool. Apparently they didn't like the look of us cyclists though, as the whole herd bolted as we were almost pedalling by their field. Not graceful animals...but so impressive.
Anyhoo, so we ended up in campsite in the town of Carbon tonight. Because we went so far today though, it means the trip to Drumheller tomorrow will be a super short jaunt of about 35km. We really wanted to stop there to explore the area, so we'll be camping right in the town. I think we're all pretty excited about seeing this place. I know I am. (Of course, I'm also excited about the short day, but shhhh! don't tell my teammates! :P)
One, uh, rather odd thing about the washrooms here at the campsite that I noticed -- there are two toilet stalls in the building, however, the wall separating the stalls is ABOVE the height of the seats! We all had a good laugh about that tonight, so I thought I'd share.
Until next time!
We finally met up with Tanya and carried on. The days total (for Warren and I) ended up being just over 138km. Our longest, by far, day yet, with an average speed of about 26.8km/hr. And we still feel pretty good. WOOHOO!
Oh, I have to note that one of our highlights of the day was seeing a herd of Buffalo. They were so cool. Apparently they didn't like the look of us cyclists though, as the whole herd bolted as we were almost pedalling by their field. Not graceful animals...but so impressive.
Anyhoo, so we ended up in campsite in the town of Carbon tonight. Because we went so far today though, it means the trip to Drumheller tomorrow will be a super short jaunt of about 35km. We really wanted to stop there to explore the area, so we'll be camping right in the town. I think we're all pretty excited about seeing this place. I know I am. (Of course, I'm also excited about the short day, but shhhh! don't tell my teammates! :P)
One, uh, rather odd thing about the washrooms here at the campsite that I noticed -- there are two toilet stalls in the building, however, the wall separating the stalls is ABOVE the height of the seats! We all had a good laugh about that tonight, so I thought I'd share.
Until next time!
Day 15: Banff to Cochrane
Warren and I started out this morning from our rest day campsite in Banff. It was a beautiful sunny morning, though bitterly cold in the shade. After winding down from the Tunnel Mountain campsite through Banff and back onto the TransCanada Highway, we were in heaven as we had a tailwind in addition to the general downward trend of the land. Our overall average speed for the day was over 27km/hr, our highest yet!! My knee started out really stiff this morning, but held up quite well once warmed up. Yay!
Shortly after Canmore, we ducked off of the busy Hwy 1 and onto the more scenic, though narrow and bumpy, Hwy 1a. We were about 40km east of Exshaw when we came upon a rolled over transport truck. The accident had just happened as the wheels were still turning (though the engine was off). In fact, we were the second couple on the scene. A native couple had arrived just before us and were helping the shaken, but apparently not too badly injured, driver out of the truck cab. Fortunately, we had our cell phone on us and had reception. Warren called 911 and help was on the way. It seemed forever before the help arrived, but arrive they did. After quite sometime, one of the RCMP officers came to take our information and then because we arrived on the scene after the accident, they let us continue on our way.
Although we were glad to be of help, unfortunately, this accident set us back at least an hour on our day, so we ended up meeting up with Joanne, Mom and Dad (yes! They have arrived!) in Cochrane and staying at a campground there that night instead of continuing to Calgary (an additional 30km or so) as we had initially planned.
When we met up with the RV, Dad (another of my heroes on this journey) was already in his coveralls and had fixed a couple of leak problems that we'd been having recently. Again, YAY!
After finding the campsite and setting up, we went into Calgary to Tanya's dear friends' place for a scrumptious bbq. Thanks so much guys!! That was wonderful!!
After dinner, the five of us (Tanya was staying in Calgary again that night) piled back into the rental car and drove back to Cochrane where we promptly crashed into bed almost immediately.
Shortly after Canmore, we ducked off of the busy Hwy 1 and onto the more scenic, though narrow and bumpy, Hwy 1a. We were about 40km east of Exshaw when we came upon a rolled over transport truck. The accident had just happened as the wheels were still turning (though the engine was off). In fact, we were the second couple on the scene. A native couple had arrived just before us and were helping the shaken, but apparently not too badly injured, driver out of the truck cab. Fortunately, we had our cell phone on us and had reception. Warren called 911 and help was on the way. It seemed forever before the help arrived, but arrive they did. After quite sometime, one of the RCMP officers came to take our information and then because we arrived on the scene after the accident, they let us continue on our way.
Although we were glad to be of help, unfortunately, this accident set us back at least an hour on our day, so we ended up meeting up with Joanne, Mom and Dad (yes! They have arrived!) in Cochrane and staying at a campground there that night instead of continuing to Calgary (an additional 30km or so) as we had initially planned.
When we met up with the RV, Dad (another of my heroes on this journey) was already in his coveralls and had fixed a couple of leak problems that we'd been having recently. Again, YAY!
After finding the campsite and setting up, we went into Calgary to Tanya's dear friends' place for a scrumptious bbq. Thanks so much guys!! That was wonderful!!
After dinner, the five of us (Tanya was staying in Calgary again that night) piled back into the rental car and drove back to Cochrane where we promptly crashed into bed almost immediately.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Days 8-14:Castlegar to Banff
I know it's been awhile since I've last blogged...sorry about that. We've only had internet intermittently and the computer battery died for a bit too (just after Warren updated his blog, I might add). So, point is, I'm doin' it now and it's going to be super long 'cuz, well, it's been another week full of adventures!
So, what's been goin' on? After our wonderful rest day in Castlegar (thanks so much Rick and Donna for the hot showers, terrific food, wonderful company, and the instant ice packs, among everything else!) we geared up and rolled out. We followed the Kootenay River through Nelson (I simply love this quaint little town) to Balfour where we got on a ferry. I heard someone mention that it's the longest free ferry in North America. The boat ride took about 40 min. Once off, after having rested now for about 1.5 hours due to waiting for the ferry, then the ferry ride itself, we had to slog a steep uphill. Quite a rude beginning, I must say. Once at the top of the hill, the rest of the ride was just beautiful. We rode rolling hills, taking in the breathtaking scenery. There wasn't even much traffic. We ended the day just outside of Boswell at a place called the Bayshore Resort. This place has definite potential, but also was the sketchy-ist place we've been to so far. We stayed in a cute little 2 bedroom cabin that had a pull out couch as the third bed. All was going well until we pulled out the hide-away bed and the mattress fell through the frame. Heh heh, what can you do but laugh. Warren and I ended up putting the mattress on the floor and sleeping there. At this point though, at the end of the days of riding we're so tired that we can sleep just about anywhere...so it wasn't so bad :)
From Boswell, we carried on to Yahk, through Creston. We stopped for lunch in Creston and met up with Joanne in the rental car as we were waiting to hear the motorhome update....last we'd heard, there was a chance the motorhome would be meeting us in Yahk that night..woohoo!! Anyways, we got the phone call and indeed Randy was going to drive the RV from Princeton to Yahk that afternoon/evening. HOORAY! We knew that even though we'd be riding that we'd still be waiting for the motorhome to arrive, so we devised the perfect plan. We'd take our time riding to Yahk, then stop at a restaurant and have a long leisurely meal at a restaurant while waiting. Off we went. We arrived in Yahk and our plan went awry. See, Yahk isn't exactly a booming metropolis. It apparently used to have a restaurant or two, but they both closed down sometime ago. Joanne had found a great RV campground though and booked us in there for when the motorhome did arrive. Um, that's basically all Yahk is. So, we dined on peanut butter and jam sandwiches, as well as pop and chips from the convenience store located at the front of the campground. (We had more healthy food, but com'mon, we'd biked over 1000kms by then...a coke and bag of chips was well deserved, I think!) We finished up that, and the wait began. We did a bit of math and figured the earliest Randy would show would be about 6:30pm (I think we arrived around 4pm). Joanne walked to the roadside ready to flag Randy down as he thought we'd be in a motel about a kilometer away. Warren joined her about 15 min later, and I walked up not much longer after that. By 9:30pm, it was getting cold and dark. More math ensued. Warren now revised his estimate as he realized that the RV can't travel up and down the mountains as fast as cars can and Randy was driving a particularly mountinous area. We brought the car and bikes up to the roadside to stay warm. It was fun trying to figure out if the headlights blaring at us from the pitch black darkness were that of the RV we were desperately hoping for or just another transport truck. Finally around 11pm, (I was sound asleep in the front seat, clearly keeping a watchful eye) there was much commotion as I awoke to a "There he is!!", as I see the RV slow, then drive right on by. Warren, Tanya and I jumped out of the car, grabbed our bikes and our styrofoam cooler to pull them away from the car as Joanne started the car and tore off after Randy. We very quickly realized once again just how cold it was. Fortunately, it wasn't long before the car returned and the RV was just behind her. Randy, our hero, still smiling after his chaotic week and long drive, had returned with our home away from home. We secured the bikes, climbed in the warm motorhome, made the beds and fell into them.
The next day we travelled to Cranbrook. It was a pretty short day of about 65 km. We arrived at Warren's grandparent's place to food, clean laundry and hot showers. Heaven. The RV was up at Warren's aunt and uncle's place being further tinkered with by his uncle Brian who has extensive RV-fixing expertise. After getting cleaned up and fed, Grandpa took us down to the local sports store so Warren and I could buy new helmets. (Warren's been wanting a new one for awhile, and I really needed a new helmet after dropping mine in Castlegar and cracking the outer layer) New helmet selection accomplished (ooooh, they are snazzy!), we went on a wonderful Grandpa-guided tour around town, ending up at Aunt Sue and Uncle Brian's place for a bbq of steak and tons of other food with the whole family. That night Warren, Tanya and I stayed in the RV. The view of the Rockies from our hilltop vantage point was unbelievable.
From Cranbrook we pedalled north to Fairmont Hot Springs. Given that we're still pretty early in the tourist season, and they were renovating their pools (we found out when we got there, which was rather sad as I had hoped to relax in the hot pools), we had pretty much the whole place to ourselves, save for a few bighorn sheep.
The next morning we headed off and met up with Joanne in the RV at Radium Hot Springs. Radium is located at the entrance to Kootenay National Park, and the beginning of a brutal mountain pass. At this point, I hopped in the RV with my bike as I had earlier decided my knees could not handle more steep climbs. This was a hard decision for me, for obvious reasons, but the pain had gotten to the point that there was a good chance that if I chose to do the final passes through the rockies, that I wouldn't be able to ride the prairies, or, even much more of the trip. Anyhoo, so I hopped in and we drove to the hot pools where we needed to stop to get a park pass. One problem: the RV door, yes, the ONLY door, was stuck. Heh. Joanne and I on the inside, and, after flagging them down to see if they could help, Tanya and Warren on the outside. We ended up sending Warren and Tanya off to continue the mountain pass after Joanne called a locksmith and had him on his way. 2.5 hours and two locksmiths later, the door was off its hinges (have I mentioned this RV is built like a tank??) and we were out. Of course, now they had to remount the door. These guys were terrific. One fella was an older gentleman originally from Fort Lauderdale, FL who couldn't really walk or breathe due to years of smoking, and looked like he might die at any moment. But man, did he have a great sense of humour. Thank goodness because he was going to need it over the next couple of hours. About an hour in, he phoned his partner to get him to come and help. This dude was about 7 feet tall, 300 lbs, a retired RCMP officer and a volunteer firefighter. He wasn't here more than 10 min before I heard him mutter something about the jaws of life. :) Anyways, these wonderful guys finally got us out, remounted the door, which, unfortunately doesn't lock anymore due to a misalignment, and gave us some grease to keep reapplying to the doorframe to help the door from binding closed again until we can get to Calgary to, hopefully, get it fixed. After many thank you's, we headed off and met Warren and Tanya deep within the park (they'd arrived at their final destination point about a half hour before we arrived and were quite worried as they were tired, hungry, and didn't know when we were going to be able to get there). That night we stayed at a picnic area in the middle of this park, in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome.
The next morning, in the cold and rain (thank goodness we didn't get the forecasted snow!) I started out with our team again and rode with them about 17km to the next pass. At that point, I hopped in the RV again and drove the 24km over the pass. Warren and Tanya arrived, frozen to the bones, about an hour and a half later. After a lengthy warmup period, we all hopped back on the bikes and rode to Banff, where Warren and I are currently taking our second rest day. Tanya left this morning with a friend to bike to Calgary. She'll be taking her rest day tomorrow there while Warren and I will be riding in to meet her tomorrow afternoon.
On today's agenda: laundry, blog updating and relaxation. We're ordering in pizza tonight!! Oh the excitement! Otherwise, Mom and Dad arrive in Calgary tomorrow for the RV driver switch. I'm excited, though will be sad to see Joanne leave us.
That's it for now. I'll try to give more regular updates in future so you don't have this epically long entry to read, and so I don't have to type for hours :P
So, what's been goin' on? After our wonderful rest day in Castlegar (thanks so much Rick and Donna for the hot showers, terrific food, wonderful company, and the instant ice packs, among everything else!) we geared up and rolled out. We followed the Kootenay River through Nelson (I simply love this quaint little town) to Balfour where we got on a ferry. I heard someone mention that it's the longest free ferry in North America. The boat ride took about 40 min. Once off, after having rested now for about 1.5 hours due to waiting for the ferry, then the ferry ride itself, we had to slog a steep uphill. Quite a rude beginning, I must say. Once at the top of the hill, the rest of the ride was just beautiful. We rode rolling hills, taking in the breathtaking scenery. There wasn't even much traffic. We ended the day just outside of Boswell at a place called the Bayshore Resort. This place has definite potential, but also was the sketchy-ist place we've been to so far. We stayed in a cute little 2 bedroom cabin that had a pull out couch as the third bed. All was going well until we pulled out the hide-away bed and the mattress fell through the frame. Heh heh, what can you do but laugh. Warren and I ended up putting the mattress on the floor and sleeping there. At this point though, at the end of the days of riding we're so tired that we can sleep just about anywhere...so it wasn't so bad :)
From Boswell, we carried on to Yahk, through Creston. We stopped for lunch in Creston and met up with Joanne in the rental car as we were waiting to hear the motorhome update....last we'd heard, there was a chance the motorhome would be meeting us in Yahk that night..woohoo!! Anyways, we got the phone call and indeed Randy was going to drive the RV from Princeton to Yahk that afternoon/evening. HOORAY! We knew that even though we'd be riding that we'd still be waiting for the motorhome to arrive, so we devised the perfect plan. We'd take our time riding to Yahk, then stop at a restaurant and have a long leisurely meal at a restaurant while waiting. Off we went. We arrived in Yahk and our plan went awry. See, Yahk isn't exactly a booming metropolis. It apparently used to have a restaurant or two, but they both closed down sometime ago. Joanne had found a great RV campground though and booked us in there for when the motorhome did arrive. Um, that's basically all Yahk is. So, we dined on peanut butter and jam sandwiches, as well as pop and chips from the convenience store located at the front of the campground. (We had more healthy food, but com'mon, we'd biked over 1000kms by then...a coke and bag of chips was well deserved, I think!) We finished up that, and the wait began. We did a bit of math and figured the earliest Randy would show would be about 6:30pm (I think we arrived around 4pm). Joanne walked to the roadside ready to flag Randy down as he thought we'd be in a motel about a kilometer away. Warren joined her about 15 min later, and I walked up not much longer after that. By 9:30pm, it was getting cold and dark. More math ensued. Warren now revised his estimate as he realized that the RV can't travel up and down the mountains as fast as cars can and Randy was driving a particularly mountinous area. We brought the car and bikes up to the roadside to stay warm. It was fun trying to figure out if the headlights blaring at us from the pitch black darkness were that of the RV we were desperately hoping for or just another transport truck. Finally around 11pm, (I was sound asleep in the front seat, clearly keeping a watchful eye) there was much commotion as I awoke to a "There he is!!", as I see the RV slow, then drive right on by. Warren, Tanya and I jumped out of the car, grabbed our bikes and our styrofoam cooler to pull them away from the car as Joanne started the car and tore off after Randy. We very quickly realized once again just how cold it was. Fortunately, it wasn't long before the car returned and the RV was just behind her. Randy, our hero, still smiling after his chaotic week and long drive, had returned with our home away from home. We secured the bikes, climbed in the warm motorhome, made the beds and fell into them.
The next day we travelled to Cranbrook. It was a pretty short day of about 65 km. We arrived at Warren's grandparent's place to food, clean laundry and hot showers. Heaven. The RV was up at Warren's aunt and uncle's place being further tinkered with by his uncle Brian who has extensive RV-fixing expertise. After getting cleaned up and fed, Grandpa took us down to the local sports store so Warren and I could buy new helmets. (Warren's been wanting a new one for awhile, and I really needed a new helmet after dropping mine in Castlegar and cracking the outer layer) New helmet selection accomplished (ooooh, they are snazzy!), we went on a wonderful Grandpa-guided tour around town, ending up at Aunt Sue and Uncle Brian's place for a bbq of steak and tons of other food with the whole family. That night Warren, Tanya and I stayed in the RV. The view of the Rockies from our hilltop vantage point was unbelievable.
From Cranbrook we pedalled north to Fairmont Hot Springs. Given that we're still pretty early in the tourist season, and they were renovating their pools (we found out when we got there, which was rather sad as I had hoped to relax in the hot pools), we had pretty much the whole place to ourselves, save for a few bighorn sheep.
The next morning we headed off and met up with Joanne in the RV at Radium Hot Springs. Radium is located at the entrance to Kootenay National Park, and the beginning of a brutal mountain pass. At this point, I hopped in the RV with my bike as I had earlier decided my knees could not handle more steep climbs. This was a hard decision for me, for obvious reasons, but the pain had gotten to the point that there was a good chance that if I chose to do the final passes through the rockies, that I wouldn't be able to ride the prairies, or, even much more of the trip. Anyhoo, so I hopped in and we drove to the hot pools where we needed to stop to get a park pass. One problem: the RV door, yes, the ONLY door, was stuck. Heh. Joanne and I on the inside, and, after flagging them down to see if they could help, Tanya and Warren on the outside. We ended up sending Warren and Tanya off to continue the mountain pass after Joanne called a locksmith and had him on his way. 2.5 hours and two locksmiths later, the door was off its hinges (have I mentioned this RV is built like a tank??) and we were out. Of course, now they had to remount the door. These guys were terrific. One fella was an older gentleman originally from Fort Lauderdale, FL who couldn't really walk or breathe due to years of smoking, and looked like he might die at any moment. But man, did he have a great sense of humour. Thank goodness because he was going to need it over the next couple of hours. About an hour in, he phoned his partner to get him to come and help. This dude was about 7 feet tall, 300 lbs, a retired RCMP officer and a volunteer firefighter. He wasn't here more than 10 min before I heard him mutter something about the jaws of life. :) Anyways, these wonderful guys finally got us out, remounted the door, which, unfortunately doesn't lock anymore due to a misalignment, and gave us some grease to keep reapplying to the doorframe to help the door from binding closed again until we can get to Calgary to, hopefully, get it fixed. After many thank you's, we headed off and met Warren and Tanya deep within the park (they'd arrived at their final destination point about a half hour before we arrived and were quite worried as they were tired, hungry, and didn't know when we were going to be able to get there). That night we stayed at a picnic area in the middle of this park, in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome.
The next morning, in the cold and rain (thank goodness we didn't get the forecasted snow!) I started out with our team again and rode with them about 17km to the next pass. At that point, I hopped in the RV again and drove the 24km over the pass. Warren and Tanya arrived, frozen to the bones, about an hour and a half later. After a lengthy warmup period, we all hopped back on the bikes and rode to Banff, where Warren and I are currently taking our second rest day. Tanya left this morning with a friend to bike to Calgary. She'll be taking her rest day tomorrow there while Warren and I will be riding in to meet her tomorrow afternoon.
On today's agenda: laundry, blog updating and relaxation. We're ordering in pizza tonight!! Oh the excitement! Otherwise, Mom and Dad arrive in Calgary tomorrow for the RV driver switch. I'm excited, though will be sad to see Joanne leave us.
That's it for now. I'll try to give more regular updates in future so you don't have this epically long entry to read, and so I don't have to type for hours :P
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Quick note
I've finally posted the link to our pictures. These pictures are the same as Warren's so you know.
We're off today from Castlegar, back on the road heading to Boswell. We'll be leaving as soon as Warren can buy and replace his torn front tire.
Ciao for now!
We're off today from Castlegar, back on the road heading to Boswell. We'll be leaving as soon as Warren can buy and replace his torn front tire.
Ciao for now!
Monday, May 7, 2007
Day 6: Grand Forks to Castlegar
Hello once again. I am writing this on our first rest day....yeehaw. Yesterday was definitely a "let's get through it" kind of day for me. I guess we'll all experience lows here and there. Thank goodness it didn't last the entire duration of the day. The ride from Grand Forks to Castlegar was only 100km, and we summited another pass: Paulson at 1535m, which was our highest yet. Lots of climbing, but once we passed the Paulson summit, it was about 30km downhill to Castlegar which was a wonderful surprise.
Wildlife sighted yesterday: a bumblebee upclose and way too personal, and a butterfly which hitched a ride in my helmet for a bit. I was less than impressed.
I've developed a bit of a knee problem which I think had a lot to do with my state of mind yesterday. Quite frustrating as we don't know what is causing the problem, and I've never had knee problems before. Currently I'm icing it at night, and taking ibuprofen to help with the swelling. Hopefully this rest day will help, and we'll be off fresh and ready tomorrow morning. Optimism always helps, right? :)
Wildlife sighted yesterday: a bumblebee upclose and way too personal, and a butterfly which hitched a ride in my helmet for a bit. I was less than impressed.
I've developed a bit of a knee problem which I think had a lot to do with my state of mind yesterday. Quite frustrating as we don't know what is causing the problem, and I've never had knee problems before. Currently I'm icing it at night, and taking ibuprofen to help with the swelling. Hopefully this rest day will help, and we'll be off fresh and ready tomorrow morning. Optimism always helps, right? :)
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Day 5: Osoyoos to Grand Forks
Anarchist conquered. BOOYAH! After an evening and night spent worrying about this climb, thinking that I'd be stopping every few feet, maybe even having to walk the 30 km mountain, it turned out to be not nearly as bad as I thought. Thank heavens. That said, it was still a 30 km climb where the first 8km is at an 8% grade. The road is really intimdating to look at. We took a picture from our hotel room (which doesn't do it justice). I'll post it when we've got the photo album up and running (within the next couple of days).
We had another beautiful day weather-wise. The ride was good...tons of climbing. The final distance total for today was 125km, our longest yet, and with as much or more climbing than we've done in any of our other days. Needless to say, exhaustion is currently rampant in our Ramada hotel room here in Grand Forks. The final descent into the town was a good downhill for 13 km. I was in a short-sleeved, thin jersey, and the headwind was brutal. "Cold" doesn't cut how I was feeling. Perhaps this is what spurred a final burst of energy as we were entering town after a well over 100 km day. I dunno, but I just somehow decided that I needed to warm up, and wanted to get to the hotel. So, I, uh, turned on the power boosters. I didn't realize the rest of my team was having trouble keeping up the pace. I admit it was a good feeling though since both Tanya and Warren are such phenomenal riders with considerable athletic backgrounds. Maybe I've got something in me yet.
Anyhoo, we're here now. Joanne has brought all our gear and food via rental car (the RV is still in Princeton being fixed...long story, but we hope it will be back with us again on Tuesday). Again, I can't say enough about the support we have. Family and friends with your words of encouragement, and particularly our parents who continue to rise far above the call of duty.
Tomorrow we head to Castlegar, then have a rest day there on Monday. HOORAY. Good news is that the ride tomorrow is about 100km, which is a decent length. Bad news is that it's a heck of a lot more climbing. I can't wait for the prairies.
We had another beautiful day weather-wise. The ride was good...tons of climbing. The final distance total for today was 125km, our longest yet, and with as much or more climbing than we've done in any of our other days. Needless to say, exhaustion is currently rampant in our Ramada hotel room here in Grand Forks. The final descent into the town was a good downhill for 13 km. I was in a short-sleeved, thin jersey, and the headwind was brutal. "Cold" doesn't cut how I was feeling. Perhaps this is what spurred a final burst of energy as we were entering town after a well over 100 km day. I dunno, but I just somehow decided that I needed to warm up, and wanted to get to the hotel. So, I, uh, turned on the power boosters. I didn't realize the rest of my team was having trouble keeping up the pace. I admit it was a good feeling though since both Tanya and Warren are such phenomenal riders with considerable athletic backgrounds. Maybe I've got something in me yet.
Anyhoo, we're here now. Joanne has brought all our gear and food via rental car (the RV is still in Princeton being fixed...long story, but we hope it will be back with us again on Tuesday). Again, I can't say enough about the support we have. Family and friends with your words of encouragement, and particularly our parents who continue to rise far above the call of duty.
Tomorrow we head to Castlegar, then have a rest day there on Monday. HOORAY. Good news is that the ride tomorrow is about 100km, which is a decent length. Bad news is that it's a heck of a lot more climbing. I can't wait for the prairies.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Day 4: Princeton to Osoyoos
We had a delightful 123km day today. The weather was beautiful. The vast majority of the ride was flat until Keremeos as it was along the riverside, and we had a great tailwind. We stopped in Keremeos for lunch at this wonderful little cafe. It was truly a good find. From there, we carried onto Osoyoos. Oh the hills. Just rolling ones this time, but they don't roll in B.C. like they roll in Ontario. These things are pretty long and steep going up and coming down. Quite a few of them had a nice downhill leading into them so we were able to carry our momentum which helped considerably, but there was still a couple of long, long, steep hills around 100km that were pretty brutal, particularly with the headwind.
We were really lucky to see a couple of bald eagles today as well. Big birds, they are. Other than that, we saw lots of horses and cows...the usual, and a few signs for big horn sheep, but didn't actually get to see any.
Tomorrow we start the day with a HUGE climb called the Anarchist. This will be our biggest climb of the trip. We have a nice view of it from our hotel room balcony. The darned thing is transfixing. Worried doesn't even come close to how I feel about it. Apparently it's about a 25 km climb, most of it about 6-8%. That's pretty darned intense. We stopped in a bike shop today to finish inflating Warren's tire (the aftermath of him blowing one earlier in the day), and the fellow said "Yeah, I don't even think I could make it up that, but there's a couple of 80 year olds that go up it daily." Great. It will be epic for sure.
I guess that's it for now.
I apologize to all that are waiting for pictures. We do have some, but just haven't had the time to put them up yet. They will come!
We were really lucky to see a couple of bald eagles today as well. Big birds, they are. Other than that, we saw lots of horses and cows...the usual, and a few signs for big horn sheep, but didn't actually get to see any.
Tomorrow we start the day with a HUGE climb called the Anarchist. This will be our biggest climb of the trip. We have a nice view of it from our hotel room balcony. The darned thing is transfixing. Worried doesn't even come close to how I feel about it. Apparently it's about a 25 km climb, most of it about 6-8%. That's pretty darned intense. We stopped in a bike shop today to finish inflating Warren's tire (the aftermath of him blowing one earlier in the day), and the fellow said "Yeah, I don't even think I could make it up that, but there's a couple of 80 year olds that go up it daily." Great. It will be epic for sure.
I guess that's it for now.
I apologize to all that are waiting for pictures. We do have some, but just haven't had the time to put them up yet. They will come!
Day 3: Sunshine Valley to Princeton
Another, um, interesting day. Lots of hills. Both up and down. Don't be thinking down is relaxing though, oh no. Nope. Uh-uh. Terrifying isn't relaxing. It also rained and snowed, with a touch of hail. Gotta love the mountains in May. What was fun though was that during our climbing today, for quite sometime we couldn't tell whether we were going uphill, downhill or on a flat stretch. Your mind plays tricks with you. Only after conferring with Warren and Tanya, and looking at our computers were we able to figure what we were doing. Anyhoo, happier thoughts. We saw two moose today. They were serenely standing in a valley by water in Manning Park. Very cool. We stopped to watch them for a minute, then went to get the cameras and they got camera shy. Silly moose moved behind trees and the best we could do was take pictures of their behinds. Then, shortly after that, we saw 5 deer on the opposite side of the road. Apparently we were scary as they all loped off. Had tons of people beeping horns (in a good way!) at us again today.
The total distance for today was 113km. We ended just outside of Princeton. We arrived to find our support vehicle parked at a garage. Apparently they lost power steering earlier in the day. There is much sadness at this turn events. Currently this means the RV will be parked in Princeton until it's fixed. We plan to continue to Oosoyoos with clothes in backpacks and stay in a motel tomorrow night. Hopefully by Saturday, the RV will be fixed and the Taylors' will be able to meet us there. Who knows. We'll remain optimistic.
We came on this trip for adventures and challenges. We found them. Now we get to overcome them.
The total distance for today was 113km. We ended just outside of Princeton. We arrived to find our support vehicle parked at a garage. Apparently they lost power steering earlier in the day. There is much sadness at this turn events. Currently this means the RV will be parked in Princeton until it's fixed. We plan to continue to Oosoyoos with clothes in backpacks and stay in a motel tomorrow night. Hopefully by Saturday, the RV will be fixed and the Taylors' will be able to meet us there. Who knows. We'll remain optimistic.
We came on this trip for adventures and challenges. We found them. Now we get to overcome them.
Day 2: Harrison Hot Springs to Sunshine Valley
What a day. We started late today, around 11am actually, after hoping that the rain would clear at least a bit. And it did, sort of, for a bit. We had a great ride from the campground to Hope. From Hope we started the uphill grind. How painful. Oh, and what was more fun is that the rain picked up around this point too. Anyhoo, from Hope to the Hope Slide was about 15km. Over the course of this distance we gained an altitude of about 750m. It took us about an hour and a half. I was seeing a lot of 5-7km/h on my computer. Quite depressing, but at least we were getting the job done. I admit that at this point I was wishing we had more opportunity to train on the hills in Gatineau.
Randy and Joanne (Warren's parents and our current designated drivers) passed us a couple of times along the way in the motorhome and blew the horn which was quite fun. Actually, we had 3 random cars beep friendly at us as well. I'm also told that we had quite a number of truckers wave at us, though I missed them all as I was focusing. I think they were encouraging us, and must of realized what we were doing, as no one else in their right minds would have been riding in that weather. It was so nice!
We finally reached the Hope Slides rest area where we were going to meet up with the RV. At this point it was about 3pm. We were all pretty tired, soaking wet, and getting cold fast. We decided that we would only continue onto Sunshine Valley as I felt I couldn't finish the remaining 40km to our destination in Manning Park (and 500m more of altitude gain). I am so happy I'm riding with such laid-back, understanding people.
I have to make special mention of the Taylors' here. They have been so wonderful, particularly today. We showed up and they had hot water ready for us, then when we decided to end early they dashed around and found us a place to stop for the night while we stayed inside the RV getting warm.
Not exactly the day we had planned, but we knew today was going to be tough.
We shall conquer on the 'morrow. Hope for blue skies.
Randy and Joanne (Warren's parents and our current designated drivers) passed us a couple of times along the way in the motorhome and blew the horn which was quite fun. Actually, we had 3 random cars beep friendly at us as well. I'm also told that we had quite a number of truckers wave at us, though I missed them all as I was focusing. I think they were encouraging us, and must of realized what we were doing, as no one else in their right minds would have been riding in that weather. It was so nice!
We finally reached the Hope Slides rest area where we were going to meet up with the RV. At this point it was about 3pm. We were all pretty tired, soaking wet, and getting cold fast. We decided that we would only continue onto Sunshine Valley as I felt I couldn't finish the remaining 40km to our destination in Manning Park (and 500m more of altitude gain). I am so happy I'm riding with such laid-back, understanding people.
I have to make special mention of the Taylors' here. They have been so wonderful, particularly today. We showed up and they had hot water ready for us, then when we decided to end early they dashed around and found us a place to stop for the night while we stayed inside the RV getting warm.
Not exactly the day we had planned, but we knew today was going to be tough.
We shall conquer on the 'morrow. Hope for blue skies.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Day 1
Day 1: White Rock to Harrison Hot Springs
First day done. All in all, a pretty great day. We started off in light drizzle after having had honest to goodness rain most of last night...but we were ready for it. We got to try out all our new rain gear! I believe it was Tanya that commented the 3 of us looked like a cycling advertisment for MEC.
Anyhoo, so after much morning chaos, we rolled away around 10am. First stop was White Rock Pier for the must have "Pacific Ocean pictures".
The ride was pretty straight forward. Some pretty tame hills in the beginning, one slightly nastier one, then pancake flat for most of the remainder of the ride. Pretty sweet. Lots of farms. Specifically lots of horse and llama farms which I was thrilled with. :) We arrived at the RV park in Harrison Hot Springs about 5 hours and 5 minutes from when we left the Pier. Not bad for a 120km ride.
Tomorrow should be interesting as we will spend a great deal of time climbing. For now though, I'm exhausted.
Bedtime for me.
First day done. All in all, a pretty great day. We started off in light drizzle after having had honest to goodness rain most of last night...but we were ready for it. We got to try out all our new rain gear! I believe it was Tanya that commented the 3 of us looked like a cycling advertisment for MEC.
Anyhoo, so after much morning chaos, we rolled away around 10am. First stop was White Rock Pier for the must have "Pacific Ocean pictures".
The ride was pretty straight forward. Some pretty tame hills in the beginning, one slightly nastier one, then pancake flat for most of the remainder of the ride. Pretty sweet. Lots of farms. Specifically lots of horse and llama farms which I was thrilled with. :) We arrived at the RV park in Harrison Hot Springs about 5 hours and 5 minutes from when we left the Pier. Not bad for a 120km ride.
Tomorrow should be interesting as we will spend a great deal of time climbing. For now though, I'm exhausted.
Bedtime for me.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Busy Day
Today was an incredibly busy day. We started off the day by heading out on a bike ride. Unfortunately, it ended up being a 900m bike ride. Heh. We left the driveway, headed down the hill and suddenly I realized my bike didn't feel right. I had flatted for the first time. My rear tire absolutely blew. Interesting. After the fiasco of yesterday, I'm hoping that I'm getting all of the things that could go wrong out of the way now. :) Ah well, at least I got the chance to actually change my first tire. I should add that Warren then blew a second tube on my same tire later this evening while re-inflating it after working on it. Anyways, so because we knew how much we had to do today, the tire incident ate away most of the designated ride time, so we came home again.
All this said, we're pretty much ready. Just a few things left to do tomorrow morning, then we'll be off. We're exicited, and nervous to say the least.
12 hours from now, we'll be on the road...amazing.
All this said, we're pretty much ready. Just a few things left to do tomorrow morning, then we'll be off. We're exicited, and nervous to say the least.
12 hours from now, we'll be on the road...amazing.
Epic Hills
Yesterday was an eventful day. We finally found time to get the bikes together, so we took them for a short spin to make sure the kinks were all worked out. Of course, while putting together bikes, the gears get shifted a few times (note the foreshadowing here folks). It would make sense then, that one should check what gear the bike is in before hopping on. Not I. Nope. I just hopped on, clipped in and realized very quickly that I was in a very low gear which wasn't a good thing seeing as how the driveway is significantly uphill. The outcome: Hillary and her bike fell over. It wasn't a pretty sight. Fortunately, I only bent the hood and bruised the palm of my hand. So after straightening the hood out and picking up the pieces of my slightly shattered pride...I shifted...and we started off.
The route we took was beautiful. There are so many flowers and trees in bloom...just gorgeous. I also realized just how hilly White Rock really is (although, what was I expecting? It's a seaside community on the side of a large bluff). Nearing the end of the ride, we stopped, and Warren asked if I was "ready for Buena Vista Ave.". "Sure", I said, thinking he meaning going up from the east end of the street which is quite a long uphill section, but only moderately steep. Warren then pointed to the street where he intended us to go up. I quickly realized that this monstrosity that lay before me was NOT the part of Buena Vista Ave. that I had visualized. In fact, it's one of the steepest hills in town. It starts out at about 10% and about halfway up it becomes 16%. We clipped in and set off.
Halfway up, just before the steepest part, panic overcame me. Warren had both forgotten how terrified of heights I am and I thought I could overcome it. I realized I couldn't as the panic set in. We stopped. Pride shattered again, we turned around, and after about a 1/2 block walk to a less steep section, I was able to get back on the bike to finish rolling down the hill. We ended up cruising along the oceanside road for a bit and eventually found a much wider, tamer hill to ascend to return home.
It turns out Warren's plan had been for us to go up this hill, get to the top, then tell me that we'll never have to do something this steep on our whole way across. The poor guy had intended the hill to be a confidence booster for me. Anyways, it was quite the ride.
This morning, we're heading out to test run the first part of our real ride. We have a nasty hill at about the 8km mark that we drove up the other day while scouting it out. Given that my usual toe-tingling at the thought of steep hills has now become foot-burning at the thought of steep hills...we thought we might try it once before really having to do it. Wish us luck!!
The route we took was beautiful. There are so many flowers and trees in bloom...just gorgeous. I also realized just how hilly White Rock really is (although, what was I expecting? It's a seaside community on the side of a large bluff). Nearing the end of the ride, we stopped, and Warren asked if I was "ready for Buena Vista Ave.". "Sure", I said, thinking he meaning going up from the east end of the street which is quite a long uphill section, but only moderately steep. Warren then pointed to the street where he intended us to go up. I quickly realized that this monstrosity that lay before me was NOT the part of Buena Vista Ave. that I had visualized. In fact, it's one of the steepest hills in town. It starts out at about 10% and about halfway up it becomes 16%. We clipped in and set off.
Halfway up, just before the steepest part, panic overcame me. Warren had both forgotten how terrified of heights I am and I thought I could overcome it. I realized I couldn't as the panic set in. We stopped. Pride shattered again, we turned around, and after about a 1/2 block walk to a less steep section, I was able to get back on the bike to finish rolling down the hill. We ended up cruising along the oceanside road for a bit and eventually found a much wider, tamer hill to ascend to return home.
It turns out Warren's plan had been for us to go up this hill, get to the top, then tell me that we'll never have to do something this steep on our whole way across. The poor guy had intended the hill to be a confidence booster for me. Anyways, it was quite the ride.
This morning, we're heading out to test run the first part of our real ride. We have a nasty hill at about the 8km mark that we drove up the other day while scouting it out. Given that my usual toe-tingling at the thought of steep hills has now become foot-burning at the thought of steep hills...we thought we might try it once before really having to do it. Wish us luck!!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Goodbye Ottawa!
I've had my last sleep in my own bed for 3 months. Wow.
Last night at Pub Italia was a BLAST. Thanks everyone for coming out. Good food and lots of laughs...just can't beat a send off like that. We'll keep you posted on where we are, and for those of you that expressed interested...you keep us posted if you're still interested in popping out and joining us somewhere. That would be fantastic.
At this point, we're pretty much packed and now I get to do my usual unpack, make sure I haven't forgotten anything, worry that I've packed too much (and still forgotten something that I just can't live without...or buy elsewhere), then re-pack, hope like heck it all fits. :)
We fly out of Ottawa tonight at 6:30, after ever supportive parents drive up to help us get there with all of our things. A huge thank you to Mom and Dad for doing that. Getting the boxed bikes to the airport could have been interesting otherwise. Hopefully all that goes smoothly, and we'll be on our merry way.
Here we come Vancouver!!!
Last night at Pub Italia was a BLAST. Thanks everyone for coming out. Good food and lots of laughs...just can't beat a send off like that. We'll keep you posted on where we are, and for those of you that expressed interested...you keep us posted if you're still interested in popping out and joining us somewhere. That would be fantastic.
At this point, we're pretty much packed and now I get to do my usual unpack, make sure I haven't forgotten anything, worry that I've packed too much (and still forgotten something that I just can't live without...or buy elsewhere), then re-pack, hope like heck it all fits. :)
We fly out of Ottawa tonight at 6:30, after ever supportive parents drive up to help us get there with all of our things. A huge thank you to Mom and Dad for doing that. Getting the boxed bikes to the airport could have been interesting otherwise. Hopefully all that goes smoothly, and we'll be on our merry way.
Here we come Vancouver!!!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Blog creation..test123
So I'm finally getting around to registering for my blog and getting it up and running. Woohoo. Let's see if this works...
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