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!
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
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.
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