Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Soggy in Revelstoke

Sunday morning Alex and I rocked the Tim Hortons and then headed out on tThe Connector to Kelowna.  Immediately we were slapped in the face with a 11 km climb out of Merritt. Holy crap was there a lot of climbing on that road.  Essentially its varying degrees of up for 75 kms and then a badass 25 km decent at 7%.  It was a rough 140 kms in total and near the top of the high mountain road the rain turned to snow...yup snow.  There is a few things that we noticed on the road to Kelowna.  First we added diapers to our game of dodge the pee bottles.  For some reason there were diapers all the way and we could not figure out if the diapers were from one person with a really poopy baby or random babies in the area.  The other thing noticeable was their seemed to be a high number of biker gangs around this area and we were passed by multiple groups of Harleys.  Maybe they weren't biker gangs and just groups of lawyers or dentists...Living the dream.

This section of highway was covered with clearcuts and to be totally honest this was really hard to see.  Large sections of mass destruction where forests have been turned into empty nothingness in the name of progress.  Someone mentioned to me that some of these areas might have been affected by pine beetles but regardless seeing how humans can radically change this planet weighs heavy on the heart because I know I am part of this problem.  To the left is just one of the several entire forests that I saw removed in the 140 km ride into Kelowna.  


After a night in Kelowna Alex decided he needed a full rest day so I took the short ride to Preditor Ridge where we were staying the night.  It was nice to shoot the headphones on and just take a slow ride along the lake.  Rather steep final climb followed by about 4 kms of gravel made me very very muddy.  

Today we started out from Vernon on towards Revelstoke and the start of the ride I was having some knee pain in my right knee.  I think the cold at the top of the Connector did a number to it and I was hurting a bit this morning.  So I popped 400 mgs of ibuprofen and holy crap did I feel better!  I don't care that its destroying my liver and kidneys because it took all my aches and pains away. I have a back kidney hanging out in my identical twin anyway so I should be all good (please don't tell my brother that I think of him as an organ farm). With that taken care as, well as some Tim Hortons, we hit the road and were dry for about 20 k...then rain....and rain....and then cold rain.  Basically 147 kms of rain. Rain gear is useless on a bike because you sweat so much the inside of the jacket gets soaked anyway but I had every layer on anyway because the temp dropped a lot on the way.  Every time we passed a river the temp would drop another 10 degrees because of the cold spring runoff and soon it was very hard to stay warm.  Because of that we kept the pace up to just under 30 kms an hour and I have a feeling that I am going to pay for that tomorrow as we are riding up Rogers pass but at the time all we wanted to do was get done.  The last 2 kms I rode with a very nice lady named Tina who lived near to where we were stay.  It was nice finish to a very rough day.

The new game we have invented to replace dodging pee bombs is called Epic Pee...essentially we have to find epic views to pee in front of and take a picture of said view...then we compare photos at the end of the day and see who the winner is.  This game has been discussed but when its raining so hard that you can't take your camera out and its so cold that you lack the manual dexterity to even pee its a little hard to even play.

Things I have learned in the last couple of day:

- I am now going to call ibuprofen Vitamin I.
- I really like Tim Hortons and there is a chance that I will hit 45 different ones while on this trip.
- I have only seen 2 other cyclists on this trip and we had a brief chat while riding in the opposite direction.  Apparently I have to have a Donair in Halifax according to the second cyclist.  I am thinking that there is a reason there are not that many cyclists out.  They are smarter than me to ride in weather like this.  Hopefully there will be more.
- I have discovered the wettest I can get and that was today...
- Merino wool is amazing and basically saved my life today.

I have decided to take a rest day in Calgary on Saturday to see everyone.  Look for a heads up on a pub or something to all hang out.  And for everyone wanting to roll out of Calgary with me I will be heading out of town on Sunday morning leaving from Calgary Cycle at 9 am.  Feel free to roll with me be be warned I am riding really slow.

Alright time to get ready for the pass tomorrow.  Please think dry thoughts.





2 comments:

  1. Love the tales from the road!
    You should snap a pic at every Tim Hortons along the way :)

    ReplyDelete