Saturday, June 2, 2012

We is high...

We had a guest rider today! Brad Bushell came out from Vancouver to ride with us through part of our leg today.  Alex and I rolled over to Tim Horton's to grab some breakfast and wait for Brad.  Grabbed a few extra bagels for the road and had a bit of a late start but we were on the road by about 11am.  Today it was a lot dryer as it only rained on us in the morning as we climbed out of Hope.  I say climbed out of hope because that is basically what we did for the first 45 kms out of hope till we got to the summit of the Coquihalla Pass. Getting to the top of the pass the temp dropped a lot and we could see our breath as we were breathing heavy with the steep long climb.  Ever time I climb a huge climb like that I think of a story my friend Eryn Paterson told me about her daughter, Spencer, ridding her tricycle on the side walk.  Spencer at this time looked exactly like the kid on 'Monsters Inc.'  She had gotten to a small hill on the sidewalk and was asking her mom for help.  Eryn responded with "You can do it."  So she digs in and with a look of determination on her face she chants all the way up the small hill "I can do it. I can do it. I can do it."   For some reason every time I and rolling up a huge climb and my legs and lungs are burning I now start chanting in my head "I can do it. I can do it."  At the summit we had reached an elevation of 1,244 meters and gained some very tired legs.  Brad left us at this point and we had 65 kms left to Merritt where the sun finally came out! Couple more shorter climbs and Alex and I were in town by 5 pm.

Here are the few things I learned today:
- Truckers pee in plastic bottles and toss them out the window. We have a new game on the road now...dodging road pee.
- You can make it through a full day eating food in bar form.
- Bagels mid ride are AWESOME.
- It appears that people that eat at McDonalds have very little regard for the environment as it tends to dominate the litter on the side of the road

Being able to draft each other today made a huge difference today.  But we have a long day tomorrow with some more big climbs so off to bed I am.  I will get some pictures up in the next little while.  Just need some stronger interweeb to do so.  Thanks for all the notes and well wishes...you have no clue how much that helps!



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