May
10/06 Day 6 612 Km
A closed
picnic area about 25 Km east of Revelstoke 108 Kms ~ 6:45 Hrs
The
second battery for the camera is now dead. I should have thought of
charging one at the internet cafe in Sicamous. We were really in
Sicamous last night though we didn't know it. We had already started
down the hill when we stopped at
the rest stop
for the night; in the morning it was only about 8 Km's into town, 6
of them down hill. We got there in 20 minutes without even warming
up. I was pretty cold by the time we got into the cafe. I got off a
quick, bulk e-mail
note but didn't spend a lot of time at it as I had food coming.
The ride
today was mostly uphill, like yesterday. We had a few good swoops but
over all was climb.
About 3
hours (40 Km's) out of Revelstoke we stopped at a gas station for a
break. One guy asked me where we were headed. I said, "Revelstoke
and points beyond." That got a good, spontaneous laugh from
several people. We rode all the way to Revelstoke looking for "The
Big Hill" but never found it. The worst part was climbing out of
the east end of Revelstoke. The grade was 8% or better for a
kilometre or so but once we joined the highway the slope became much
more civilized.
It had
been cold in the morning. We jumped on the bikes and started the
coast down hill. My hands were really cold. I was tempted to slow
down when they started to hurt. I wished that I'd put socks on them
or something, even a nice hill to climb would be good.
Sicamous
was closed, mostly. It was still before 7:00 and tourist season was a
couple of weeks off yet. I started to think we might have to go
without breakfast but, down a side street, we came across the
internet cafe. A pleasant little spot, I don't think it had been in
business very long, made in a converted old house, white picket fence
and all.
The man
and woman who were running the place were friendly. They told us
about the crack-house that had been across the street and indicated a
building that might have been built in the 30's of 40's. It was the
size of a one-room cabin or single car garage.We took some film of
their animatronic turtle as it crawled along the floor and sang, "You
Got to Slow Down."
Whenever
I drive through Revelstoke I think of it being in a valley (which it
is) and the steep roads on both sides. Coming in to town I had
expected a steeper drop. Leaving, the non-highway section was tough
but once on the highway the road seemed to be mostly a gentle slope.
Maybe it was just by comparison.
Sometime
on the ride through the mountains (perhaps as early as the second
day) Doug and I found that we were having trouble judging slopes. We
started exchanging conversations like:
"Why
are we working so hard? Isn't this down hill?"
"It
looks
down
hill, but I can't tell by looking."
"Trust
the pedals. The pedals know."
"The
pedals say it's up hill."
Our camp
site for the night was great. The only drawback was that the wash
house was locked. I pitched the tent while Doug had a bath in the
glacial runoff of the river. We had pasta and wine for supper in the
covered cook house and got a small fire going in the wood stove.
Sometime during the evening Doug had sized up the bear-proof garbage
cans and figured that two people could fit into one if required. He
rigged a string onto the latch of the one closest to the tent so that
it could be openned from the inside. I hadn't given bears much
thought up 'til that point but I know that if they had been around,
at that time of year they'd be hungry and mean.
The
Canadian Pacific Railway main line is on the opposite river bank from
the picnic site. I never realized how much stuff gets moved by
trains. A fully loaded one rolled passed every 8 to 10 minutes. When
it came time to sleep, they didn't keep me awake.
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