Cycle Canada, Day 11, May 15/06

May 15/06, Monday Day 11                                                                                            912 Km

Behind some straw bales ~ 20 Km East of Beiseker, Alta.                                       ~ 105 Kms                ~ 5:10 Hrs

Got away late as I expected we might, (11:30) it was well past noon before we got out of town. Had to do about 16 Km on the #1 Highway. With flat roads & some-time tail winds we made great time at first but by 13:30/ 14:00 the wind had shifted to cross & head. Progress slowed but we still averaged over 20 Km/Hr on the flats. Super.

Doug found a miraculous piece of ice while we were on our bikes In Beiseker!

OOOooooo...... Spooky!

With any kind of tail wind I can see a few days of 140 -> 160+ Kms.

The night behind the hay bales was the first time that I felt uncomfortable camping. We were on private property and almost in plain sight. A cop came up the road and parked near the microwave relay tower behind our camping spot. After a while he drove away. I felt a bit better knowing that we were being consciously ignored. But I still didn't want to deal with the property owner, in case he turned out to be a jerk.

This was also the night of the "Stealth SUV." This thing cruised by our campsite at highway speed and was utterly silent. No motor noise. No wind noise. No tire noise.

Silent.

060514 e-Mail from the Road

At rest in Calgary

Bulk mail
Dear All:
First, since I've had a request, a log of the places we've been and stopped on the first week and a bit of our cross Canada cycling tour:
So far it's been all Trans-Canada Highway 1.
May 5 left Port Coquitlam to a rest stop someplace between Agassiz & Hope
May 6 to a rest stop just short of Lytton
May 7 to Cache Creek and a hotel room with hot showers and warm beds. The hotel manager made no secret of the fact that she preferred having Hell's Angels as guests rather than cyclists but she rented us the room anyway.
May 8 about 120Km, The first 90 had a lot of climbing to Kamloops and we took some great film of the area on the way in. Next 30 Km of mostly down hill and flats c/w a tail wind. We stopped at the end of the divided highway east of Kamloops and waited for Doug's friends who came and picked us up and took us to their place about 30 Km shy of Salmon Arm where we were given a barbeque supper, an evening around the campfire, showers and a warm place to sleep.
May 9 A late start saw us get only as far as a view point overlooking the lake just short of Sicamous. In practicle terms we were really in Sicamous because the next morning we hopped on the bikes and coasted the 7 K's into town. At breakfast we talked to a fellow about a cyclist he had known from Italy. It had been his dream to cycle across Canada and he finally made a start. A little more than a week into the trip he had been killed and eaten by a bear. That was it. That was the whole story. Not really inspirational for a couple of guys cycling into the Selkirks and Rockies - bear country.
May 10 Through Revelstoke and up the first 25 Km's of the climb to Roger's Pass. We spent the night in a closed picnic area by a river. Really a beautiful spot with good facilities although being off-season the wash house was locked. Doug took a bath in the glacier-fed river; foolish boy.
May 11 Our longest day so far. 45 more Km's up to the summit of Roger's Pass in the Selkirk range, the highest point on the Trans-Canada took 3:45 Hrs We took a break and drank the Tusker beer that I had brought down from Mt Kilimanjaro. The next 80 K's took just a little over 4 hrs and had some crazy down hill runs and the scariest and (possibly) stupidest thing I've done in my life. We went into a tunnel on a steep down-hill and about 100yrds into it it was completely black. I couldn't see the road or the wall of the tunnel, just a small square of light at the far end. I aimed for it and held on. Then I heard the truck. The transport was flying down the hill behind me and I heard him enter the tunnel. I had to get over and couldn't see the wall but I had to try for it anyway. I swung right and felt gravel under the tires straightened out just as the transport flew passed at about 120KpH. I heard and felt him pass but didn't see him as he was running without lights. Doug was ahead of me and pedalling like a madman. He cleared the tunnel about a second and a half in front of the truck and then swung over to the shoulder. It was all very close. I count this as my first near-death experience. Unfortunately we didn't get any of it on film.
We cycled into Golden, took a room and ordered pizza and beer.
May 12 Left Golden late. We passed through our first time zone someplace yesterday though I didn't see the sign. Right out of town there was a road block. We were told that there had been a rock slide about 10Km up the road and that it would take about an hour to clear it. We chatted with the flagger and persuader her to let us through so we could get a jump on traffic by riding up to the next check point. At the next check point we were held up and told "an hour." After an hour an 'white hardhat' came passed and said, "an hour and a half." We talked our way through to the next check point and then to the one after that. Finally, after about 2 1/2 hrs, we had covered the 10 Kms to get up to the slide. I was so disappointed. The slide consisted of a few dozen rocks strewn across the road for about 30 feet. A car couldn't get through but it would be easy for a bicycle or motorcycle. About 30 people were standing around preventing traffic from proceeding. We were told, "an hour." By 3:PM we'd used all of our patience. We ran the blockade. We grabbed our bikes and just started walking through the slide area. Two 'white hardhats' just turned their heads and walked away, One yelled at us to stop. We didn't break stride and were through it in 30 seconds. On the far side of the slide we found about 5 miles of parked traffic. Some folks had been there for over 6 hours being told, "An hour, an hour." We started riding passed yelling things like, "They're lying", "Abandon hope", "Turn back now" and "You're here for the night." Having lost 4 hours to a hazard that we walked across on 30 seconds our plan to make Lake Louise, Alberta had to be abandon so we spent the night in Field, B.C. We had a really good time talking, drinking and laughing with about a dozen people who had been trapped by the slide and decided to just call it an unscheduled vacation day. We camped behind the only gas station in town.
May 13 We awoke to a heavy frost. No surprize really since some of the waterfalls that feed the Kicking Horse River we camped beside are still frozen. We started up 'Field Hill' the last real climb through the Rockies before the long slopes down the Eastern Face to the prairies. About 1 Km from the top Rob Lunney and his daughter Kate came passed in their van so (having no pride) we through our bikes in and caught a ride all the way to Calgary where we were treated to food, wine, good music and good company. I feel vaguely as though we cheated but I won't tell anyone if you don't. It was mostly down hill anyway.
And that's the story so far. We're hanging out in Calgary for the day and will start out again on Monday. I hope this helps for people who want to stick pins in a map. And a special message for those of you with Voodoo dolls, "You can pull some of the pins out of my ass now. I'm sore enough on my own."
Keep those cards and letters coming. I love every one of them. It's a little harder to get to an e-mail service on this trip than on the last so I may be a bit slow in responding but I will write back.
Love to all, Brent

Cycle Canada, Day 10, May 14/06

May 14/06, Sunday Day 10

Rob & Jane's, Calgary, Alberta                                                          Rest Day

Yesterday I woke up in Field, B.C. in a frost covered tent, beside a frozen waterfall. This morning I'm sitting in Lunney's back yard in the hot sun, surrounded by suburbs.

Phoned Mom for Mother's Day. She sounds like she's still under the weather after her cero sepsis and bad reaction to antibiotics. They kept her in the hospital for about 10 days. She says she has no appetite. That's bad.

On our rest day in Calgary Doug and I didn't do a whole lot that I remember. In the Kensington area we went for a burger and beer and it cost us $20 each. I thought it was a bit high (being from Alberta) but Doug thought it was userous. He was right when you compare prices in the east. We were in Cottage Country before we ran into prices like that again.

When we were packing up to leave the house Doug found an item in his pocket. Jane had put in $100 with a note that said, "mad money." We had talked about mad money during the evening we'd spent together. Jane had said that when she was young her mother would give her $20 mad money whenever she went out. She was not to spend it on anything other than getting home once her fun money was gone.

We would use this Mad Money later.

Cycle Canada, Day 9, May 13/06

May 13/06 Day 9                                                                                           807 Km

Calgary, Alberta. (Rob & Jane's)                        ~ 9 Kms                        ~ 1:00 Hr

Saturday - Almost made it to the top of "Field Hill," about 1 Km shy when Rob showed up with Kate. We went for a big breakfast In Banff & then to Calgary & the Lunney's. Jane showed up a bit later. I bought some bike shorts. We went for sushi, drank, listened to music & talked 'til after midnight. Rob & Jane have to be up at 4:30 for a 7:30 flight to Barbados tomorrow (Sunday). They've left us the keys for the house and we'll stay here 'til Monday morning (rest day).

Rob & Jane are great people.

Climbing the Field Hill was interesting. It was cold out. Probably -5C or so. The climb was hard work. We worked to the point of almost over-heating while riding but, when we took a break after about a half hour it was hard to stay still long enough to eat a chocolate bar. I wanted to get back onto the bike to warm up from the cold.

Cycle Canada, Day 8, May 12/06

May 12/06, Friday Day 8                                     798 Kms

Field, B.C.                      ~ 60 Kms                       ~4:00 Hrs

Climbed the first hill out of Golden and found traffic blocked. Some sort of trouble, a slide, at the construction site 10 Km up the road. It will take an hour to clear. We chatted with the flag-lady a bit & persuaded her that it was okay to ride forward & get a jump on traffic, as long as we stayed away from the danger zone and machines. We managed the same thing with 2 more flaggers @ 2 more places they had traffic stopped. Each stop consumed time. We got to the 4th flagger and I was disappointed to find the slide consisted of a few dozen rocks on a path 20 feet wide. The contractors weren't going to clean the road or let anyone by until the slope was stabilized. An excavator at the top was pushing stuff over. Most of what was being pushed down the slope wasn't reaching the road. We kept being told, "An hour. An hour." It was all lies. They didn't have a clue. About 14:30 Doug & I started talking about making it to Field by dark (Lake Louise was now out) or if we would have to sleep on the side of the highway. About 15:00 we made a break. We pushed our bikes through the slide. Two "white hats" turned and walked the other way, pretending they didn't see us coming. One "white hat" tried to stop us but Doug kissed him off and we didn't break stride as we passed by. On the other side of the slide & out of sight of it was a line-up of cars at least 5 miles long. Some had been sitting since before 9:30 being told "An hour. An hour." We rode passed yelling things like, "They're lying." "Abandon hope." "I hope you have food & water." "You'll be here all night." We probably got 50 or 60 cars to turn around.

Field is a nice little place but without much in the way of services. We went to The Truffle Pig and ate overpriced (though tasty) food and drank good beer. Met about a dozen people who had turned around & were hoping to get through the next day. The folks who had resigned to being stuck were all in a pretty good mood.

Slept behind the convenience store and woke up to a heavy frost.

At the top of the hill, on the way out of Golden I saw a guy hitch hiking and made the silly quip that I wasn't taking any riders. This wasn't the last time we'd see this guy.

Working our way through all of the flag stops on the way to the rock slide was really frustrating. It made for a day without too much work, which was a nice change from the day before, but with stops every half hour that lasted an hour or more each we made very little progress. The plan had been to make Lake Louise that day. We had hoped to meet Rob & Kate somewhere on the road between Lake Louise and Banff so they wouldn't have to drive so far.

In the line up of vehicles on the east side of the slide we saw people taking the wait just about every way people could take a wait. Folks were walking, talking, speculating on the nature of the problem, playing Frisbee, playing with the dog, playing the radio. I saw one guy pouring gas into his pick up because he'd idled out of fuel while waiting.

The road between the slide and Field was a bit surreal. The road east had almost no traffic. Only those people who had turned around form the closure and they came in bunches when they came. There was almost no traffic heading west. Word had probably gotten out by then that the road was closed indefinitely. So mostly it was Doug & I, riding by ourselves on a ribbon of pavement through a high mountain pass. The silence was amazing. I started to feel the big loneliness that is most of Canada.

By the time we got to Field the town was full up. It was really cold and I would have been easy to talk into taking a motel room for the night if there had been one available. We stopped at the gas station/convenience store on the highway and there was a line up at the till of folks who had escaped the traffic jam. Three employees were gabbing behind the counter, to all appearances ignoring the line up. I went to get a cup of coffee and there was none. I made 2 pots because I figured the demand would be there when enough folks came back up the highway. One of the employees told me that the place would be closing in 10 minutes. With a line up at the till and a steady stream of folks coming in, Doug commented that none of the ladies at the till was an owner.

The folks we met at The Truffle Pig had a 'snowed in' kind of attitude. There wasn't any anger or even an air of resignation about them, it was more like the first day on a cruise. They were treating the delay as a surprise opportunity to relax. The atmosphere was almost festive. I think that says something about the society we've created for ourselves.

We stayed at the Pig until it was time to sleep then went back to the gas station and camped by the river. There was a frozen waterfall a few hundred yards up on the other side. It was cold out; the coldest night of our trip. In the morning Doug and I took turns sitting over the propane stove.

Cycle Canada, Day 7, May 11/06

May 11/06, Thursday Day 7    738 Kms

Motel in Golden, B.C. ~126 Km's ~8:00 Hrs.

- @ Roger's Pass Summit - We've come 45 Km's in 3:45. At least 42 K of it was up hill. That plus the 25 K up from Revelstoke made for a 70 K climb. Now I know what those truckers were laughing about yesterday. The last 3 miles was brutal. I had expected a few crashes and a few close calls but nothing quite this crazy.

Doug has contacted Rob, Jane and the clan  to meet us in Lake Louise tomorrow (Saturday) for the 50 K ride to Banff then a trucking to Calgary for the weekend. Sounds good. We need to make 88 Km's today (Friday). Hard shell helps. Pizza too.

There's a monument at the top of the Roger's Pass. The highest point on the Trans-Canada. When we got there we were both on the verge of weeping. "It's all down hill from here, buddy. All down hill from here." We split the Tusker beer I'd given Doug to carry at the beginning of the trip. I'd carried this beer up Kilimanjaro a few months earlier and the highest point on the THC seemed like a good place to drink it. My half went straight to my brain. We took a good, long break at the cafateria at the summit and charged one of the camera batteries.

It's funny, but without my notes I don't really remember most of the climb from the campsite to the summit. I remember the last kilometre or two and straining to keep going. At some point near the top (either the 'Summit 1 Km" sign or when the monument was in sight) Doug had enough energy to take off and push to the top. I was working near the ragged edge and was happy to just keep my pace to the top. Doug beat me there by at least 200 yards.

I don't know how steep the slope we came up was but on the way down the other side I remember thinking that the eastern side looked a whole lot longer and steeper and I was glad that we'd come from the west.

The encounter with the truck was crazy. We'd zoomed through several snow sheds with open sides and I was having a good time. I saw the sign that warned of a "Dark Tunnel" ahead and thought, "I know how to deal with this." Just as I do when I wake up in the middle of the night to pee, I closed one eye. I thought that with one eye pre-adjusted to darkness I'd be able to see okay in the tunnel.

Nope.

The down hill side of the tunnel is just about 2 lanes wide. People had been driving on the left and the lane was clean, the right shoulder area was covered with gravel. Perhaps the result of winter sanding that hadn't been cleaned up yet. I thought Doug went in on the gravel. I chose the pavement. I was only a few seconds in and the light faded to nothing. Openning my second eye didn't help. All I could see was the little postage stamp of light in the distance with Doug's silhouette in the lower right. I was scared at first but then though, "I can see there's nothing between me and the exit so I won't hit anything. If I follow Doug I shouldn't hit any potholes." I relaxed a bit.

It's funny but when the truck came my only thought was that the folks back home would be disappointed that I'd been killed so early on the trip.

It turns out that the gravel on the shoulder was a good thing because it let me know to straighten out before I hit the side wall at 60 or 70 Km/Hr. Still I didn't know how far into the gravel I was or how close to the wall I was drifting. Once again, it was like being on a roller coaster, you can't do anything so just relax.

Once out of the tunnel Doug and I stopped and compared notes before continuing to the bottom.

Something no one mentions is that after you coast for 40 minutes down from the highest point on the Trans-Canada you then have to climb back up to the second highest point on the Trans-Canada. The day finished with another good down hill run then about 20 Km's of flat to Golden. I was so beat that I almost couldn't make the 1 block round trip to the beer store; but I forced myself.

060510 e-Mail from the Road

On the road again

Dear All:

Well I've finally found a place where I can sit down and bang out a letter. It's just after 6:30 AM in Sicamous BC and the beginning of the 6th day of this cross-Canada trip that Doug Bird and I are taking together. It's been good weather and hard work so far. We're making 110 to 120Km/day which is pretty good for a couple of middle aged out-of-shape guys.
Night #4 we spent with some friends of Doug's on the other side of Salmon Arm. They treated us great with a barbeque dinner, campfire and coffee and pancakes for breakfast. We didn't get away from there place until after 1:00PM so yesterday was a short day and we only went about 60K and camped at a rest area overlooking Shushwap Lake. Now I know why people like to vacation in this area. It's so beautiful.
Well the nice man has just brought me breakfast so I've got to go and eat. Love to all.
Brent

Eleri: Thanks for all the Smilies. I haven't forgotten you. It just seems that way.
Lynda: It's good to be back in Canada. And now I'm going to see some of it.
Stephe & Yvonne: Thanks again for evening out.