Cycle Canada, Day 16, May 20/06

May 20/06, Saturday.                                                          Day 16                            1450 Km

Grove of caraganas, north of Hwy 15, Saskatchewan.                        ~60 Kms + 115 by truck                   ~ 5:20 Hrs

Pedalled hard all day into a head wind. Not as hard as yesterday's when we could only do about 7 Km/Hr. (This sentence doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless I left off writing journal entries for a couple of days then went back to catch up. 7 Km/Hr was definitely our speed into Nokomis) Took about 4 hours to do the 38 Kms into Outlook including breaks. Stopped for lunch at a local restaurant and Doug approached some folks about a ride to the intersection of #2 Highway near Amazon. No one had ever heard of Amazon. In fact there's no sign at the intersection once we arrived there. This is the point in the horror movie where you think, "Those guys are so stupid. Why do they keep going that way? They're obviously going to die" We chatted with the guys at the next table for a while and finally Ken said that he could give us a ride. We did a quick shopping trip across the street and loaded the bikes into his truck before we learned each other's names.

At the intersection of 2 & 15 there is a bit of a gravel pit. We unloaded, cracked a beer and paid Ken $100 (Jane's mad money) for his time and fuel. As we stood there a couple of guys that he works with drove by. It turns out that he was playing hooky from work and giving us a ride in the boss's truck with the boss's fuel. We took a bit of film of the group of us and I told Ken that we would have to scrub the sound and replace it. I asked if he would mind having a Newfie accent. He laughed.

I don't remember the wind being such a problem after Ken dropped us off. I do remember heading into Outlook, going down into the Saskatchewan River valley, standing on the pedals and pushing until my legs burned, trying to get my speed up to 20 Km/Hr. I couldn't do it. Eighteen was my best. I had made it a goal of the trip to exceed the speed rating of my BOB trailer every day. I managed it most days. Not today.

We set up in the caraganas and were pretty well protected from whatever wind there was. Doug set the camera on the tripod and we ran off a whole tape of us doing a typical camp. We had supper and a draw and a couple of drinks and yakked. I recorded it on minidisc as well because of the sound problems we are pretty sure to have.

Cycle Canada, Day 15, May 19/06

May 19/06, Friday.                                           Day 15                                 1390 Km

Dry dugout in a farmer's field, east of Sovereign, Sask.                            ~115 Kms                    ~ 6:40 Hrs

Headwinds all day though not super strong. We rarely exceeded 20 Km/Hr. There were no services between where we camped and Rosetown; about 75 Kms. There may be no services between Rosetown & Outlook; there is little of anything and we've come half way already to get to where we're camped. I've got to check the map to see what our next stop could be after Outlook.

7704-1390=6314 Km = 1/6 in 2 weeks = 12 weeks.

I jotted down this equation to try to figure out how we were doing and what our trip length would be. Our final distance would turn out to be less than the official length of the Trans-Canada.

Doug finally got hold of Nikki. All is good. I got a second knee brace today in Rosetown. A neoprene one that just holds everything together. (Good since my knee was going click click this morning.) I moved the side-staved one to the right knee. One of the staves had torn some of the skin on my left knee.

Overheard a conversation in the restaurant in Rosetown about a lady who got 15 yrs in prison for killing her baby. The weapon was "traces of marijuana in her breast milk." I'd like to see the court documents on that one. Also the subpoena for the milk sample.

Our first stop in Rosetown had been at a gas station where we'd both had a dump and got something cold to drink before heading for the restaurant a little farther up the road. When I paid for my drink they had a map of Saskatchewan under Plexiglas for a counter. I thought it must be an old one and commented on it. It showed an up-coming portion of Highway 15 as being gravel while the map that I had bought a few days earlier had shown it as paved. Nobody just unpaves a road. I was told "No," this was the most current map, it came in with the most recent shipment.

No one at the gas station had ever driven that road so couldn't tell me from personal experience which map was correct.

060518 e-Mail from the Road

Saskatchewan has Hills!

Dear All:
Doug and I have just arrived in Kindersley, Saskatchewan. We're going to take a couple of hours to provision up and catch up on our correspondence.
It turns out that this province does indeed have hills, despite rumours to the contrary. They're just invisible hills. The folks around here call them "winds." Sometimes you pedal up the "winds" and struggle hard to move faster than walking speed. Sometimes you ride down the "winds" and pedal easily to speeds that would match city traffic. The amazing thing is that all the roads look perfectly flat!
Something else strange about this province is how things move. You might see a town on the horizon and you know it's not far away because, well, because you can see it. I mean, it's right over there. And yet you pedal and pedal and pedal and may not get to the town for three quarters of an hour or more. The only possible explanation is that the towns move away as you approach. And it's not just towns, sometimes it's farm buildings of groups of trees. Amazing!
And the news for people who are following the track across the country:
from Calgary we road out and spent the first night in a farmer's field, hiding behind some big straw bales about 12 Km short of Hanna, Alta.
Second night we spent on an abandon farm, where we got a little hassle from a local cop. It wasn't too bad though. His first question was, "Do you live here?" and we both managed to bight our tongues rather than saying something like, "The place is abandon. Do the math." we called him Sir and let him check our ID over the radio and he went away. No harm, no foul.
Last night we stayed in a B&B in Oyen, Alta. Very nice.
Tonight the plan is to get our stuff and ride about 15Km out of town and find a place to camp. The road out of town was one of those invisible downhills when we arrived but that may have changed by now.
Spooky.
Love to everybody. I'll try to get more real news in my next letter. 
Brent

Cycle Canada, Day 14, May 18/06

May 18/06, Thursday Day 14                                                                  1275 Km

Windrow east of Kindersley, Sask.                                                         ~117 Kms                     ~ 6:45 Hrs

It was a long ride today. My left knee gave me some trouble yesterday and I was a bit leery of testing it today. Even so it gave me a couple of pangs.

I phoned Akiko from Alsask and Doug tried again to get ahold of Nikki.

We rode through rolling fields with mostly straight roads and cross- or headwinds. In Kindersly we visited the library and used the net, got off some e-mails, got food, booze, ice, water and cycled about 30 minutes out of town.

33 Degrees C.

I don't remember much specific about this day other than thinking that Alsask was a hole.

See us at our campsite @ http://www.youtube.com/user/snottyvar#p/a/u/2/Ieh0 BjstLhY

Cycle Canada, Day 13, May 17/06

May 17/06, Wednesday. Day 13                                                   1158 Kms

Prairie Bell's B&B, Oyen, Alberta                                                 ~130 Kms                             ~ 6:20 Hrs.

- Met Gord & Ruth on the highway

- Good tailwinds in the afternoon

- Spent the night at Prairie Bell's. Cheryl & Manfred were the hosts, she talkative and he mostly silent but witty when he spoke.

Did a laundry and bought food and beer. Also went for fries & gravy and a beer at the local Chinese restaurant. It cost $8 each.

A little more reasonable than the $20 each we had spent for a burger and a beer in Calgary but still a highly inflated price.

Prairie Bell's has collections of cookie tins and bells. The bells are scattered around the house and concentrated in the dining room. I didn't even notice them until they were mentioned by someone. What I did notice was the cookie tins everywhere. In the halls, bathrooms, bedrooms, stairway, kitchen.

It was a great old house built in 1917 by 3 brothers and their father to attract a suitor for their sister. It worked. The house has been moved twice since it was built. Manfred was building an addition.

It was a hot day today, the hottest of the year so far. It might have been the hottest of the whole trip with temperatures in the low 30's. The wind, heat, exercise and lack of shade made for a very dry ride. I didn't keep track of the water I was drinking but I know it was a lot. Doug was drinking bottled water and his bill for the day was around $15 or $20.

Oyen is about 4 Km's off the highway and I was wilting at the end of a long day of riding. We could have camped at the gas station at the cross roads but it was just a field. I didn't want to lie in a tent in the sun. It would too hot.

I think this was also the day that I started to notice that the riding was getting easier. I didn't feel the urge to go straight to sleep when I got off the bike. After a couple of hours of rest, cooling down and watering up I felt pretty good. We even sat in the parlour at Prairie Bell's and watched a bit of hockey.

Cycle Canada, Day 12, May 16/06

May 16/06, Tuesday. Day 12                                                                       1028 Km

Abandon farmhouse ~ 13 Km West of Hanna, Alta.                               ~116 Kms                 ~ 6:15 Hrs

Day started off easy with a downhill and tail wind but neither lasted. Stopped about 8 Km down the road for the worst cup of coffee in the world.

Passed through Drumheller with a 2 hour pause to run errands. No HDV tapes. Doug got a basket for his bike. We took on lots of food and water and headed out. There has been no place to re-provision since leaving Drumheller about 55 Km back. We carried about 7 litres of water and drank most of it. A couple of beers too.

The 55 Km was hard won since most of it was up a gentle slope into a headwind that seemed to make the slope much steeper. Doug seemed to be having a bad psychological time with that and the inability to figure distances but I don't think it's that bad. I know that he's been dreading the thought of the prairies since we started. He's just a bit keyed up.

We chose to go west to east specifically because it's the same direction as the prevailing winds. I know we won't be going into a head wind for 2 weeks. We'll get a few days of good tail winds somewhere along the route.

Had a visit from a cop. He checked ID's and said that we should report into RCMP stations along our route so we could be tracked. I think the internet helps track us anyway.

The worst cup of coffee in the world is available at a gas station near the junction of Highways 9 & 21. We arrived at the coffee shop just as it opened and the first pot of coffee was still brewing. I expected it to be at least adiquate but when I tasted it I knew where the term 'dishwater' came from.

The abandon house was interesting. I think that it has been abandon for only a couple of years. The place it was built was a pretty nice place, as the bald prairies go, between 2 small streams. When I see an abandon farm I sometimes wonder what happened to the builders or the last residents. Sometimes the thought gives me a spooky feeling. This place doubly so because we took a wander through the house and I could see the uses of all of the rooms.

People talk about ghost towns but no one ever talks about ghost farms.

060515 e-Mail from the Road

No bear bait here!

Dear All:
It shouldn't be something that causes confusion but, just in case you heard things in the wrong order, it wasn't either Doug or I who got eaten by that bear in Banff on the weekend. Although we were in the neighbourhood at the time.
We're heading for the bald prairie where gophers, wind gusts and sleepy truckers are the biggest hazards. The plan right now is Highway #9 to the Saskatchewan border, #7 to Rosetown then #15 to Yorkton. We're just trying to get off the Trans-Canada so the traffic will be lighter.
Bye for now, Brent