146 kilomters, big ride!

Today’s post has to start early in the morning when my tarp blew off my tent. It wasn’t windy when I went to bed but it became quite blustery in a matter of hours. At first I thought nothing of it, it had woken me out of a deep slumber so I didn’t really care about some stupid tarp. I eased back into sleep. Then I awoke with a start, hmm wind sometimes is followed by rain. I looked at the sky and saw some clouds but still the stars and planets were looking back at me, a good sign. Something nagged at me though so I got up and secured the tarp properly over the important parts of the tent (mainly where my head lay). At sometime between 2 and 3 am it started to rain lightly, then a little heavier until it was full blown rain. I was still dry but concerned that my tarp didn’t fully cover the tent and from there I couldn’t get back to sleep. Eventually a puddle developed near my feet on account of seepage through the bottom of the tent and small drips were landing around the same area. I toughed it out until about 4:30 when I decided to pack and move to David’s carport.

I hung my tent up against the wall to dry and packed up my bike so I was ready to go. Then I put on my Stormtech gear and got in my sleeping bag on the cold pavement. It really made me think of the homeless since I was cold and uncomfortable but better equipped and knew no one was going to kick me out or steal my stuff. I guess we take a lot of things for granted.

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103 kilometers – see here!

I woke up pretty early considering yesterdays epic ride and was off by 10am. I stopped in at the Visitors center which has free wifi for those wondering. I posted yesterdays ride and added images but wordpress always removes the html tags and brackets. While I was getting that sorted out I decided to upload video onto youtube and contact bell support explain why I only get a signal when am in towns but no where else. I was told because I was on newer network phone there is less coverage but the phone should automatically switch to the slower network on its own. When that doesn’t work I should turn my off phone and turn it on again to recalibrate. So basically no support at all thanks Bell for expensive crappy service.

I was about to leave town but saw the post office and had an idea. I found a service station to dump the gas from the oven that doesn’t work, cleaned it out and sent it home. The current stove I have is pretty much fail safe so why bother carrying the old one across the country.

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128 kilometers – Click for ride details

Last night was a warm cozy sleep. I still wore pants but only needed a shirt instead of a fleece and jacket. In the morning I was in the shade so I put my sleeping bag, tent and laundry in the sun on a spare picnic table. Oh yeah, I do laundry in the shower, well at least my bike shorts, shirt and socks and then dry it out the next day. I tested my new stove which worked well and boiled water for one of my pre-dried meals. The meal was horrible and I only ate half of it before storing for later (which I eventually through out). This makes pre-dried meals 50/50 so far.

Off on my journey I stopped at the airport for some reception so I could post yesterday’s blog then slogged up the epic climb out of Castlegar. The view for the first few kilometers is of the entire valley showing Castlegar intersecting the mighty Columbia and Kootney rivers. There is some serious flow in the blue green waters of the Kootney, what a site!

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My ride: 98 km to Castlegar

I spent most of the morning catching up on the blogs since I know everyone is waiting with “baited breath”. In the kitchen Nancy was making me some breakfast which included egg tortilla wraps, strawberries and blueberries. We talked over breakfast and met the family living upstairs. One of the boys Brennan (6 years old) donated $5 from his birthday gift which his parents Amy and Dylan matched! By the time I left it was noon.

There is only a gradual uphill out of Grand Forks with a little up and down but you wouldn’t notice unless weighted down like I was. The scenery is of course awesome like the previous day but with less ranches as the river is close to the highway.

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The ride: 124 kilometers!

Well after a great rest day it was time to hit the road again. The goal yesterday was to reduce the overall weight I was carrying but with the added food I think I am heavier. By the time I got going it was starting to sprinkle a little rain. No matter this was now the norm!

I suited up and bid my new friends farewell. I grabbed a quick sub sandwich in town and ate half of it before heading back onto the Crow’s Nest highway. As many of you know it turns into a 16 kilometer climb out of Osoyoos and it is reasonably steep but thankfully consistent grade. There is one quick corner and then a long switchback that snakes up the side of the mountain. By now it was lightly raining but the views of the twin lakes were breathtaking. Little Osoyoos with a small town centre bridging between the twin lakes and Haines point a green oasis in the middle of the southern lake.

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Today was a  much needed rest day which included re-organizing and catching up on the blogging. I actually spent a good three or four hours catching up on e-mail, re-organizing the website and writing blog posts. After lunch I made a quick to do list and rode the bike into town with empty bags. First on the agenda was fixing the stove. I hit a few hardware places that had never seen such a thing.  I settled on buying a cheap but simple back up that uses the gel canisters you see being used in buffets. Then it was an inside blanket/liner for my sleeping bag which I found a reasonable facsimile. I didn’t have time to sew up the ends like a pouch but it should do fine and it is light. While in the store I ran into my soccer coach Herb Weiner and his wife who I hadn’t seen in 22 years! We chatted about what I was doing and they wished me well. Next was a razor, bar soap and soap case which I found no problem. While in the store I ran into the guy who helped me in the hardware store who explained where the radio station and news paper company were located. The radio station was not open as predicted but before going to the Osoyoos times I hit the post office and mailed out about half my cards and stickers to a friend in Scarborough. This is to reduce weight of course! Finally I stopped in at the Osoyoos times and it seemed I was expected as one of the writers was already following my progress – cool. We did an interview so hopefully there will be something there soon (I will keep you posted). Everyone I met was genuinely very supportive and interested in my journey which made for a great day.
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Map my ride 97km – note this shows days 3,4 and 5 due to blackouts in coverage.

I was awoken by the sound of incessant chirping and the rush of the river. I am not sure how much sleep I got since it was a pretty chilly night and this morning was no different. Lucky for me no rain!

I was smart about two things yesterday: one was to pack everything for a quick clean up and launch, the second was to wear my bike clothes underneath the layers of clothing. I hummed and hawed about getting up from 5 am to 6am but by 6:15 I was ready and went to the outhouse. Basically it took me hour to decide I was ready for a cold toilet seat. I had a protein bar left but I decided it was better to get going and warm up first rather than eat. In all of about 15 minutes I was packed and leaving.

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91km – note this shows days 3,4 and 5 due to blackouts in coverage.

After finishing off the remainder of last nights snacks I packed up and headed onto the highway then quickly turned around realizing I was out of water, is that ironic? Just up the highway after the park exit is a gas station/restaurant. The restaurant was closed so I popped into the gas station store to get some quality nourishment.

The sounds from a world war one documentary was blaring out of the TV which the store barley took his eye off to acknowledge me. He had the exact number of tatoo’s showing to tell me he was kind of friendly but not too friendly. I looked for something digestable that was not from1985 and found some homemade somoza like meet pie somethings in the fridge. I grabbed a couple of the pies, a bag of chips and a bottle of gatorade for $15.30.  Outside I ate one of the pies which was pretty meager and at least a day old. I also cracked the chips mmmm lays!!!!

It was cold so I headed off for what was a pretty decent downhill. The forest was quickly turning to pine and I was now following the similkamen river. Eventually the fun ran out and I had to make a climb up to Sunday  Summit which sits at 1282 meters but I was probably most of the way there anyway since there wasn’t extensive downhill from Allison Pass. After that climb there is a lot of downhill and I got going pretty fast in a couple of stretches but decided to slow it down as the odd gust of wind would push me off center. It was also a little cold so I welcomed the small and few up hill sections.

Closing in on Princeton I made an astonishing discovery: 67 year old Pierre Paul.

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Today was definitly a SHUT UP AND RIDE DAY!

110km – note this shows days 3,4 and 5 due to blackouts in coverage.

Woke up pretty tired and slept in until 8:30. Most the morning was spent catching up on internet stuff including blogging and I started re-organizing all of my gear and repacking it on my bike. This is totally expected and you can not plan too much for where to put what. I also realized after some searching that I must have a left a pair of bike shorts at my Uncle Dave’s – DOH! Of well less weight right? I also brought too many t-shirts so I rounded them and an extra towel to send back home when I find a post office.

It was a beautiful ride into hope with views of the Fraser and lush green forest. I am now down to one pair of gloves, left them on the back of the bike when I took some pictures and now they are gone. I also found out after the fact that my phones touch screen works just fine with gloves on.

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The ride:

Woke up pretty tired and slept in until 8:30. I started by re-organizing all of my gear and repacking it on my bike. This as totally expected and you can not plan too much for. I also realized after some searching that I must have a left a pair of bike shorts at my Uncle Dave’s – DOH! Of well less weight right? I also brought too many t-shirts so I rounded them and an extra towel to send back home when I find a post office.

IN PROGRESS….