Day 8 Sicamous to Canyon Hot Springs – Thursday June 28th, 2012 – 108 km

I woke up today morning at 6.0 am to get an early start since we are on cooking duty tonight. Breakfast today was French toast, oatmeal and usual pack away lunch. Enroute today was Craigellachie, the site where last spike of the trans-Canada railway was nailed thereby marking the completion of a railway line joining east coast and west coast. Its significance was immense in deciding the fate of the nation we now call Canada. 

Kendra, Ron, Keith, Michael and I set out at around 8 pm with a rapid pace. I continued on with Kendra and did some pace lining with her for the first hour and we reached Craigellachie in less than an hour in to our ride. After some pictures and buying some postcards, we moved on with Phil, Mike and Jayne and stopped at the next gas station for a coffee. I ate one PBJ sandwich with a glass of chocolate milk. There was a wonderful waterfall en-route on our cue sheets but unfortunately there was a 1=$9.50 fee and so we ended up skipping it. A few meters down the road from that point we saw the waterfall right from the road so no big deal I suppose.

The route today was moderately difficult with frequent climbs up a mountain combined with travels along trans-Canada hwy, always stressful with all the big trucks bustling around. The second stop for today was the 3 valley gap a beautiful meeting point of 3 valleys in the mountains which translates to frequent climbing and wind blowing form random directions as we change the sides of mountains. Had a quick break for half a PBJ sandwich and half a pack of Doritos. There were some beautiful gardens at this site so after a few pictures I buzzed along Hwy 1 for most of day.

After some tough climbing and riding I rode in to Revelstoke, BC and found a Tim Hortons in town with lots of TDC bikes. Had a banana, veggie sandwich, chocolate Danish and chocolate milk. The sun was out and it was getting a little warm. The next stop for today was the giant cedar trail in Mt Revelstoke forest. After a few panic moments of possibly missing a turn to the next stop and constant climbing we came up to the cedar tree board walk. Beautiful forest and nestled in it was a nice board walk with trees all around and informative boards on there.

Past there it was approximately 40 km of rolling terrain to get in to camp which also had a hot pool. The camp is also nestled in the valley with stunning views that I loved waking up to. We prepared salad, Spicy Asian noodle salad with chicken (tofu sub for vegetarian) and a wonderful wafer biscuit whipping cream desert. Everyone enjoyed and we had rave reviews from all, this especially important after last night’s fantastic chicken Paprika dish from team 5. After cleaning everything, we all went to the hot springs/pool for some nice time out and the pool overlooked the wonderful snow capped peaks. Too bad that none of us had any camera on us, although I am sure picture wouldn’t have done the justice.

Tomorrow we climb the Rogers pass (1305m) and its going to be a tough climb I am sure.

Waterfalls that i didn't intent to pay $9.50 for

Day 10 – Rest Day – Golden, BC – June 30th, 2012

The plan today was to catch up on travel journal posts, get laundry done, lunch, get a spare inner tube and just relax. With a late night, everyone in camp woke up late and I slept in until 8.15 am. I partnered up with Ron and we did the laundry early morning and took laptop with me to work on travel journal at the same time. Around lunch time, we went for a walk around town (which we now call “towning”) and hunted down a dollar store (for umbrella), bike store (spare inner tube) and had lunch at a Chinese restaurant. 

Came back to camp and watched a movie (A thousand words) and arranged laundry back in to the baskets). Dinner tonight was a small veggie pizza (pest sauce, artichokes, spinach, tomatoes, chilli flakes  at a local pizza joint.

I am looking forward to going to Lake Louise, AB, climb the kicking horse pass, cross the first Canadian province and taking in celebrations of Canada Day on Lake Louise.

Day 7 Pritchard to Sicamous 100 km – Wednesday June 27th, 2012.

Woke up early today at 6.20 am and had a quick shower. It seems like I am getting better at setting out my routine as my tent wrap and pack up time is now under 15 minutes. For breakfast today was scrambled eggs, potatoes, oatmeal, and other usual stuff for making pack away lunch. I had the potatoes with oatmeal, bread butter, yoghurt and a protein shake. On galley duty today was Robert and a bunch of us stayed back to help his team wrap up the packing of trucks. We ended up leaving the camp at 8.40 am and the ride today was on Trans-Canada highway all the way to Sicamouse. 

Ride today started with some flat portions and then it was rolling hills with some long climbs up decent grades. I rode with Keith most of the day as our biking paces seem to match and neither of us were in a rush. Our first stop was just outside of Chase, BC and I ate half a peanut butter sandwich. After that it was some great ride with perfect temperatures and a decent shoulder width on Trans-Canada hwy. The next big town on our maps today was Salmon Arm, BC and we stopped just while entering at a petting zoo and farmer’s market area. Peacocks, chickens, turkey, donkey, Lama, goats all were there for petting along with some old tractors. From thereon we started towards the town of Salmon Arm and hunted down a Tim Hortons for a lunch. I ended up eating a veggie sandwich, vegetable soup and small chocolate milk and stayed in Timmies for around 40 minutes. Cyclists use all the opportunity they can get to sit on a decent seat.

As soon as we got back on Trans-Canada there was a long 2 km climb out of town and it seemed to go on forever. We then saw a paper mill on the lake and it was flooded with lake waters rising drastically. The rest of ride was along the lake for the major part and involved frequent long climbs and even the descents seemed a struggle with some headwinds. The road was deceiving as we would think that we are going downhill after a climb but our speedometers said that we were in fact climbing. We rolled in to Sicamous and quickly discovered the damage floods have caused. There was drinking water advisory in town and the town had set up clean water supplies at multiple locations. A quick visit to the city hall and after speaking to the attendant we knew that we have been allocated some space for camping in a park. The attendant was busy trying to handle all the negative media coverage about city not being able to troubleshoot flood situations. The immediate turn around and support we received from the local community in accommodating is really phenomenal especially since the city is dealing with another set of crisis different altogether. 

We rolled in to camp around 3.30 and set up our tents in a tree nested area. Dinner today was Chicken Paprikash (tofu version for vegetarians), salad, left over lentil rice and strawberry and cherries for dessert. After dinner Keith and I went out for a quick spin to D Dutchmen Dairy (local dairy farm) for some ice-cream. Again we found petting zoo and since it was too late for a proper tour, the owner said that it’s OK to just roam around the facility and so we did. We are going towards canyon hot springs tomorrow and there is a tough climb towards Rogers pass just after Revelstoke. We are also scheduled for our galley duty tomorrow so we will be heading out a little earlier in the morning to make sure we are in time.

Day - 6 Merritt to Pritchard 127 Km – Tuesday June 26th, 2012

I Woke up early in the morning at 6.20 had a nice shower and figured out that I had misplaced my shower pouch in the washroom the previous night. Had my stuff for the day organized from the previous night and found it very useful to use only one bag to transport my daily needs. Breakfast today was fresh pancakes, porridge and the usual stuff (bread, Peanut Butter, Jam, fruit, GORP).

I was ready and set to leave for 8 am and realized that Keith was on duty and since he was still recovering from an infection, a bunch of guys stayed back to help their team wind up camp and load bags in to truck. We left camp at around 9.20 am and the day looked grey and feared to rain. The ride itself was great, fantastic views along the valley floor and it was rolling hills all the way to our next turn. The route today had an option to reduce a (supposedly) tough climb but it involved cycling on a packed gravel road for 11 km. Since there were enough hills in Canada to climb, we opted to go down the gravel path. Although the scenery on the route we chose was fantastic, away from roads, preserved habitat, very quiet and isolated houses and farms, but boy oh boy, the road was CRAP. After 11 km of cycling we were met with some semi paved road and it was rolling hills till our next turn. Now we thought the crap roads were over, but we hadn’t seen the worse yet apparently. A steep downgrade of 3 km on a gravel road with rocks as big as loonies and had bumps every 2 feet.

Once off the gravel path we met up with Trans-Canada Hwy (HWY # 1) and it was about 15km which we zoomed across at 33km/h thanks to a strong tail wind. Couple of really cool things happened when we cycled this part of route. The highway is currently being expanded to 4 lanes past Monte Creek and there are lots of construction sites. We were passing along and waved at the bulldozer operator and he ended up replying with a huge honk. Similarly the Canadian Pacific railway runs parallel to highway and we saw a long transport train approaching and we waved at the train. We didn’t expect a wave back, but instead we were met with a nice train horn, which I thought was a pretty cool gesture.

We got into camp around 4.30 pm and set up our tents right away as the sky looked grey and it feared to rain. Dinner today was spicy lentils with rice, Bruschetta, salad and we had cake to celebrate Howard’s birthday. Today has been the most satisfying day of the trip so far. As I sit writing this post, we were told that we were to skip Mara, BC as our next stop and will go to Sicamous, BC as there was a mudslide on that road. We are also told to fill out water bottles as the water in Sicamous has been contaminated with gasoline. 

Tour Du Canada 2012

I will be on an organized cycling trip this Summer called Tour Du Canada (www.TourduCanada.com). I am not an experienced writer or a rider by any means and the intent of this blog is to keep my family, friends and those future attendees that might be interested in traveling the fantastic country i call home.

I hope you enjoy the journey along with me. I will try to keep the blog as updated as possible, however due to limited internet connectivity and low bandwidth, it is highly likely to not be able to keep the blog up to date.

Day 5 – Rest Day # 1 Merritt – Monday June 25th, 2012.

 

The plan for today was to get done with laundry, clean bike, visit the town, have lunch and organize my laundry baskets on truck so I don’t have to run around 3 times to find a sock.

I Woke up early in the morning around 6.50 am, had a shower, shaved my outgrown beard. Ron and I headed to the Laundromat for doing our laundry. Most expensive laundry I have experienced so far, $ 3.50 for a wash and $1.0 for a 10 min dry session. Merritt is the country music capital of Canada and the Laundromat was lined up with rows and rows. After dropping off the laundry back to camp and having some breakfast we headed out to explore Merritt. Everywhere we went there was a painting of a country music star on side walls of stores coupled with hand imprints.  We walked around town, went to dollarama and bought some Canada flags for celebrating Canada day. We ended up going to a sushi restaurant for lunch and the yam avocado tempura rolls were HUGE. After lunch we headed to explore more of the town and found a interesting museum with native history and history of Merritt, well worth a visit with artifacts from the 1800s.

Coming back into camp, I cleaned my bike and taking the grit off was a pain. A clean bike is essential for proper functioning and shifting of gears and brakes unless you want a stuck cable while climbing up a hill. I organized my laundry baskets and figured out a system to get my stuff for the next day ready by the night before. Dinner had a choice of going to a pub (with limited vegetarian options) or go back to the sushi place. Since many were going to sushi place, I ended up joining them and had a sizzling platter of stir fried noodles with veggies.

NOTE - I know that i have missed the first few days here, but bear with me while i try to coordinate daily cycling, cooking, tenting, staying dry and enjoying my time :-)... the other posts will be regular as internet becomes available