Sunday, July 10, 2005
Day 13 – Distance: 102.62 km
Albert Canyon to Golden B.C.
Quick breakfast of instant porridge, using the electric kettle we had bought (we end up paying extra for our campsites in order to have electricity, so we may as well use it as much as possible), then we headed up to the bathrooms that were open before 8:00 a.m. While there, Monique started chatting with some young women, and found out they were a group we had heard about earlier, six women cycling across Canada to raise awareness about global climate change. They had left Victoria on Canada Day, and, fully loaded, had managed to get to the Canyon Hot Springs the same time we did. Obviously, they were biking much longer hours (10 hours a day and longer). While chatting, we found they were also headed to Golden. One of the young women had fallen with her bike the previous day, and injured her knee. She had rested it partially the previous day, but it was still sore. From my cubicle, I asked her if she would like a ride with Adele to Golden, which she very happily accepted. Monique inspected the knee, and pronounced it bruised, not twisted, so Cassie was very happy. She and Adele had great day together, discussing group dynamics primarily, I suspect, while we had a great day riding.
Rogers Pass was a long climb, but very gradual, so it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. The scariest part of the day was after the pass, going through the first snow tunnel after the pass. I had turned on my lights etc. and waited until there was no traffic, but found it SO dark inside. There was a full lane for a shoulder for me to ride on but I was afraid traffic coming might mistake it for a traffic lane. I just pedaled hard and prayed hard. In any event, I made it safely, and found the rest of the tunnels not too bad, as they had windows. The rest of the way to Golden wasn’t bad; there were some up hills, but most of it was down. I guess that’s because the next two days are going to be mostly up (Kicking Horse Pass is coming up after Field; that’s the one I’m dreading)! I had to hang on pretty tightly sometimes, and other times I had to pedal because the wind was in my face.
We had a great time chatting with Cassie, who stayed with us until the time appointed to meet the rest of her group at a Subway restaurant (one of their sponsors). It turns out that the group didn’t know each other well before they started out, and there were a whole lot of issues that were not being resolved at all. She and Adele spent some time formulating a letter to the group, to help Cassie try to address the problems. Then we drove her to Subway, and left her with them. Only a few of them had arrived; they end up putting in far too long on the road. In fact, one of them had already been hospitalized for dehydration, so they don’t appear to be looking after themselves very well. Before we left, they were all there, so we headed off to our campsite.
Fauna note: I saw a bear! However, it was lying in kind of a ditch between the highway and a country road, and I suspected it was dead. I hope you will forgive me that I didn’t check.
Albert Canyon to Golden B.C.
Quick breakfast of instant porridge, using the electric kettle we had bought (we end up paying extra for our campsites in order to have electricity, so we may as well use it as much as possible), then we headed up to the bathrooms that were open before 8:00 a.m. While there, Monique started chatting with some young women, and found out they were a group we had heard about earlier, six women cycling across Canada to raise awareness about global climate change. They had left Victoria on Canada Day, and, fully loaded, had managed to get to the Canyon Hot Springs the same time we did. Obviously, they were biking much longer hours (10 hours a day and longer). While chatting, we found they were also headed to Golden. One of the young women had fallen with her bike the previous day, and injured her knee. She had rested it partially the previous day, but it was still sore. From my cubicle, I asked her if she would like a ride with Adele to Golden, which she very happily accepted. Monique inspected the knee, and pronounced it bruised, not twisted, so Cassie was very happy. She and Adele had great day together, discussing group dynamics primarily, I suspect, while we had a great day riding.
Rogers Pass was a long climb, but very gradual, so it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. The scariest part of the day was after the pass, going through the first snow tunnel after the pass. I had turned on my lights etc. and waited until there was no traffic, but found it SO dark inside. There was a full lane for a shoulder for me to ride on but I was afraid traffic coming might mistake it for a traffic lane. I just pedaled hard and prayed hard. In any event, I made it safely, and found the rest of the tunnels not too bad, as they had windows. The rest of the way to Golden wasn’t bad; there were some up hills, but most of it was down. I guess that’s because the next two days are going to be mostly up (Kicking Horse Pass is coming up after Field; that’s the one I’m dreading)! I had to hang on pretty tightly sometimes, and other times I had to pedal because the wind was in my face.
We had a great time chatting with Cassie, who stayed with us until the time appointed to meet the rest of her group at a Subway restaurant (one of their sponsors). It turns out that the group didn’t know each other well before they started out, and there were a whole lot of issues that were not being resolved at all. She and Adele spent some time formulating a letter to the group, to help Cassie try to address the problems. Then we drove her to Subway, and left her with them. Only a few of them had arrived; they end up putting in far too long on the road. In fact, one of them had already been hospitalized for dehydration, so they don’t appear to be looking after themselves very well. Before we left, they were all there, so we headed off to our campsite.
Fauna note: I saw a bear! However, it was lying in kind of a ditch between the highway and a country road, and I suspected it was dead. I hope you will forgive me that I didn’t check.
posted by BikingBabe at 7:27 AM
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