Day 9 - Revelstoke to Golden

Hey Everyone,

We're pretty exhausted from today's ride so apologies in advance if this post isn't very coherent.

To start, we forgot a few details from yesterdays ride. Around 10 or 11 yesterday morning a guy pulled up beside on a touring bike and we talked for a minute. His name was Mark and he had biked from California to Vancouver and was biking across Canada. We finished talking and before we knew it he was out of sight...a very fast rider(he averages 180km a day!) . Anyways, when we made it to Revelstoke we just happened to run into Mark and JD(the tourer we saw once on Day 4 ) by chance when we took a weird way out of town. We then went our seperate ways for the night.

Which brings us to this morning. Around 3:30 am this morning I(Chris) swore I heard a bear outside of our tent and within seconds I was up with a flashlight and had the safety off the bear spray...it was all clear and was just the sleeping bag rustling. I fell back asleep and woke up around 4:30 and the sun was coming up(it comes up really early here) I asked Patricia if she wanted to get up...she declined(don't know why?). We slept until 5:30 and slowly got ready and were on the road by 7. At our first stretch/water break Mark and JD rolled up to us.

Getting ready this morning.

 All four of us biked together for most of the day. We all biked at different paces so whoever was ahead usually stopped to wait at the top of a hill or at a good rest spot. It definately made the day go a little faster with other bikers around and to know we weren't the only ones suffering.

Mark and JD coming up a hill.

 The first large climb of the day was at Albert Canyon. We could always tell a good climb was coming up because, there are lots of signs warning truckers to put chains on their tires. Oh, and today we also saw tons of no stopping avalanche area signs.

Checking out the sign.

 And, we also saw some devastation from an avalanche. It looks like an avalanche went right across the road a while back. It was amazing to see the power of them - trees were everywhere and full size trees were snapped like toothpicks. It was very surreal - just glad we weren't going through here in snow season.

Avalanche path.

Food and water break.

 Little later on we saw Mark up ahead with his camera out and pointing to the side of the road. When we caught up we saw what he was pointing at - a black bear walking along the train tracks. We took a bunch of pictures but the one below turned out the best. We watched the bear wander down the tracks and then we continued on our way.

We saw a bear!

 You know your gaining elevation when you can make a snowman on the side of the road.Oh, and I think it was somewhere around here that we saw a sign telling us to set our clocks one hour ahead. So now we are only two hours behind the time at home.

My super quick mini snowman.

 Finally, we saw the sign for Rogers pass...only 1km. Wooo hooo.

Only one more km

 We had been nervous and scared of Rogers Pass all day and when we finally got to the top were thoroughly underwhelmed. I am not sure what we were expecting but, there was no welcoming committee at the top for us. We were underwhelmed too because, there was no big steep climb at the end...just a really long somewhat gradual climb all morning. We all stopped at the top to take a few pictures and JD set up the timer for his camera and all four of us got in the picture...he is going to email that picture to us so we'll update when we get it.

Patricia posing at the summit

 At the pass it started drizzling and was quite cold so we didn't spend much time up there. There was a gas station and an expensive motel so there wasn't much to do so we headed down the other side. Mark and JD stopped to tape their cameras to their handle bars to get video of going down the other side. It was definitely nice to not have to pedal for the few km down the other side. We went through a bunch of tunnels that protect the road from avalanches - some of which were covered in snow and mangled trees(so they definitely work!). We continued on and thought the worse was behind us - we were wrong. There was another pass or two and some huge climbs after rogers pass. On one of the climbs Patricia spotted a mountain goat so of course we stopped to take some pictures. We watched him graze on the side of the cliff for a few minutes - during this time he knocked a few rocks down while he was walking around the cliff. Eventually we had to continue up the hill and leave him behind.

Mountain goat.

A few minutes later we saw another mountain goat but none of our pictures of him turned out well - but he looked the same as the one above. Just after this Mark easily biked past us and yelled big showers coming. We still don't know how he knew but sure enough around the next corner it started pouring and didn't stop the rest of the day. And we never saw Mark again today...he must be at a motel somewhere in town.

The last 50km were supposed to be one of the most beautiful rides of the trip but we were soaking wet and freezing cold so didn't stop to take any pictures after the mountain goat. We somehow managed to grind out those last 50km and just as we got in to town we caught up to JD. We checked into the same motel - the first one we saw in Golden. It felt so good to get all of the cold wet clothes off and have a nice hot shower.

Patricia, JD and I went out for dinner at a restaurant right beside the motel...it was delicious and we had several coffees to warm up.

Thats about it for our day and I'm trying very hard to stay awake while typing this post out. Tomorrow's ride is looking pretty worrying since we can't find anywhere to camp between here and Banff(160km away). Hopefully we figure something out in the morning because I don't think our legs or butts are up for another huge day so soon.


Good night,

Chris and Patricia.

Day 8 - Salmon Arm to Revelstoke

Hey Everyone,

So, we have been on the road just over a week now and we're still trying to get into a groove. One of the guys at the campground last night said he's toured before and it takes about two weeks to get into a groove so I guess we're about half way there.

Last night I(Chris) slept pretty bad because I had a runny nose. My nose kept waking me up and I would get up to blow it which would in turn wake Patricia up. Nonetheless we still got up around 5:30. The first couple hours went great but then the wind picked up - and it was a headwind that lasted all day. The wind really drains your energy and kills your speed but we eventually made it to Revelstoke.

Traffic was fairly heavy at times today and seemed to come in bursts of about 10 cars/trucks/transports whizzing by us. Most vehicles give us plenty of room but a few don't which usually isn't too bad since the shoulders have been good on almost all of the roads we've biked on so far.

First rest of the day at Lake of the Shuswap. We ate a container of peaches...mmmm

All day today we've seen streams like this running down the mountains or flowing off of cliffs. They are really beautiful and there must have been hundreds of them. Some of the larger ones would give us goose bumps as we drove by. This is becuase the water is so cold it must lower the temperature of the surrounding air around them - just one of those things you'd never notice by car.

Stream over a cliff

Mountain in the background

Rest stop at Last Spike attraction. Thats Patricia in the middle.

Another mountain river.

I think he's stuck!

Finally made it.

Taken from the bridge just outside of Revelstoke.

We finally made it to Revelstoke and stopped at a tourist information center to get some info on camping tonight and the next few nights. Tonight we decided to stay at a KOA campground just outside of Revelstoke.

Tomorrow we finally get to tackle Rogers Pass. Wooo hooo! We are going to bed early tonight since there are no campgrounds and one motel between here and Golden - which is a 150km ride. We are slightly worried since we haven't had a 150km day yet and when we add in Rogers Pass to the mix thats alot of pedalling. Our other option is to stay at the only hotel along the route - at $170 a night. Thats not happening so we are just going to have to tough it out and make it to Golden. Cross your fingers and don't be surprised if tomorrows update is really late.

Thats all for now,

Chris and Patricia

Day 7 - Kamloops RV Park to Salmon Arm

Hello Everyone,

We're here for another update. First, we just want to let you know we have been reading your comments...even if we don't respond to them - we still enjoy/appreciate them. Anyways, we had a good day today and got in some solid mileage.

We got up pretty early(5:45) and were on the road around 7:30. We were tired last night so we hadn't updated the blog, got our food for the day ready, or packed anything so we had a bit more work to do this morning than normal. Almost as soon as we got on the road our gears started jumping all over the place. We adjusted them and they seem to be working more smoothly - not quite one hundred percent yet though. The weather was great this morning - a little cool and hardly any wind(perfect biking conditions). The morning was pretty much flat and we noticed that the desert environment that Kamloops is known for turn into forest again. It was pretty neat because we could just about pin point the exact spot the transition was made.

Quick water break

There were a few large climbs today but they weren't as bad as some we have seen in the past few days. In the picture below you can see the start of the first climb of the day in the background.

Well, at least we are going the right way

Just over half way there

Nice view....oh and the mountains and lake are nice too

We decided to stop for breakfast today since it was so yummy last time we stopped. This restaurant was no exception - the food was delicious and they didn't skimp on the bacon! We got there around 11am and took our time eating and drinking our coffees and left just after noon. There was a farmers market going on next door and it seemed like the waitress wasn't expecting so many people since she was running around like crazy trying to serve everyone. We weren't in a hurry though since procrastinating getting back on the bike is a favourite past time of ours. Below is our plates after we ravaged them - can you blame us though? We had biked about 50km by this point.

Now you see our breakfast now you don't

West side of Salmon Arm

We eventually made it to Salmon Arm and we headed straight for the Visitors Center. Quick word about the visitors centers we have come across in BC so far. They have all been extremely helpful, they have public washrooms, tons of pamphlets/maps of the area, and really helpful staff. The staff have shown us the closest campgrounds that are on our route, they also have got us distances on their computer and looked up traffic webcams. So, we were looking forward to going to the one in Salmon Arm, unfortunately it isn't open on Saturdays. We used our computer to find some campgrounds that were just outside of town and headed for them. We also needed groceries and assumed we'd see a grocery store on our way out of town - we didn't so we had to back track to the other side of town. We finally got our groceries and headed for the campground.

The first one on our list looked pretty run down and not open so we went to the next one. When we got to this one they told us they were sold out of tent sites!!! This boggled our minds since we've been just about the only tenters at all of the other sites we visited. Turns out there is a huge bike race this weekend in Salmon Arm and most people are from out of town and are staying at this campground. The only site they had left was an RV site and it was priced accordingly :( Oh well, we were tired so we decided to get it. And it turned out we can use the laptop while its plugged in from inside our tent :D

All settled in

It is kind of nice being at a campground full of cyclists since we look normal with our spandex clothes, helmet hair, sunscreen, and bike shoes. We even got a couple delicious beers from our neighbour(thanks!) and he also offered us his backyard to set up our tent in when we go through Canmore, AB. The other neighbour offered me some full size bike tools when he saw me working on our trailer wheel with my little bike tools - also much appreciated.

We've got another fairly long day tomorrow...we hope to get to Revelstoke but, we will keep you all updated.

Good Night,

Chris & Patricia

Day 6 - Kamloops to RV Park

Hey Everyone,

Today was our rest day so we only went about 25km to a campground just down the road. The ride was through Kamloops which is a rather busy city. It wasn't too eventful other than a really steep hill with a red light at the bottom - our brake pads did not like that. Oh, and our bike also decided to shift on its own while we were starting at an intersection which hurt Patricia's knee and ankle for a little while.

Sandwich break!

Turns out that there is a wildlife park right next to the campground so we went there for the afternoon. They had a whole bunch of animals and it took us about two hours to see them all. Some of the better pictures are below.

After the animal park we ate some food and tidied everything up. We played cards for a little while and were in bed by 8:30. Oh, and the doors to the washroom had a sign that said bears have been spotted in the area which made for some good dreams ;)

Patricia at our campsite.

Thats about all for today. Tomorrow is a much longer ride so it should be a little more exciting...maybe we'll see the Rockies since there is only about 4 or 5 days left until we are in Alberta.

-Chris & Patricia

Day 5 - Cache Creek to West Side of Kamloops

Hello all,
In case any of you noticed the brief disappearance/ reappearance of some of our posts, that was the result of Blogger temporarily going down - the problem seems to be resolved now though, so hurrah!
Today was definitely not one of my favorite days...we only did 85km today, but it was definitely and our hardest day yet. The entire trip seemed to be straight up hill, and every corner we came to we thought we must certainly be at the top of the hill - only to turn the corner and see that we were wrong, and the hill in fact continued. Massive climbs aside, it was a pretty solid day. We left the motel we stayed at by about 9, and both felt pretty good in terms of soreness/ muscle fatigue. The most eventful part of the morning was probably when I got sunscreen in my eyes, and made Chris stop so I could wipe my eyes in order to stop the tears and once more see where we were going. I picked a good spot to stop, as we were right beside a field of cows - naturally, we took a picture:

Cows and some mountains

We chugged a long, going up and down hills pretty much constantly, and really didn't do or see too much of interest. We stopped to eat/drink/ apply sunscreen, but for the most part the day consisted of keeping our morale up, and taking it easy as we knew that it was going to be a consistently difficult ride. At the top of one of the (many) hills we rode up,  we got our first glimpse of  Lake Kamloops - we were still quite far from the city of Kamloops, but it was encouraging to finally reach the lake that we would be riding along side for the rest of the day.

Lake Kamloops again at a lookout point

We got rained on for a little while, but nothing worth stopping for, and the rain was actually quite refreshing as we were in the midst of (yet another) rather large climb. We saw a couple bike tourists coming the other way, and they waved and yelled hello which made us a little happier, but for the most part the day was spent wishing for evening to come. My face is still quite sunburned and Chris is starting to get a little pink too, so we took many sunscreen breaks along the way. I'm not sure why Chris felt so inclined to take a picture of one said sunscreen breaks, but here it is :)

Sunscreen break

The last 20km before Kamloops were by far the worst 20km yet. We were both getting tired by this point, and these last 20k were all up a fairly steep incline - definitely the biggest hill we had to face. Its good practice though, since we're steadily approaching the rockies and roger's pass (only a few days away!). We will definitely be glad once the prairies begin. By the time we got to Kamloops, neither of us wanted to move let alone bike any farther. We found an information center, and they showed us the closest few campsites - one was 10k away, one 20k, and one 25k away! We kind of looked at each other, and mutually agreed that we would wimp out again and opt for a motel, so we called around and found a place less than a kilometer away with fantastically low rates.

Shot of the giant fish overlooking Kamloops in the information center parking lot.

We settled our bike and trailer into the room for the night, and went to East Side Mario's for a much deserved, massive meal. We took advantage of the unlimited bread, soup, and salad, and both finished everything on our plates - for $20, we definitely got our money's worth. After dinner, we headed back to the room, showered, and were in bed by 9:00pm. A true sign of how tired we both were. The day was uneventful but rough, and definitely a character builder. Chris and I have yet to really fight though, which is a result of a great deal of patience on both parts - we'll see what happens in the next few days, when it starts getting really tough. After all, its only been 5 days - but it feels like a month.

That's all for now, tomorrow is only going to be a short day - after the day we've had, we decided it would be best to give our bodies a break and take a day off. We are going to bike the 25km towards the campsite we were pointed towards, and take the opportunity to relax and rest our aching muscles.

Thanks for tuning in!
Patricia and Chris