Saturday, June 4, 2011
Day 6: Bromley Provincial Park to Summerland 116 km
I'll keep this short as we got to camp fairly late. Today was a
marker for Vanessa and I as it was not only the furthest we've
travelled in a day by bicycle this season, but also the furthest we've
ever gone with packs!
marker for Vanessa and I as it was not only the furthest we've
travelled in a day by bicycle this season, but also the furthest we've
ever gone with packs!
Today also had some of the most varied terrain we've seen so far. We
started the day in rolling pastures surrounded by mountains, climbed a
summit after lunch and following the longest and fastest descent we've
ever done, we found ourselves in Penticton looking at a landscape that
seemed more Californian than British Columbian. From there we cruised
along the shores of Lake Okanagan enjoying a slight but steady
downhill with the exception of a quick but brutal climb into
Summerland. The highway had brutal traffic, but thankfully wide
curbs.
The weather today was a delightful change. After being bogged down in
fleeces and rain gear for the majority of the trip Vanessa and I
finally got to don our jerseys and bike shorts and bask in the
Okanagan sun.
We saw so many beautiful things today, but the image Vanessa and I
choose to leave you with is a warning sign we found outside of
Keremeos. Not sure if it's encouraging or discouraging the activity.
The driver seems pretty into it...
Friday, June 3, 2011
Day 5: Manning Park Lodge to Bromley Rock Provincial Park, 89km
I'm sitting beside a campfire writing from Bromley Park on Thursday evening. We don't have reception here so this post will show up when we get to the next town in the morning. Sorry for the delay.
Today was a bit of a roller coaster. We started the day with some major descending to do after our Allison Pass climb but the Cascades weren't finished with us yet. We only reached about 950 metres before we were climbing again, this time to Sunday Summit. It kind of felt like a kick in the knees to climb a summit in the middle of a descent but at least we weren't starting from sea level.
The first few kilometres up were really, really steep and we were not happy. Flashbacks to our Allison Pass experience evoked our worst fears that Sunday Summit would be more of the same. Thankfully, it was not. The grade mellowed out and became, not exactly enjoyable, but doable. We reached the summit with relative ease and couldn't believe that the wonderful summit sign appeared so early. After the summit there were still a few shorter climbs to cover but we started to refer to them as "baby hills" (I think this is only because we knew a descent was coming up).
The descent took us through some of the most gorgeous scenery that we've traversed yet. We're happy to report that our wildlife encounters today were strictly deer and none of them seemed interested in eating us.
The descent itself was fairly treacherous, on single, narrow lanes with no shoulder or one so washed out we couldn't ride it above 20km/hour. Unfortunately we had to hold the brakes tightly the whole way down so we could be prepared to skid off the road every time one of the many vehicles whizzed past.
It wasn't until we approached the valley that we were able to enjoy some smooth riding on a less intense down grade. We pretty much coasted right into Princeton, picked up some groceries, and sailed out to our campsite. The cycling became infinitely more enjoyable once we reached the lower elevation, both because we finally had some warmer temperatures and because we no longer had to fear being edged off a cliff.
The mountain riding brought out all kinds of emotions in us and was a serious physical and mental challenge. All of your encouraging comments and blog visits have boosted our spirits, knowing you're out there following along and supporting us. Thank you everyone!
We've been finding it fascinating that within a day of riding we can see so much variation in landscape and ways of life. We can't wait to ride through our next leg through the Okanagan valley.
Today was a bit of a roller coaster. We started the day with some major descending to do after our Allison Pass climb but the Cascades weren't finished with us yet. We only reached about 950 metres before we were climbing again, this time to Sunday Summit. It kind of felt like a kick in the knees to climb a summit in the middle of a descent but at least we weren't starting from sea level.
The first few kilometres up were really, really steep and we were not happy. Flashbacks to our Allison Pass experience evoked our worst fears that Sunday Summit would be more of the same. Thankfully, it was not. The grade mellowed out and became, not exactly enjoyable, but doable. We reached the summit with relative ease and couldn't believe that the wonderful summit sign appeared so early. After the summit there were still a few shorter climbs to cover but we started to refer to them as "baby hills" (I think this is only because we knew a descent was coming up).
The descent took us through some of the most gorgeous scenery that we've traversed yet. We're happy to report that our wildlife encounters today were strictly deer and none of them seemed interested in eating us.
The descent itself was fairly treacherous, on single, narrow lanes with no shoulder or one so washed out we couldn't ride it above 20km/hour. Unfortunately we had to hold the brakes tightly the whole way down so we could be prepared to skid off the road every time one of the many vehicles whizzed past.
It wasn't until we approached the valley that we were able to enjoy some smooth riding on a less intense down grade. We pretty much coasted right into Princeton, picked up some groceries, and sailed out to our campsite. The cycling became infinitely more enjoyable once we reached the lower elevation, both because we finally had some warmer temperatures and because we no longer had to fear being edged off a cliff.
The mountain riding brought out all kinds of emotions in us and was a serious physical and mental challenge. All of your encouraging comments and blog visits have boosted our spirits, knowing you're out there following along and supporting us. Thank you everyone!
We've been finding it fascinating that within a day of riding we can see so much variation in landscape and ways of life. We can't wait to ride through our next leg through the Okanagan valley.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Day 4: Eat, Rest, Sleep.
Yesterday as Vanessa wrote the last post, I fell asleep in an armchair in the lobby. I then got up, proceeded to the hotel room and fell asleep on top of the sheets for about twenty minutes. Lastly I managed to lurch under the covers and slept heavily for the remainder of the evening. This pattern of behavior is pretty much a microcosm of our rest day at manning lodge.
So far today we have managed to eat roughly our weight in bread and granola, there is no such thing as being full on a trip like this. Our big exertion was to slump into a hot tub where we spent a lot of time experimenting with how to get the jets to massage our calves.
As Vanessa wrote yesterday, the ride from Hope to Manning Park Lodge was easily the most physically and mentally tiring thing we've ever done. Between staring down both a grizzly and a black bear, to almost losing a pedal half way up the mountain, it was an incredibly difficult day. The pedal fell out halfway up a climb. They're countersunk, I still have no idea how this happened. That being said the views we experienced and the sheer feeling of joy when we reached the top more than outweigh the hardships. There's something absolutely bizarre and magical about starting a day in the sun and biking into the clouds till you're in three feet of snow.
Above are a few of our favorite photos from Vanessa's point and shoot. The lower two shots were taken on the ascent and summit of Allison pass. The graffiti was found in about the steepest part of the ascent and really lifted our spirits. The snow covered service building is a taste of what we saw at the top of the pass. The first pic is our favorite photo of the trip, taken west of Mission. BC has the best roadsigns ever.
Day 3: Hope BC to Manning Park Lodge, 70km
TODAY. WAS. HARD. We fought for every metre of road today and Allison Pass didn't give it up easily. We knew that the climb today was supposed to be the worst of the trip, and WOW. Do we ever hope that's true!
We hit the road by 8am but meandered around Hope for half an hour, delaying the inevitable. The 18km climb out of Hope is steep and brutal, at many points we found ourselves travelling at a whooping 6km an hour! It didn't help that we were carrying what we thought would be an extra three days worth of food, although it turned out to be food for just this one!
Just when we were about ready to throw our bikes off the mountain and walk up, the road levelled out around the Hope Slides and we enjoyed a short reprieve from intense ascending. This allowed us to recover some kilometres but more than anything we think that without this 'break' we wouldn't have mustered the fortitude to keep going.
We started climbing slowly and steeply again around 32km and the rising altitude brought us the characteristically chaotic weather of the mountains with rain on and off, in between sunshine and hail. When slogging through a grueling climb it is very demoralizing to look down at your odometre and see you 'only have 25km left to go' but realize it could take you four hours --and it did.
There are also some other things you don't want to see on such climbs, and that would be bears. At one point a driver coming from the opposing direction stopped to alert us that there were five(!) bears around the road up ahead. We sat and contemplated for a few moments before riding to peek around the bend to gauge the risk level, and there was one right on our side of the road. We had to flag down a car to ride beside us, serving as a shield between us and an enormous bear. By then it had made its way about twenty feet away from the road but was still far too close for comfort. It stared right at us and followed with its gaze as we rode by --we swear we saw it contemplate charging us if not for our amazing escorts who may have saved our lives. Needless to say we did not stop for a photo. Later in the climb we actually saw another bear, this time a grizzly! This one was up on a ledge but still very close to the road so we weren't taking any chances, or pictures!
The middle section of the Allison Pass climb was a marginally milder grade and we began to think it wasn't that bad but by about the 50km mark it veered up relentlessly. Knowing that the summit would be at the 59km point of the ride didn't help much when we had no idea what the road would throw at us next. Aside from the extreme elevation we also met heavy winds, sharp turns, and single narrow lanes with no shoulder next to precarious cliff drops, all while heavy trucks were zooming by threatening to blow us off the road. In that last stretch before the summit we were seriously questioning our ability to reach it despite the 'short' distance. We ended up walking for about three kilometres because my knees were shot and Alex was depleted. I cannot describe how elated we were to see that summit sign, 'Allison Pass 1342 metres', which marked the end of our misery.
We're now comfortably housed at the Manning Park Lodge, which is a few quick kilometres down from the summit. (The campgrounds in the park are closed until June because it is still covered in snow up here.) We had already anticipated we would take one of our extra rest days here so we are staying for two nights to recover and repair our relationship with the bikes ;-).
What a day! Aside from the tortuous ride the route is spectacularly beautiful. We took a lot of pictures due to frequent short breaks on the rough stuff. With the iphone we can only post photos taken on the phone, of which we only do a couple for the blog. We're out of range for the iphone here so we can't post any photos tonight but tomorrow we'll see if we can use the lodge computer to upload photos from the camera.
For now, it is time to start the resting phase. Goodnight!
ps- The blog is still on eastern standard time just because it would be too onerous to change it for every time zone. So while it looks like this was posted on June 1st, in BC it is still May 31st with the three hour time difference.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
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