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Published: July 20th 2010
The last time i wrote we were all taking a rest in kamloops, since then its been ride ride ride!!!! This is truly a naturally stunning landscape, british columbia is just awe inspiring!!! The trees are bigger than anywhere else, the plants look lusher, the ground bumps and swells more than anywhere i ever saw and the patterns and feeling of the atmoshphere around you is so alive and energetic and is different from one valley to the next in a very surreal way. If you were as suggetable as I am, you could almost swear the universe is whispering little secrets to you through its beauty.
But..........that aside, theres been the shit too! theres been mood swings, temper tamtrums, realizations, longings, frustrations, the works....so no, its not all trees blowing blisfully in the wind and hillsides calling to you with their inner enchanment........ha! But there has been a lot of that too.
The evening we left the little town of kamloops we didnt get more than twenty minuites before puncture number one hit. After a quick fix we rolled down the track (we took a back track) and asked someone if we could stay on her land. She was
salmon arm
oh ive got this habit of taking pictures by the town signs..........we got about six so far!!stood there watering her garden and said yes almost instantly. She was beautifull, putting out towels for us in her bathroom and giving us a large jug of ice water in the morning! As usual we passed out quite early, and woke very early , usual alarm time is 5.30 or 6.30... im usually rolling around groaning as charli and kay get ready though and leaping out at the last minuite.
From kamloops we rode what became a dirt track that ultimatley signed the death warrant for my back wheel. In kamloops it had already been pronounced nearlly dead, the axel had snapped and was being held together by......... i dont know, something only a mechanic understands, but it was and then we ride down a big fat gravel track for around 20 km..... it was exhausting, the sun really has been killing us out here.... We are all lovely shades of red and brown but.......... it almost makes you cry how exhausted you become.. That day we only made 40 km and collapsed in some small village , ants crawling all over us waking us persistantley from a fever like sleep you can only get in these kind
of sitautions!!
That night we paid for a campground, and in the middle of the night i awoke and saw a shadow........ I turned around and saw kay and charli sleeping and then i said or rather barked "hey hey hey!" And the shadow shot away across the camp ground.... i got out pretended to be doing something and then we all locked our shit up and got back into the tent and fell asleep. The next day, kay pronounced me hero, and i felt proud, that was until a day or so later , kay pronounced charli hero for cyling for food after a 100km ride!! After chase we got a slightly cooler day and pedalled onwards towards salmon arm. Kay had broken a spoke on the gravel track and my wheel was getting wobblier so actually we begun to day trying to hitch, that didnt work and so we rode on. It was slightly cloudier and it was quite a rolling ride, some hardish climbs but nothing too bad and by mid day we were in salmon arm, where we wished we could keep riding but instead spent a lot of money getting our bikes fixed.
It
chilling
chilling at don mclouds was a nice day sleeping in the sun and spending money on something you love, i finally bought a speedo so now i can tell you how far we rode and all that jazz!
That night charli and kay headed down a steep track to knock on a door and ask for some grass to pitch on...... As they were doing that a car pulled up and the two peopel in gave me such huge smiles as i moved my bike out of the way of them. Kay and charli head back up the track with a no...... apparently the people were a little disturbed to see them around their house. I was a little sad after a smile like that and we got reading to keep searching when the guy re appeared and said.......yes we could stay, one night, in the back, where they often get bears!!!
These guys were awesome! They sat on the steps to their backland (woodlands!) and gave us a beer!! They chatted with us and were completley our kind of people, we laughed so much!! They showed us their kittens and left their door open for us to shower. In the morning
we joined them for coffee on their patio and chatted and laughed some more, they also gave us some books we had been hunting, edible plants and berries!! Picture this........ me nervously picking plants from the roadside with charli saying "yes yes! i ate them when i was 7!" and me very unsurely either throwing it back to the earth or chewing it uncertainly! I have however found a favourite. Its this little pink flower called a clover, you can eat the whole things, theres thousands them around, its kinda sweet and you can chew it for quite a while! Also wild strawberries and this thing called a.... huckleberry, was that it? i dont know but its really cool and liberating!
We were all really sad to leave the people we had stayed with but we left with such good energy, with a plan of finally getting that 100km a day we wanted! We did it!! It wasnt so hard actually, Salmon arm to past revelstoke! It was beautifull with the giant snow capped peaks returning again! The highlight of the day was pulling up at the river...... It had a medium strength current and at first we all didnt
know if to stop, but then we slowly but surely got in..... I really wanted to try swim across to the other shore but i did not dare.......so i tried to convince them guys!! Eventually we all did it. You could swim across, then walk up the bank 10 or fifteen metres then jump in and float back down to where you started! The water aroudn here is so powerfull fresh and invigorating! I dont think i ever have been around such water before!
We was all laughing and smiling by the end, got dressed and rode onwards , camping up for the night in a campground with a pool, passing out early as always!
The next day was difficult, we were stuck with a flat tire until nearlly midday, then when we did set off for some reason it was harder than usual. We had the intention to go and relax in the hot springs, but by the tiem we got there we were so exhuasted, me and kay both got pretty grumpy and started to be sharp with each other, somethign that hadnt happened on this trip because we are all trying to be so good
with each other. we treated ourselves to some time in the hot springs, relaxed and i decided that i would like to do a day solo.
It was a super idea, super super! and infact it tunred out nearlly perfect for everyone!! When i set off, i set off ten minuites after kay and charli from canyon hot springs! I had some trouble with my chain and the speedo and if felt the tension building up and nearlly screamed, but i kept calm, and try to remmber that things do boil up then simmer down, or are like waves that crash and then comes peacefull ocean, you just gotta direct your energy right, so i went through it then set off. I was nervous on my own its been a while and i was scared i get puncture or something (had no pump!) after around two minuites the uphill or rodgers pass began ..... meant to be one of the three big killers we have to do. (rodgers pass, coquihalla and somewhere near banff) After fifteen minuites i had caught up with kay and charli..........the reason being that kays tire kept going down and they kept blowing it up.
Guiltily I said good luck and rode on.
I felt a little bad in this decision as even though i had said i was riding alone i thought ah crap what if they have a terrible day and i just rode off and left them. But the time on my own with only my own problems was just what i needed. Around 30 minuites later as the climb became harder and harder but the views more and more beautiufll a truck pulled up with kay and charli in it................they couldnt fix the bike and were getting a lift to golden (115 km from canyon) They gave me their spare change, their spare water and told me i was riding really fast! Amazing what nice words can do, cos after that i rode even faster!! The climb was relativley easy actually, even though higher than coquilla, it is not as steep and therefore is easier, also it was a cool day, icey cool, at one point i took on my jacket and trousers!!
It took 3 hours to the summit and there i smiled and laughed and felt sheer joy , ate some food at decided to try and get to
golden which was now only 80km away......I had been expecting fast hills and downhills, but what came was unbeleivable.
From leaving, almost head to head with ice capped mountain tops, the speeds hit 30.....40 k and then suddenly 50 km an hour wasnt unusual! As i rode at these speeds i was hit by a huge lightening, rain and thunders strorms! here i paused and enjoyed peace and rain and smiles and then, when the chance arose (rains abated) i sped out and hit the downhill again, going 50 kmh through snow sheds and past roaring trucks and within 15 minuites there was no rain anywhere and a bhright blue sky, dry ground, i look behind to see distant peaks and a storm .......... and the eveidence of what has past are my big wet sock prints on the tarmac as i try to dry my numb feet!!
the rest of the day was up and down, quite a lot of up actually which suprised me. riding alone i remembered my old rythm that i rode across the netherlands with alone.... it is stupidly fast and found me in golden by 4 oclock in the afternoon after a 114km or so ride! I was though exhausted! and did something completley out of character i walked up to the nearest hotel read "hot tub, swimming pool and sauna" heard the ridiculous ammount quoted, gave them my card and walked to the room and collapsed!!
I dont know how long this trip will last but so far has been exciting and ......now we are in golden chilling before pushing on across our first state line tommorow (alberta) and im excited to soar out of the rockies down into the prairies!!
I miss home, but this so far has been an electrifiying expereince of cosmic proportions, so who knows whats next? I will speak about our project in the next post!
sam xx
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Pete
non-member comment
ace
Nice post, was really rooting for you, Sam to get to Golden by the end of the day. 114km with a 3 hour uphill, that's a good distance. Keep enjoying.... Pete