Day 11: Now this is what it's all about

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After much discussion we decided to have breakfast at the hotel and be on the road by 7:30am. We have a massive day in front of us and we need to be on the road early. As it turn out, we set off on time for a change.
There was no wondering when the uphill sections would start today. As soon as we left town the road pointed up and we started climbing. For the most part the gradient wasn't too bad but every so often we'd get a steep section of road that would last for a kilometer or so.
The morning air was quite cool and although there was plenty of light the sun hadn't made it over the massive peaks in the east. We were riding about 30 meters above a river, with the pine forest dense on each side. Every now and then you'd see through the trees and the wisps of mist were still rising off the water. We were nestled in a valley with magnificent mountains rising up over a kilometer on either side of us - simply magnificent.
Jeff and I had our first close encounter with a black bear. He was sitting in the bike lane and wasn't quite sure what to do as Jeff approached slowly. When Jeff was about 20 meters away the bear took off back into the woods. I'm not sure who got the bigger fright, Jeff or the bear!
We continued to steadily climb and were making good time. We reached the high point of Roger's Pass (1330m) some time after 12pm. We had climbed almost 1200m to get there.
If the ascent was hard, the descent was a hoot. 20kms of down hill with multiple avalanche tunnels to navigate through. On the other side of the pass the mountain ranges were just as impressive.
We still had a bit of up and down to do for the rest of the day, but mostly down. We are staying at the Mountain View Cabins. To get to the cabins we had leave the main road and travel up a dirt road for 2kms fully loaded with our panniers with the dirt road hovering between 8% to 13% - after 127kms already it was the hardest part of the day.
Facilities were very basic at the cabins. While each cabin is quite roomy and has it's own bathroom they have no TV or WiFi and we had to bring in our own food for the night. A small concession is that there is WiFi in the Common Area/Kitchen. We cooked up our supplies for dinner and spent a bit of time around the camp fire but after a big day no one was staying up late.

Total climbing for the day: 1600+ meters.
Total descending for the day: 1200+ meters.

Tomorrow is a shorter day to a town called Field but there is another big climb to conquer.

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Photos

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Fresh Bear prints in the mud