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Published: August 19th 2019
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Nothing like "Breakfast Included" to get everyone up reasonably on time and into the dining area. Sadly the standard was quite below par, the coffee undrinkable and the tea barely so. I guess a redeeming feature was the home cooked waffles.
We set off about 8am after some advice from a local on some of the quieter roads to take. We trundled along quiet farm roads for the morning taking in the scenery. There was milking shed after milking shed for the first 30km, but strangely few cows to be seen. The ubiquitous corn fields streched out just as commonly, and staying true to yesterday, plenty of berries on offer, usually Blueberries but Strawberries and Blackberries as well.
We made great time today in the morning. Not having to navigate exiting the city or trying to find tracks along the river made the navigating simple and the bitumen roads and flat terrain made it reasonably quick. We had plenty of time for a relaxed coffee for morning tea before heading off through Chilliwack and crossing over to the north side of the lakes for the quieter roads.
We covered 95kms and arrived in Hope at about 2:30pm. Hope
is renown for being the town that Rambo was booted out of in the movie, First Blood - probably not something the locals are all that fond of, and for good reason as there is so much more to this town than that. It is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains that seem to rase straight up looming over the township. We arrived here on the last day of the Bi-annual chainsaw wood sculpting competition. It's a 3 day event that attracts all the best wood sculpturers (apparently). Seriously, the works of art are amazing considering the blunt instrument being used to create them. Our favourite was the cyclist in full kit holding a bicycle aloft over his head. This was a larger than life sculpture.
There's a lot of carvings of bears around the place - we keep getting constant reminders. So much so that we bought a can of Bear Spray this afternoon. Basically all it is, is a very strong pepper spray. So to be effective you must get the bear in the eyes or nose area. This is a spray right, and you have to get close enough to the bear to aim this spray
in its face and hope the wind doesn't blow it back at you instead. I think I'll rely on not being the slowest rider instead! At $45 a can I think it's a ploy to rip off the tourists. It's not like anyone is ever going to come back and complain if it doesn't work.
After climbing just on 300m today and barely noticing it, tomorrow we head up and along the mountains climbing somewhere around 1400m before heading off onto the Kettle Valley Rail Trail (KVR). It's going to be a long, tough, exhausting and exhilarating day. We're especially looking forward to the KVR. We re-did our route from Hope to Banff after we learned of the trail, the Youtube videos of it look amazing. We can't wait.
For the Bicycle Minded:
• No punctures yet by anyone.
• Only a couple of minor mechanicals, both slipped chains.
• 179kms covered over 2 days
• 900m vertical height climbed
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Tot: 0.065s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0328s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb