Fall Down Go Boom!

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Fall Down Go Boom!

Thursday, 28 June 2007

Today Bob & Panna brought me to back to Fort Qu’Appelle, where I was hoping to locate a fairly long stretch of the Trans Canada Trail. Both yesterday & again today I’d inquired at the local tourist information centre to see if the folks there (volunteers, I think) knew where I could find its start - usually it’s pretty well marked once you find it. Unfortunately the couple there, although nice, knew nothing about the trail. At least this morning I had with me a map which showed it, just didn’t indicate the names of the streets. Using the map we were directed to a small road on the east side of town. But if the trail was there, it was going straight up a long steep hill, maybe suitable for hiking but not for this old biddie on her bicycle.

So I rode back into town, with the intent to ride along a secondary highway if I couldn’t find the trail itself. However, as I went down a street off the main street I caught a glimpse of a TCT sign and followed it for about ½ kilometre, till it seemed to end at an old hospital. So I turned around & retraced my steps, but lost the trail again...sigh. Finally I stopped at a local museum on the same road, but the folks there weren’t really sure either, although the gal did know of a trail, she just couldn’t explain very well how to find it. Upon leaving the museum I suddenly spotted the sign indicating the TCT passing over a tiny bridge and there it was!

But again the trail seemed to end, this time at a park & campground. So I finally rode to the highway (#56), which, lo & behold, seemed to have the TCT going along & parallel to the roadway. I tried going onto it a bit, but it weaved on & off & across the road, so I just settled in on the pavement. Travelling towards the east the road passes first Echo Lake & then Pasqua Lake. If I’d taken it towards the west it would have passed by Mission Lake & Katepwa Lake.

The scenery there is really beautiful, not at all as one would imagine for Saskatchewan. All along the road there are very nice cottages, not big behemoths on huge lots but very well looked-after & quite tempting. But if I had found it difficult to maintain a cottage in Kemptville, I think this would be even more difficult! I’d been in touch with Bob & he was uncertain as to where I was; he’d been fairly unsuccessful at finding a place either to fish off the dock or to get Panna in the water for a swim (most parks seem to not allow dogs on the beaches and some don’t allow them at all). So I was going to get to 30 kilometres then turn around & go back to Fort Qu’Appelle & meet him at another local ice cream shop.

Well, at 26 k the paved road turned to gravel/dirt, so I decided to turn around there. Don’t know what I did wrong - I think the surface was softer than I’d anticipated - but down we went. No serious injuries, a skinned left knee & a sore thumb on my right hand, so I cleaned the knee, put some bandaids on it, and returned to town, somewhat annoyed that I’d been so careless. As I was going along I realized that I might have sprained the thumb or something like that. It didn’t hurt much, but it was very difficult to use it on downshifting...oops!

On returning to the motel I put a bit of ice on it & wrapped it for the night, mainly so the thumb wouldn’t move or swell. I checked on-line for a diagnosis and the most likely one would be “skier’s thumb”, a sort of strain to the ligaments holding the thumb next to the palm, probably from pressure on the handlebar when I went down. (The diagnostician in me always wants to know...) Doesn’t seem serious anyway, thank goodness.

DAY 9: 48.6 km, in 3:00 hours, ave. speed 16.1 km/hr, max. speed 36.4 km/hr (will have to do better next time)

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