July 19, 2019
Golden - Donald, BC
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I had the best night's sleep of the entire trip last night. Our upstairs neighbor didn't use the bathroom all night (the water runs down the wall right next to my head again). There's nothing better than knowing I can get up at whatever hour I want. This morning it was 8 AM. I had a text from Jim at 7:33 saying they were on the road. I had asked them last night if they wanted to have lunch with us here in Golden, but he didn't reply to that. We took four hours to ride between Lake Louise and Golden, so they should be arriving just before our noon check out time. Jim didn't say if it is raining there. It isn't raining here yet, but is supposed to rain all afternoon. I suppose we would have had the choice of riding early and missing the rain, but in Donald we are at a campground with hostel type rooms and the bath outside. Shared with the campers? It sounds quite basic. We are happy to have it, since Heather Mountain Lodge canceled on us . . . but we're not in a big hurry to arrive.
After the extended downhill in the rain/muck/heavy traffic, my rear brake was a little mushy. I had watched Oren adjust my brakes after the descent in the hail into Brian Head. I am quite happy with myself that I've adjusted my brakes alone. It's a small thing, but now I can do it myself!
It's 10:30 AM and I haven't done a thing besides eat a cold leftover egg omelet (no microwave here, but there is a fridge). Maybe I should shower and get ready in case Jim and Genny are speedy and get here earlier than we expect.
We were already on our way to the Chinese restaurant when Jim texted they were headed to Subway. That would be their lunch, dinner, and breakfast as they would eat and also get a sub to go. I told him Subway would be meeting their daily quota in one sale!
When we first crossed the highway and the concrete road barriers, I thought us quite risky with the heavy traffic. Now we've got the routine down. We were across the road in no time and were the only customers at the restaurant. We did not see Jim and Genny pass by, but received a text that they were at Subway. We had an acceptable lunch. I ordered chicken fried rice to go. With my broccoli beef leftovers, that will be dinner. Since I have virtually empty rear panniers, I have no trouble carrying the leftovers. I also have a bag of chips on top of my rear rack. That works when the bag has not been opened, because it's full of air and doesn't squash. After I carefully loaded the food in my pannier so it wouldn't tilt and spill the juice out, we rode down to Subway. They were still there - along with half of the people in the area. We could hardly enter the building. Genny said they had to get back in line to get their dinner Subways. We said we were taking off as it was starting to spit rain outside, although the forecast said no rain until 4 PM. We agreed it wasn't warming up much - we all had on tights, long fingered gloves, and jackets. We haven't gotten much of the story about Jim and Genny's morning. I do know they didn't get rained on so far and had a pretty good morning. Here we were just setting out and they already had 50 miles in!
Jacinto motioned to me to go first down the road. We knew there was road construction somewhere. Off we went. 15 flat miles. This was a repositioning day to get us a little closer to the big climb over Rodgers Pass tomorrow.
I was feeling fat and happy after our big lunch. I wasn't moving too fast and Jacinto was right behind me. I took pity on Jacinto and motioned for him to go around me, but he didn't. I got to the turn for an animal sanctuary and pulled in. Jacinto said to check my tires, but I told him I had before we left. Guess what? My rear tire was low. It had only 30 pounds. We had only ten miles to go before Donald, Jacinto said to pump it up and he would check with me again in five miles. Jacinto told me to go ahead and leave and he'd kill some time and be along behind me. I definitely felt as if I rode faster after the tire was aired up. Imagine that!
We had looked at a route on Upper Donald Road. Holly at the motel said Upper Donald was paved and Lower Donald wasn't and it wasn't a through road. In the meanwhile we looked at how to get into town from the highway as Komoot was showing a different entry than RWGPS. Hmmm. They were doing road construction. Maybe they closed off an exit? But that seems expensive to reconstruct. When I actually reached where the exit should be, it wasn't there. I continued on to where I could exit, which is the one Komoot showed.
It was perhaps a half mile down to the office. Inside was quite busy and I waited my turn. Evon helped me. He said it had been several years that the exit had been changed and he was surprised google hadn't updated. I was happy to find out that he was able to book us in a chalet. When I had made my reservation back in January he hadn't wanted to tie up a chalet for one day with the hope of someone taking it for a week. But here we are, and one is available for $100. vs the $65. for the room that we have to use the bathhouse. Sold! Jim and Genny pulled in just as we were exiting. They took a two story chalet for $125. Jacinto was quite jealous when he saw their nice sofa to sit on to watch TV. I thought he was going to tell me we could take the room for $65, so I was feeling lucky to get the chalet. Then he's telling me we should upgrade once more? They did have another two story. I told Jacinto to go back and see if we could upgrade. But he didn't.
I took a shower and then fixed my flat tire. Which makes no sense. But I wanted to get out of my almost clean clothes before they got stinky. I didn't wash clothes today. That makes it feel like a rest day right there.
We've agreed on a 6 PM dinner. I did have some Chinese food for an afternoon snack. Tomorrow I'm having oatmeal and milk and some leftovers. Jacinto has all of the gas station junk he bought. The little store here does have a good selection and we could have just cycled here and had a wide choice of foods.
Jim and I figured out that we've had 4 flat tires in 11 riding days times 4 people. Jim thinks we are doing well. I liked the last trip better - 26 riding days. No flats. 3 people. But you can't always win. I might have one flat tire a season. Usually it's when my tires are getting a little old and thin and need replaced anyway. This rear tire was brand new for the trip, but I had two flats. You just don't know. I had one from a piece of glass and this was a tire wire.
I've been sitting outside typing this in the comfy deck chair. It's been spitting rain the whole time and now I'm cold. I'm glad I brought along the warm jacket. It's been worth the space.
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Today's ride: 16 miles (26 km)
Total: 459 miles (739 km)
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