July 15, 2019
Skookumchuck - Radium Hot Springs, BC
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We had an 8 AM depart this morning in honor of the long miles and the fact that there was no place to eat breakfast in town. The plan was to ride 18 miles down the road and have breakfast in Canal Flats. It was a good plan, in theory.
We were off down the road, making good time. The sky was overcast and it was good. Jim and Genny both wore jackets. The traffic was delightfully light. I considered staying on the main highway all day and not taking the side trip on the west side of the lake. I remember that in great detail from 2016. It was a hot day. I was tired and the rollers wouldn't quit. There was a screaming downhill and climb out of Invermere. If I stayed on the main road, I would miss all of that fun. But part of me wanted to do it again, just to see if it was really that bad or if I was having an off day.
That's what occupied my mind as we sped down the road to breakfast. We pulled into the restaurant parking lot. There was one truck with a man sitting at a picnic table outside. Wait. There's a closed sign in the window. Jim asks the man what's up. The restaurant had changed hands and was now closed on Mondays. We need a Plan B. We decided to go to the grocery. We remember that as being well stocked from our last trip through.
I bought salami and cheese (that reminds me of Ken's roll ups on the Gunnison trip). The cheese problem is that they must not do sliced cheese in Canada. There was a nice variety, but the only slices were Kraft cheese food product. I asked the lady at the deli if she could sell me a couple of slices, since she was assembling sandwiches. So sorry, but, no. I bought the cheese product. I couldn't see peanut M&M's, so I bought plain ones. I bought a Muscle Milk, which I don't remember having before, but Genny told me I did buy and wrote about in detail in the journal. I must have blocked the awful memory from my mind, because this was not good. Even though I shook the bottle, the contents were clumpy and came out of the bottle in unpleasant chunks. Jim and Genny had some bacon wraps from the deli and I"m not sure what else. We decided Invermere was our next potential food spot.
Off we went down the road. We had several little side trips to get us off of the main highway and one big one, West Side Road. It is 14.5 miles long, according to Bertha. I was still debating going straight on the main road. We had a nice shoulder, good pavement, and there wasn't much traffic. When the time came to turn, I went ahead and made it. I wanted to see if it was as difficult as I remembered.
I was prepared to cut Jim and Genny loose if I got too far behind. It started out nicely. The road had very little traffic and we were talking. The miles ticked by. The road surface left something to be desired. There were many patches and the patches had patches. Soon we noticed some people working on a trail. That would be nice. We had seen several signs saying land had been donated for the trail 'the future home'. We know how that goes - desire is bigger than the budget. But look, here they were, really building the trail. Then we saw the constructed trail. It was nice, new pavement with a yellow line. It followed the curve of the mountain up and down. We agreed there was enough climbing on West Side Road without looking for more. But the surface looked inviting. I was behind them on a climb. When I caught up with them, they were talking with one of the construction workers. She was basically saying,"We built this nice trail for you, why aren't you using it?". At the same time she said that it only climbed awhile and there were only several switchbacks. That certainly sounded inviting . . . Jim did scoot over for perhaps a half of a mile. Then he hopped right back off when the path went up.
Later, close to town, we rode about a mile on the path before it ended. We had discussed eating at a restaurant in town, but Genny thought we were close enough to Radium Hot Springs that she could make it if she had a snack. We ended up at the grocery. I bought a glass jar of salsa and a bag of chips. I might not appreciate the weight now, but chips and salsa will be good once we get to town.
Somehow I thought we had 53 miles to town, so I was happily thinking 4 more miles. Wrong. It was supposed to be 58, plus we had the side trip into Canal Flats . . . . damn. Ten more miles to town. Just to make it interesting, we had been feeling the occasional drop of rain. We were half expecting to see it really raining as we came out of the store. No. Let's see how far we can get.
Here's the part I was dreading. The big downhill to the river and the honking climb out. Jim got ahead, but stayed on the highway. Genny followed. I got on the sidewalk, as I could see they had no shoulder at all. I don't know where the traffic came from, but all the sudden it was bumper to bumper cars. I got on the walk way. It had a big lip going uphill, I hardly made it over the lip, but kept the bike upright. The sidewalk was elevated several feet over the roadway and was a touch narrow and was uphill. My long bike tends to wobble in the front end on low speed climbs. That's not good when I'm so far above the traffic. I was happy to get over the bridge. But then that was worse because there was a concrete barrier on the left and a chain link fence on the right and it was narrow. I wondered how much room I had between my panniers and the obstacles, but I didn't dare look. I did sneak a peak at the Garmin. I had to climb 350 more feet before the top of the climb. That was doable. But I'd sure rather not do it in such constricted conditions.
Up ahead I could see the path taking a sharp turn to the right and then a sharp climb. Forget that, I went left and joined the traffic. A man on an electric wheel chair was waiting for me to get out of the way. I think he would have chatted with me, but Jim and Genny were out of sight and I wanted to catch them.
Where did all of these cars come from? Fairmont Hot Springs? I'm glad we only have ten miles to go. The shoulder was wide enough, but I'd forgotten about monitoring traffic with the nice riding we've had the past couple of days.
We continued to have rain sprinkles. I was happy with my riding ability at this point. The day had been mostly flat, we had 2,400 feet of climbing, but mostly level given that we rode 60 miles. Tomorrow we be our big climbing day. We have 2,000 feet of climbing in 8 miles right out of Radium Hot Springs . . .but I get ahead of myself.
Sprinkling rain and a now downhill to town. Jim took a left to get away from traffic. He thought he knew where the motel was, but we had to backtrack. I lost them, and had to look at the RWGPS map to see where we were going. We were happy to arrive without getting wet.
Last night's room was $101. tonight's is $165. We are at the Crystal Springs Motel. The closer to the parks we get, the more the prices go up.
I got in the room and felt a little disoriented. I think I need food. I got the chips and salsa out. I wandered back and forth and had trouble finishing a task. Usually I'm quite organized about the arriving to town routine. It will sound silly, but I think what threw me off was laundry. Usually I get in the shower with my clothes on and wash my clothes in the shower. But we bought Dr. Bronner's soap in Cranbrook, so now I'm trying sink washing. Genny told me her method of sink washing - it involves filling and draining the sink a number of times, presoak, wash, rinse, rinse, rinse again.
I just opened the door to see if I could hang my clothes outside and there was Jacinto. It was like I opened the door for him. He was VERY wet. Soaking wet. He had gotten wet starting before Invermere and all the way here. Jacinto had eaten all sorts of leftovers for breakfast and still had a half burrito left. Just in case. He was happy to eat the chips and salsa and didn't complain about the cheese food product. I don't think he ate the strange candy I bought. We have a little studio apartment. I have all of the food spread out on the table.
We are going to eat at the Horsethief Brewery. Jim and Genny have fond memories of eating there in 2016.
Later - After intensely questioning the waitress, Jacinto and I order the Big Daddy Nachos with chicken for $28. to share. Genny specifically said that we bicycled 60 miles today and are very hungry. Our 'meal' was laughable. Jacinto and I agreed we could have each eaten one and still been hungry. The flavor was good, the serving was very skimpy. Jim and Genny especially liked their appetizer of bacon wrapped shrimp. Probably if we ride through here again we would go back to the BBQ place we ate at in 2016. It's across from the grocery. We went to the grocery to supplement our dinner. I bought a Greek salad. I selected a pint of Ben and Jerry's to share. Unfortunately I did not notice that it was frozen yogurt until we were eating. We sat around outside talking and eating ice cream. We didn't see any breakfast places that were open before the motel breakfast at 8, so we are eating at the motel. The clerk said they have bacon, eggs, and pancakes. That should be good.
It rained off and on all night. Our clothes weren't getting dry with all of the humidity.
I'm not looking forward to the huge climb tomorrow. I'm not panicked about it. I believe I have finally, finally outgrown being stressed about difficult days. I like a pleasantly strenuous day, enough that my dinner tastes good. I don't need to visit my outer limits. Today, I probably will. We have a 2,000 foot climb over 8 miles with pitches as steep as 14%. The good thing is, after cresting Sinclair Pass, then the road is basically level the rest of the way. Today is 40 miles, but big on effort.
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Today's ride: 60 miles (97 km)
Total: 308 miles (496 km)
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