BC has mountains: Day 3 - Hope to Manning Park - And Then We Pedalled...... Cross Canada 2015

June 5, 2015

BC has mountains: Day 3 - Hope to Manning Park

We left the Fraser valley this morning. Whichever direction you go, with the exception of beating a retreat to the coast, that means mountains. Big mountains!

We set off on highway 3 towards Princeton. The weather was great, warm and then verging on very hot by mid afternoon. It became apparent pretty quickly that our 'goal' of reaching Princeton some 138 km away was more like a fairy tale. After sixty three km's, 1300 m of net elevation gain and about 4 litres of water (each), we crested Allison pass. We then had a nice 20 km run down to the Mule Deer campground where there was a unanimous decision to call it a day here.

Nice camp site beside the river, cold bath in the river and a gourmet dinner of noodles and chicken soup. It really did taste great!

We also met our first other cross Canada cyclists, Mark, a retired navy guy from Ottawa, and a young French woman whose name we didn't catch. Both of them are going west to east on more or less the same time line we are so we may run into them again.

I'm writing this with no mobile / cell service let alone high speed internet, so pic's will come later. I did have time to take more pic's today since we stopped a lot!

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Song of the day:

I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow - Soggy Bottom Boys

If you haven't seen the movie Oh Brother Where Art Though, you should. It's hilarious. This is one of the main songs in the movie, and it came up on the 'Boom' just as I was getting to the top of Allison pass. For the last couple of hours I felt like I was in a Louisiana chain gang (my Garmin showed 37.9 c but I don't think it was quite that hot) and that I was a man of constant climbing. When this tune came on and I saw the summit sign, there was a big smile on my face. That wins "song of the day"

Historical moment of the day:

the Hope slide - in January 1965 a seismically triggered mud and rock slide took out the highway and killed four people. Pic's to follow.

Leaving the freeway - yeah! Heading off on highway 3 and starting the climb into the mountains

Going up- early in the day and feeling fresh

Met up with our first fellow Trans Canadian - Mark from Ottawa

Historical moment of the day - Hope slide. January 1965 this slide happened. Unfortunately 4 people were killed but it could have been worse

It was a hot climb ..... Garmin overstates things a bit but it wa still hot, and relentless

After 63 km of almost continuous climbing we reached the top!

Kirsten at the top of Allison pass - downhill to the campground from here

Gourmet dinning! Everything tastes good when you're camping

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 301 km (187 miles)

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