The Boys are Back in Town: Day 8 - Clearwater to Blue River - And Then We Pedalled...... Cross Canada 2015

June 10, 2015

The Boys are Back in Town: Day 8 - Clearwater to Blue River

A couple of light bulb moments for me today, both involving railroads. Living in calgary and growing up playing in the Bow Valley, I've got a hard wired association in my brain that railroads are CP Rail, and that they only move freight through the Bow Valley and over Kicking Horse and Rogers passes, having long ago decided that moving people just wasn't worth it (even if you treated them like cattle).

Well last night we got a text from Bill that he had sorted his bike out and would join us in Blue River, and that he was taking the TRAIN!

As we set off from Clearwater (under perfect blue skies, again) and pedaled up the Thompson, after hearing and seeing about the sixth train pass by, it dawned on me that Canada has two big railroads and that CN Rail's mainline runs over the Yellowhead pass and down the Thompson river. The train that caused this revalatiion was also a passenger train, not something I've seen for a longtime in western Canada, and Bill was on it!

In addition to a little mind opening 'industrial geography' lesson, Kirsten and I had a good cycle. Day 8 and a few aches and pains are showing up but nothing that we can't handle.

We could also really see the change in the landscape. An hour or so out of Clearwater Kirsten was picking wild strawberries beside the road and there were farmers cutting hay. An hour later there were alpine wildflowers (Daisy's and Indian paintbrushes) and the river had some pretty good white water on it.

Only one climb of any significance today, a 2.5 km hill about 20 km from Blue River. Thankfully it had clouded over by then so there wasn't the broiler effect like we had coming into Kamloops. When we reached the top there were a couple of women who had been out surveying forestry roads who gave us ICE water, thanks!

There was one noticeable change in the road conditions though. BC like most other provinces or states, has regional offices who look after the highways. The folks who work in the offices along the 5a and the 5 (up to today) are likely wonderful folks who have considered the needs of cyclists, as the evil rumble strips have been placed in the most cycle friendly position possible.

The highway department near Blue River must employ Dr. Donald Dumbass who decided to make the rumble strips about 60 cm wide (2 ft) and put them in the MIDDLE of the otherwise perfectly good shoulder, thus rendering it useless for cycling.

Dr. Dumbass may only be doing this as a trial as ONLY about 20 km of the ride today was affected.

Anyway, we arrived in Blue River, Bill was there with a nice camp site scoped out at the Blue River camp site, cold beer at the ready, and we're showered up and ready to find something to eat.

Weigle World (Mike Weigle's mecca of heli skiing) is open for the summer and it's right across the road. We'll see if we can get something there without having to take out a bank loan.

"Update" the bank account is safe, Weigle's restaurant isn't open yet so went down to the grill at the Sandman Inn.

Heart

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Song of the day:

360 Degrees by Asa - ' you don't have to climb the highest mountain, for all you're looking for is within you'

Honourable mention to New York is Killing Me by Gil Scott Heron - he sounded way worse than I felt when climbing the 2.5 km hill at the 80 km mark. Made be feel better. But not as much as Asa, she wins