May 16, 2016
And we're back to pretty pictures: Remember to breathe
For the next couple of days I continued past Mount Revelstoke National Park, through Glacier National Park and on to the edge of Yoho National Park. If you are wondering why there are so many National Parks around here I can reassure you that your curiosity will soon be satisfied when you see some of the photographs that I took of the area. The scenery was consistently breathtaking, to the point that you really do have to close your eyes every now and then to avoid actually passing out from a lack of breath. You know what I'm talking about – blue skies, green trees, grey rock, white snow, and bright yellow flowers lining the road. It was like cycling through a giant, great big, three-dimensional postcard.
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As for moments of interest? Well on my way up the long, gradual climb, I passed an electronic sign warning the traffic that there was a bear in the road. This certainly offered hope for of a moment of interest, but alas, the promised bear never materialised. About twenty kilometres and several hours later, on the way down the other side, I passed an identical sign pointing the other way saying the same thing. In fact the signs seemed like they were there almost permanently, and I mused that perhaps their only real purpose was to slow down the traffic.
Near the top of the Rogers Pass I locked up my bike and made an attempt to go for a hike in the mountains. There were a series of trails to choose from but unfortunately I was soon beaten back by the considerable amount of snow that was still on the ground at this altitude. Even so it was a beautiful place to be. I really couldn't believe how stunning the scenery here was.
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The next day I crossed my first time-zone, which gave me a positive feeling, like I was starting to make some progress across this vast land. (So long as I didn't think too much about the four I still had to go.) I also reached Golden, a little town surrounded by mountains, where, needless to say, I went to the library. Outside of this building a rather odd and possibly drunk man on a bicycle spoke to me and insisted I should from now on take the Kettle Valley Railway Bicycle Trail instead of the highway. This, on the face of it, would seem like a good suggestion, but it would have been a much better suggestion had I been positioned about 300 kilometres south-west, somewhere in the actual vicinity of the Kettle Valley Railway Bicycle Trail.
From Golden there was a very steep climb up out of town, and then the road got really rather narrow as it wound its way around the cliff faces of a steep-sided canyon and for the first time the wide safe shoulder went AWOL for a few kilometres. It wasn't all that bad though, and I had the very great pleasure of sharing the edge of the precipice with several big horn sheep. They were all ewes though, which meant they didn't really live up to their name. I don't like to judge animals too much by the size of their horns though. I like koalas for example, and puppies, and monkeys, and none of them have got horns. Actually I prefer to judge animals by how well they'll pose for photographs for me, and these little-horned big horn sheep were pretty accommodating in that regard, mostly because we were all balancing on the edge of a sheer cliff. Enjoy!
Monday 16th May – 87km
Tuesday 17th May – 74km
Today's ride: 161 km (100 miles)
Total: 49,527 km (30,756 miles)
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