May 28, 2012
Hope to Hedley
In anticipation of the climbing today I was on the road early, at 0630, which turned out to be prudent as the day ended up being longer than i'd anticipated. The climb up past the Hope Slide and onwards to Allison Pass was made easier by the light rain and low temperatures, and when I saw a bear in the wild for the first time, all pain and discomfort was forgotten about. For a while anyway.
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4 hours 45 minutes of cycling time since leaving the campsite at Hope I finally reached the summit of the Allison Pass, which at 1342 metres is disappointingly 2 metres lower than the summit of Ben Nevis (the Scottish one, not the rather dwarflike cousin on Shaw Island at only 385 feet).
I called at the Manning Park resort feeling that a celebratory lunch was in order, but seeing their prices and the cheesy restaurant with it's dim lighting and soft music I decided this was not the place for a romantic meal for one, so carried on to Dave's Diner, and although it was closed, the moment was saved by the discovery of a vegetable samosa in the adjoining gas station.
It was still too early in the day to stop, and I wanted to catch up with Curtis who had been great company, but had set off Saturday morning when I was having a day off, so I continued to Princeton where he said he would be tonight. On the way there was a slight obstacle in the form of Sunday Summit (this is a classic case of bad planning, not crossing Sunday Summit on a Sunday), where after I had taken the obligatory photo was called over to a couple of Chinese guys by a pick-up truck wanting to know if I had seen any accidents on the road as they had been expecting their brother to join them. They were great company, and we chatted a while whilst I munched the apple and banana they had kindly given me.
After picking up some wifi in Princeton I read a message from Curtis saying he'd be 30km further on at the Stemwinder Campsite. After a few minutes spent cursing, deliberating, and route elevation checking with the locals I was on my way again, via the cold beer and wine store, to suprise Curtis, and Pascal, a Canadian from Montreal who had also joined the merry band.
Today's ride: 106 miles (171 km)
Total: 2,153 miles (3,465 km)
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