June 8, 2012
Lethbridge to Bow Island
One of the beauties of the prairies is the BIG skies. Because the land is so flat, you can see for miles, and see changes in the sky from far away. As a cyclist (with minimal protection from the elements) this is particularly useful for spotting storms and bad weather before it gets to you. This happened twice today.
After a good breakfast and farewells, Pascal and I left Ron and Elsp's together, heading towards the Crowsnest Highway before he sped off at his normal speed. A big black sky was getting closer and closer, and I was able to dive for cover at a coffee shop in Coaldale to miss the first heavy downpour, along with Pascal who had arrived just before me.
From there to Taber was a slog with cross winds doing their best to spoil the fun. A long lunch break was called for, and miraculously, afterwards, the tail wind had returned. Whilst flying east with music blaring through MP3 player and speaker, another black cloud was getting bigger and bigger in my mirror. At Bow Island I called it quits for the day, just before a soaking would have happened, and after taking cover in a shelter at the Centennial Park Campground and brewing up set up the tent for the night. The campground at $10 per night with free hot showers made up for not getting all the way to Medicine Hat to share a site with Curtis. It is a peaceful site, well recommended for anyone passing through.
About 8ish, just as I was thinking of turning in, 2 other cyclists rolled in, Ken and Jason. They are also riding coast to coast, and had followed my tyre tracks out of Sparwood about 2 hours after I had left on Wednesday, and also stayed in Lethbridge last night. We filled each other in about other sightings of cyclists in the vicinity - suprisingly quite a few, and did the usual round of kit comparisons and envy. A good ending to a good day.
Today's ride: 72 miles (116 km)
Total: 2,820 miles (4,538 km)
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