Today started off a little slow - on purpose. I wanted to break up what I originally had as a 95 mile day, so I planned to ride only 45 miles to Duffy Lake Provincial Park. I spent the morning working on website stuff - uploading pictures and rearranging a few of the pages. At 14:00 I finally got things in order and got on the road. Cassandra was going for a bike ride on her own from Whistler so we left together and said our fairwells after a couple of pictures with the new Trans-Canada Bike Ride banner.
Kristy mentioned that the ride to Pemberton from Whistler was all downhill - which it was and this was great - my average speed was something like 28mph in to Pemberton. Once I got to Pemberton I saw a small information building and stopped in to see what was waiting for me on the road ahead. The two staff there told me that the camp ground I was planning to go to had been closed and the next closest site was an extra 30 klicks up the road. They also told me that there was a 10 mile stretch of 15% grade just outside Pemberton on the route I was planning to take. Okay... lets see how far I can get. Riding out of Pemberton was a synch - flat and relatively smooth - though the muscles in my knees required some massaging TLC. I think they are just waking up to the fact that they've got another 8100km to go :) Excellently though, they straightened up by the time I got to the large steep long hill. Just before going up the hill I stopped to talk with a guy who was up from Vancouver out fishing. He gave me some grapes and I told him about what I was doing. Cool guy. Okay - here we go up the hill now - My average speed up this hill was about 4 mph and by the time I got to the top it was close to 3... it was slow and completely AWESOME. The day was perfect and the scenery was spectacular. About half way up I ran in to a couple who's brakes had caught fire coming down. Strangely, every car that went by going down the hill smelled like their brakes were on fire. Luckily the couple had an extinguisher and lots of bottled water - which they shared with me to fill up my water bottle. Lots of cars went by with thumbs up or a friendly toot of the horn as I climbed the hill with my 100lb of bicycle and gear. Oh yah - never try to climb a hill like this without some kick-ass dance music. It made all the difference. At the top, some four hours later, I stopped and talked with some more folks who gave me more water and carrots. They also liked my banner and asked lots of questions about what I was up to. Finally, I reached the top (4000 ft of vertical ascent in about 10 miles. It was cool up there - like still snow on the ground cool. The ride back down was really nice - coasting most of the last 10 miles. Got to see a couple of black bears too. Didn't stick around long but got a nice shot of him eating some twigs. So then, given my campsite was no longer available I had to find a nice place to put my self up for the night and eat some dinner. I found a nice spot by the side of the road at the east end of Duffy Lake. What a view. Check out the pics. Time to sleep so I can get back at it again in the morning.
Mileage total for the day: 51.81 miles (83.38 km)
Good night.
Kristy mentioned that the ride to Pemberton from Whistler was all downhill - which it was and this was great - my average speed was something like 28mph in to Pemberton. Once I got to Pemberton I saw a small information building and stopped in to see what was waiting for me on the road ahead. The two staff there told me that the camp ground I was planning to go to had been closed and the next closest site was an extra 30 klicks up the road. They also told me that there was a 10 mile stretch of 15% grade just outside Pemberton on the route I was planning to take. Okay... lets see how far I can get. Riding out of Pemberton was a synch - flat and relatively smooth - though the muscles in my knees required some massaging TLC. I think they are just waking up to the fact that they've got another 8100km to go :) Excellently though, they straightened up by the time I got to the large steep long hill. Just before going up the hill I stopped to talk with a guy who was up from Vancouver out fishing. He gave me some grapes and I told him about what I was doing. Cool guy. Okay - here we go up the hill now - My average speed up this hill was about 4 mph and by the time I got to the top it was close to 3... it was slow and completely AWESOME. The day was perfect and the scenery was spectacular. About half way up I ran in to a couple who's brakes had caught fire coming down. Strangely, every car that went by going down the hill smelled like their brakes were on fire. Luckily the couple had an extinguisher and lots of bottled water - which they shared with me to fill up my water bottle. Lots of cars went by with thumbs up or a friendly toot of the horn as I climbed the hill with my 100lb of bicycle and gear. Oh yah - never try to climb a hill like this without some kick-ass dance music. It made all the difference. At the top, some four hours later, I stopped and talked with some more folks who gave me more water and carrots. They also liked my banner and asked lots of questions about what I was up to. Finally, I reached the top (4000 ft of vertical ascent in about 10 miles. It was cool up there - like still snow on the ground cool. The ride back down was really nice - coasting most of the last 10 miles. Got to see a couple of black bears too. Didn't stick around long but got a nice shot of him eating some twigs. So then, given my campsite was no longer available I had to find a nice place to put my self up for the night and eat some dinner. I found a nice spot by the side of the road at the east end of Duffy Lake. What a view. Check out the pics. Time to sleep so I can get back at it again in the morning.
Mileage total for the day: 51.81 miles (83.38 km)
Good night.
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