Day 13 - The Wisdom of Mike

STATS	DAY	MILES	CLIMBING	CALORIES
DAY	13	81.76	2867	3964
TOTALS		699.05	33,113	39,440

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Slumber at Rancheria was wonderful.  In a campground in the woods of over 100 spaces, only 3 were occupied and the other two were far enough away that we felt like we had the place to ourselves.  Sleep came quick, it was quiet, and it waited until 6am to start raining.

It only rained enough to get everything wet, but not soaked and had stopped by the time we needed to get up and get the day going.

The ride for us today is a long one, about 82 miles.  The skys look threatening, but we kit up, break camp and on the road.  Today is the halfway point of the ride.  Looking back, the first week appears as a blur.  We have put a lot of miles in and seen quite a bit so far.  We all commented that we were nervous about the distance today.

We started with a gradual climb up to the Continental Divide and we are greeted by a nice view of the Cassiar mountain range

It is hard to believe that when you see a mountain in the distance, that you will ride past it that day.

Here we are at the continental divide.

 

We are all privately thinking:  I could pee in two oceans at once from this spot

As you can see, Joe still does not know what to make of us, but he is coming around.

Later, we had our third encounter with fellow cyclists:

Tell me, is that women in the matching outfit still following me?

This was Hanzel and Gretel (not their real names) from Luxemburg land of the Schleck brothers.  They were riding from Anchorage to Vancouver and were rocking some extremely high end gear.  Waterproof Swiss panniers, fenders, lights, matching outfits, and germanic accents to boot.  They planned to visit Lake Louise, however, Joe convinced them to visit Banff instead.  I am not sure they will, but after about 15 minutes Hanzel said to Gretel "We should look into that" which was enough to quiet Joe.

We kept looking over our shoulders at the rain behind us.  We were certain it would catch us.  About 4 miles before lunch, I had the first mechanical of the trip, I broke a rear spoke and the wheel was rubbing against the bike frame.  As we pulled into the stop I said "get the tools out Tom, we have a problem".  I had brought along spare spokes.  Tom got the work stand and spoke wrenches out of the van.  I was lucky in the spoke was on the non-cassette (gear) side so I was able to lace a new one in without having to remove the rear gear cluster.  With the bike on the work stand I tightened and trued the wheel while Mike made me a sandwhich.  I ate, and we were back on the road in 15 minutes, just before the skies opened up on the lunch stop.  It missed us by that much.

There has not been much wild life these past few days, but today we did see three meeses off in one of the countless lakes we passed.

 

Trust me, They're Moose

The head wind was hellacious today.  I have been working on a few theories during my time in the saddle.  The first theory is how they plotted the course for the highway.  The surveyors were told "Just follow a course into the wind".  So far this one is holding up.

My other theory is:  (You need to remember Hugo and Asheika, Clive and Gretchen, and Hanzel and Gretel)  If you are going to tour by bicycle and load your bike up with gear, You are more likely to end up touring with an attractive and fit young women, or slightly less likely to end up with a Japanese guy.  The theory has been holding up pretty well until we came across these guys today:

Both of our bikes and my friend are taking a sit down strike

We came on these guys just sitting on the side of the road.  Notice that they do not have panniers, they have frame bags.  They said they were Greeks coming from Italy and were riding from Vancouver to Anchorage (seems to be a popular route).  They were averaging 100 to 120 miles A DAY.  They carried no food and only one small tent.  They guy sitting down looked like he was ready to assume the fetal position and start crying.  They both looked totally wiped out.  The guy standing asked if we knew how far it was to be able to get some food.  I felt sorry for these guys, but it appeared to me that they were a little too ambitious in the distance department, and a few spokes short of a trued wheel.  They were planning on going a bit farther than us today so I imagine that we will see them again and I'll give you an update.  In the mean time, I need to work this into my theory.

So we motored off looking all fit and fed with no extra weight on our bikes and about 5 miles up the road is our camping spot.  Mike says:  I am going to get a room tonight if one is available.  Joe says: I could do that too.  Not to be out down I say: "ya".  So we were supposed to camp tonight, but we all got hotel rooms in this really nice roadside lodge.  We went over to camp and told Tom that we were affecting a mutiny and we would be back in about a half hour for dinner.  So here I am in a comfortable hotel room after a long day in the saddle and I am NOT camping.  Ah, the wisdom of Mike.  Thanks Mike!

Tale of the tape