Day 11.
Over Rogers Pass today to Golden BC. Reading other cyclists
blogs led us to believe that this 150km stretch would be taxing. So we made
sure that we were away by 8am and had extra food and drink on board. When will I learn to never listen to others? By 2pm we were at the top of the pass and in
that time I hardly got out of the big chain ring. In fact the most distressing
part of the whole climb was when I discovered that I had another grease mark on
my white cycle shorts! I can’t imagine how that happened. I wasn’t required
today to fix Adi’s bike or repair one of her punctures. It’s all a bit of a
mystery.
What was exciting today was the bear spotting. Coming out
from the end of a mountain tunnel I spotted a black bear sitting on his bum on
the road verge munching on something. It was too late to stop so I glided by
not 10 metres away. He hardly glanced up from what he was munching. (No doubt
the remains of the last cyclist through).
The really funny thing was just so that Adi wouldn’t miss this
spectacle I pointed to the bear so when she came out of the tunnel shed see
him. Unfortunately all the cars behind also saw the bear, (A sight they’d
normally miss) and slammed on their brakes, jumped out of their cars with cameras,
while truck drivers blasted their horns and took evasive action. Meanwhile I
had taken a picture of the bear from the saddle and Adi had gone past. The bear
had had enough of all this and had got off his bum and wandered off.
I finished the ride pretty satisfied with that. Dinner was
eaten in a fake 1950’s diner followed by a root beer and ice-cream. The day was
done and dusted a bit early as we had to put our clocks forward 1 hour. From
Pacific time to Mountain time.
Day 12.
A lovely warm sunny day as we rode through the Canadian
Rockies. Mountains, lakes and more bear sightings. Lunch was had at the pretty railway town of
Field BC. This weekend is Canadian Holiday weekend where the poor Calgary city
types get an extra day off. So traffic headed the other way was quite heavy as
they all headed into the hills for a spot of camping the North American
way. By that I mean bringing the RV (the
size of a kiwi batch), a spare car, bicycles and boats, in fact anything they
can get aboard. After 9 hours cycling on
the same roads with all this stuff being pulled along by big- pot dinosaur
engines your head can start ringing.
 |
| Look at the Length of that Train. |
Anyway at the end of the day when we arrived at the National
park campground the joke was on them as Adi and I sailed past the long queue of
now motionless homes on wheels to check into a campsite where the big boys with
their camper grand autos were being turned away. I will have to queue to use
the shower though, don’t you just hate holiday weekends.
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