Day 11

6/2/09 Part of segment 9: Day 11 Manning Camp to Princeton, BC.

First just wanted to say thanks for the emails and hi to: Sue at Pettecote Junction Campgrounds; Tim G. for asking how my arse is feeling after 9 straight days of long distance riding; George J. for telling us our blogs are too long winded and to get riding. Thanks everyone for taking the time to fire us emails via the contact form on the website.

Woke up at 6am, tired, groggy and totally not into changing a spoke and fixing a broken chain. But that’s work on the road. It was cold last night camping up in the mountains, and the only consolation was listening to the ice cold river running right by our campground. It must have put me to sleep as soon as I got done writing yesterday’s blog.

         This spoke situation with Ryan’s bike has got me a bit concerned – two broken spokes in 3 days. We came to the conclusion that he needs to spin more in the little cookie in the saddle rather than hammer it out of the saddle in the middle ring. That or buy a whole new wheel, with stouter spokes to handle the strain of someone out of the saddle on a mt climb, pulling 70 lbs of gear in a trailer. That probably helped contribute to the broken chain to.

         Got those chores done, slammed down the gear, broke camp and got on the bikes by 8:15am. We high tailed it to a ski lodge just 3K down the road to a store/restaurant. I hadn’t had a cup of java in two days, so this was a total treat. I added some home made muffins to the mix and that was my riding fuel for the day. Pretty much the same for Ryan.

         The mountain air was crisp, kind of like what you find in Northern Arizona on a crystal clear, beautiful morning – the warmth of the sun but a chill in the air. Not a cloud in the sky. Ryan is feeling a bit of a twinge in his left ITB, so we decided to make it a short day of it, so as to not aggravate and potential overuse injury. He was smart to pull out yesterday when he did because he probably could have totally blown that ITB into a much worse situation. So today’s ride would be about 18 miles shy of our schedule, down from 58-65 to 45.

         We descended for nearly 1.5 hrs along the Similkameen River, with only a few little risers in the middle. It was out of a picture book with respect the beauty of the mountain landscape. The rivers was running fast and wide with all of the spring snow melt, as it roared down the mountain in cascades, rapids, and small waterfalls. It was one of the sensory awareness moments when you feel that your vision, your sense of hearing, your sense of smell, everything, is magnified by the umpteenth percent. After yesterday’s gnarly, hot day in the mountains, this was a huge payoff.

         Barney had told us that we had only one more pass to climb on this section of road, Sunday Pass, and it was not going to be anywhere near as hard as the 2 full passes were yesterday. So as we’re descending, we keep waiting for this pass to arrive, hoping to get it over and done with for the day. And then when we finally came to it (you usually know because a sign pops up that says that the road will change to double lane for passing) it was a relief. Ryan chugged on in the little ring, holding a very nice cadence and speed. I, on the other hand shot for middle ring for a bit, and then realized that it was a no go  as the gradient continued to get a bit steeper. I had to get off of the bike and manually change to the little cookie, turn downhill to get clipped in and get a cadence going, and then U-turn back up hill to begin climbing. Got to get that fixed here very soon.

         Actually Sunday Pass was a pretty easy climb, and quite enjoyable. Number one, because we had fresh legs, and number two, because it was just 10:30am instead of 2pm. It’s been over 80 degrees out here as of late, and that tends to put a serious hurt on you with the mountain climbing. So hitting a major climb early certainly has it’s advantages. This pass took us 40 min to climb. I shot Ryan coming up to several vista points. Then at the top we though we’d have a cake ride down all the way to Princeton. NOPE!

         Turns out that Barney forgot about the “little” power climbs thrown in the descent. And they were stout little power climbs indeed. Just when you got to flying down the mountainside at 30+ mph, you run smack dab into a power climb, change to the middle ring, and grind down to 5-7 mph. We did this 3-4 times. I later kidded Barney about this when  they pulled into our camp today.

         The real deal final descent was an 8% grade that went on for a long stretch, taking us out of the mountains and down into an area that resembled the foothills of Colorado, similar to the Boulder area, where it’s drier, with more scrub brush and long, rolling hills. I have to tell you, rolling through the switchbacks pulling that trailers is a real trip. It’s like the trailer is literally pushing you down the mountain, and through the switchbacks. And you DON’T want to hit a chuckhole on a descent with a trailer – very back karma indeed. So we hung out in the middle of the lane on the steep stuff, going nowhere near the berm with all the chuckholes and loose gravel.

         Made it to Princeton in 3:45, at about a 11.8 mph pace – not bad with a mt pass in the middle. We got a site here along the river, and it’s moving fast like nobody’s business. It’s still the Similkameen River, but twice as wide as the Cuyahoga, and 100x faster. We did a nice little dip in the ice cold waters to clean off 2 days worth of crusted salt, dried sweat, and bug kill remnants from descending. It felt glorious. Also rinsed off the cycling shorts, long sleeve underarmor, and socks. No need for laundry services!

         I did my email and coaching work in a men’s room next to the campground office – couldn’t get a wifi signal far from the office. The owner, a very nice lady looked at me kind of weird when I told her “if there are any calls for me, I’ll be in the office next door”. Ryan did the same thing when he used the computer. It was pretty hilarious, us sitting in there, computer on the sink, we sitting on the lid of the commode working on the compute. Ryan will be in the office early tomorrow morning!

         Capped the day off with a trip to Chap’s Restaurant, where we had……….A BUFFET!!!!!!!!!! My downfall in life, my Achilles Heel, myself at my most vulnerable moment – seeing the word “buffet”. Went in and dined on a huge salad bar, beef roast, chicken, mac and cheese, cole slaw, bean salad, mac salad…….you name it……..all for 11 bucks. Both Ryan and I did 3 full plates each, and were still a bit hungry when we left. 

         Finished the eve with Barney and Valerie at their camper. We had a few beers and some wine, each told a bit about ourselves and our lives etc. and just had an enjoyable evening. Barney will ride with us tomorrow for the day and we’ll all camp together at the same campground again. This is half the fun of doing a trip like this, meeting new and interesting people, sharing a bit of your life with them, leaving with some great memories, and hopefully staying in touch in the ensuing years.

         Right now Ryan is crashed, having to get up at 5am tomorrow to do his final exam via internet in our office, and I’m listening to the river run by my tent, just 10 feet away working here on the computer. I have a feeling it will be some very good sleeping tonight. Cheers………Pete