Day 19

6/10/09 Recovery day in Golden, BC

         We just had to give ourselves a break here. Too bad it wasn’t Revelstoke rather than  Golden. Now I’m not putting the knock on Golden, but Revelstoke is vastly more “our kind of town”. But……..we earned that rest today what with yesterday’s crazy ride, and Golden it is by default.

         Worked on the computer in our hotel this morning, and got completely caught up and sent out all my coaching workouts. Then worked on uploading Ryan’s blog piece and the pictures. So it was a very productive morning. Subsequently, we moved the show to a community camping area on the fringes of the Columbia River. The Columbia up here is about the size of the Cuyahoga River, but the flow rate is giant, what with all the snow melting out of the mountains. And the river is a rather milky blue-green, a sure sign of the huge quantity of glacially scoured silt in the water. It’s a beautiful river, and we’ve been following it in one way or another for a long, long way.

         Our camping area is also next to a school, the community rec center, and everything else that  is community oriented. Couple that with the plethora of foottrails around all of this and we get some busy foot traffic throughout the day around here. No real bum deal though as everyone has been pretty cool.

         Now other than taking a rest day, we have to get Ryan’s rear wheel situation taken care of. It’s bad, real bad. So he rode to a bike shop this morn while I was working in the motel and got the skinny on the wheel. So after we set up camp we rode back to the bike shop to get this mess taken care of. They let him use all of their tools. But I’ve been trying to convince him to either change out all the spokes, or bite the bullet and get another wheel, transferring all the hardware from the old wheel to the new. Yup, it sucks but my gut feeling is 3 spokes broke yesterday, maybe another couple tomorrow in the mts, and another couple the next, and the next, so on and so forth. We’re up here climbing for another week, so that’s the potential for WAY too many broken spokes.

         I showed him how to remove the rear cogset in the shop. And then the sales guy in there started trying to get a hold of any one of the two mechanics to ask them about either relacing his old wheel with new, beefier spokes, or just getting a new rear wheel – pretty expensive there! I hung for a while ……this place, a combination bike shop, climbing shop, backpacking shop, has an espresso bar inside of it, with a elevated area to read and sit on couches and chairs. Wild concept! So I hung for a bit with a coffee while the sales guy tries to get a hold of a mechanic. Ryan, on the other hand, got cozy on the couch and fell asleep. Yup, sawing logs in the shop. I even head bobbed a couple of times, and then decided to get off my arse and go ride around town looking for some photo opps.

         Ryan snoozed in the shop while I road along a little gravel bike and hike trail that paralleled the Columbia River, right through, and then out of town. Really nice to get a little blood flowing in the legs with this easy noodle ride. Now those of you who I coach…….I DO practice what I preach, because the bike shop guy told me of this “wicked” 10 K climb up a dirt road to get some great photos of the mts. But my legs are just too torched to do a 6 mile climb – even for photos. So remember, recovery means recovery!

         I noodled along the river, then got on a flat stretch of gravel road that paralleled another river – this one joins up with the Columbia on the west side of town. Not a whole lot of good photo opps here. Just too many telephone poles and lines, and all kinds of other junk that just takes the nature out of the mountainscapes. I’m hoping on our ride tomorrow that I can get some great shots of this stretch of the Canadian Rockies.

         Road around looking for my “gremlin quencher” for the evening - aka a place to eat mass quantities of food! Not quite sure yet. Could be burgers, a little Greek place, or even grabbing some grub from the local supermarket called Sobey’s. I need to get this posted so my choice is predicated on who has wifi. And just a half hour ago I was making my rounds at the local eateries asking about the wireless status. Great pub on the Columbia – Nope (damn, cuz that was my hands down choice); an Irish pub that more resembled a pool hall – Yes, but really dank in there; a Greek place – Nope (would have loved about 3-4 Gyro’s!) and several patio cafes – Yes, Yes, and Yes – but not in the mood for café dinner!

         I’m starting to lean towards buying some pre-made stuff at Sobey’s, eating at camp, and then going to the Irish place for a beer and then do  a quick bit of internetting.

         So I go back to the bike, camping, climbing shop, and see Ryan outside, having awoke out of his deep slumber on the couch, still looking kind of grogged out. He was having new spokes relaced onto his old rear wheel. These will be much bigger in diameter, and hopefully, end this nerve-wracking spoke breaking issue for good.

         Tomorrow we get it rolling again, over another pass to Lake Louise, and the famous stretch of road called Icefields Parkway, a world famous ribbon of highway that runs from Banff in the south, to Jasper in the north. We’ve a 50+ mile day tomorrow, with the worst part right out of the gate from Golden. From what we’re told, the first 20K is the hardest. Wonderful for me, as I tend to feel my age for that first hour or two of riding, and then come hours 3,4, 5 and up, I can really kick butt. But I’m no out of the gate rider any more! Now Ryan, that young buck, is just the opposite, out of the gate banging it like no tomorrow for the first few hours. And then the Eveready Bunny starts to settle in to a more “leisurely” pace. So we each end up putting the hurt on one another at one time or another during the day, him to me in the morning, and me to him for the last few hours of the ride.

         He was even joking with me last night because I went straight for a motel, got in the room, and then skyped Judy, laughing, joking and just acting like a goof with her on the phone. He came in while we were talking. He said that would have been the LAST thing he did after a ride like that, due to the beat down he got during the last couple of hours of cyling. But then again, that first climb out of Revelstoke, and up onto Trans Can 1 for an hour or so made me feel like I was a puching bag for Mike Tyson. Ryan rode well and stayed out in front for nearly 2 hours! So it’s all relative.

         Ok, I think it’s feeding time for the gremlin. It’s moving around like some kind of “alien” down there. And I can only sus this beast with large portions of fattening, cholesterol laden food. So  I’ll put this computer to bed, feed the gremlin and then have a cold one in the pub while I net. Talk to you all tomorrow……..Pete