6/20/09: Off Segment; Lloydminster, Alberta to Radisson, Saskatchewan; 132 miles.
We ended up not going to the dirt yard where the house is being built because that storm I saw in the early afternoon – it was darned near in Lloydminster by the time we got out of the Starbucks. Our fear was pitching tents on the dirt surface and then getting into a complete mud bath once the rains hit. So we used our motel card for the night (our once a week treat to ourselves) since we’ll have a place to stay once we get into Saskatoon. And sure enough, round about 10pm it started raining last night……and it’s 8am this morning, and still raining. Looks like the forecast is for 3 days of rain in this neck of the woods.
This city, Lloydminster, at least where we’re at near the east end of the city, is kind of a scary place. Now up by the strip malls and the Starbucks, it was nice, but pretty commercial. Here, on the east end, wow, it’s a totally different place, almost like a ghetto, with derelicts roaming around, kid congregated in parking lots smoking and just hanging out, seedy motels – like the cheapie we got! Not at all the nice little community of Vegreville we had experienced the previous few days. This is culture shock for sure.
But……we got our wash done last night……in the sink…..and then towel dried our cycling garb in the bath towels. This morning I’m hanging my still damp cycling stuff over the AC, and wearing the damp top to “body dry” it. Life takes on such a different aspect when you’re doing these simple little tasks on the road. You cherish a “sink washed with hand soap” pair of cycling shorts only because you were able to wash the salt out of it. It’s funny, because most of the time, after about 2-3 days in the same cycling gear, you become Peppy La Pu, and drag that BO’derous smell with you eveerywhere you go! Go in a store for a coke – PU. Stop in Subway for subs – PU. Meet a new person or a group of people – PU. So getting the opp to wash gear, albeit in a sink with hand soap, it’s a chance to be a real human again. Even better was the fact that we were able to take a hot shower, something we haden’t had for ……..um…….let’s count……..five days!
So it stops raining at about 9am. I go out, get some coffee and a Danish, and let Ryan know we can fly. We hastily get everything rounded up, and put back on the bikes, and beat feet for a 9:30am lift-off. Now the weather report for Lloydminster reported that the window for Saturday is good, but that Sunday and Monday are total rain days. BUT, it also mentioned that the wind was out of the west at 15mph. YES.
We get rolling, and muddle through the remaining old section of town, which is the same gnarly section of town we stayed in. In less than 2K we’re over the border and into Saskatchewan. No bells, no signs, no brass bands. Nothing. Road signs go from Alberta to Sask. That’s it. We get er going slow, up to about 15mph with the tailwind. And within an hour we’re up to a comfortable 18mph. Within another hour we’re kicking it a bit more and up to 19mph. And we just cruise along, riding the crest of the notorious westerly. I mean this is why almost any sane person who wants to cross the North American continent goes from west to east – to catch the freight train. And today, we’re on it – bigtime!
Now about 2.5 hrs in, we’re making great time, and I take it up above 20mph. It’s not easy mind you, but it’s manageable. So I get into this mindset to see how long I can hold on to 20+. We’re averaging about 21.5 15t min into this little mindgame. Thirty min in, and I’m brushing the sweat off of my brow like a windshield wiper, but we’re cruising. Forty-five min go by and I have to jump out of the saddle every so often so as to keep the speed above 20. Fifty min in, and at that point I’m determined to hold on for one bloody hour. Fifty-five and I’m feeling like my old TT days, trying to maintain for just a few more min. And then we do it. And Ryan is riding like a champ back there holding on and accelerating on every lead that I do. So we get in a solid hour at around 21.5 for the average. And let me tell you, it’s not just a little nudge in the butt for that tailwind, there was some serious effort that went into that one, and I was pretty happy to have backed off and softpedal for a bit.
I check our average speed and it’s up to 18mph, a new high for the trip thus far. So we softpedal at around 18 for 15-20 min, and then build back up again to 19-20, just riding that tailwind for all it’s worth. And there in the distance we see a sign for North Battleford, our destination for the day. And further off on the horizon we see the ribbon of road take a hard left and go down towards a bridge of the North Saskatchewan River. Now remember that this has been the absolute flattest stretch of road we’ve ridden thus far. No undulating here, it was flat as could be for miles and miles on end. How flat is it? Well, if you were to make a comparison, I’d say that it is as flat as the stretch of road on Rt 91 in Hudson between Barlow and Norton – for 80-90 miles. If there’s a climb, it’s a very gradual incline that is barely perceptible but for a decrease of maybe 1 mph or a stint out of the saddle. I’m talking a flat that most of you just couldn’t imagine.
And for me it was far from boring. It was quite amazing as you pedaled, glancing to the left and right and looking at the vastness of it all. They call Montana the Big Sky country, and I’ve been there, but this is the real Magilla, the absolute Big Sky country, with the cotton ball clouds surrounding you like a giant umbrella, and then the miles and miles of landscape stretching out in front of you, daring you to make even the tiniest bit of progress forward. If anything it’s intimidating, it’s a challenge, and it’s part of this incredible journey, to pedal across the Great Plains. This I think is equally as challenging as making it across the mountains.
Well, we descend down to the North Saskatchewan River, and then do our first and only real climb of the day, climbing out of the valley in the middle ring up to the city of North Battleford. This city, unfortunately, is just as gnarly to go through as was Lloydminster, and we immediately had no real want to hang here, other than to find our old standby – Subway. We stopped at a gas station to get directions to a Subway, and low and behold, while asking a guy pumping gas, I see a Subway out to the north across Rt 16. Beeline to Subway. I crush my usual 2 12-inchers plus 64 oz if fountain coke. Ryan crushes his usual. At this point we were 87 miles into the day, with an average of 18.2 and a ride time of 5:48.
We were both pretty tired from the effort. It was about 3pm, and we began to kick it around of getting back on the bikes and putting in some more miles, not only to make Sunday an easy day to Saskatoon, but to also get the frig out of North Battleford. So it’s a done deal. Movin on. We get back on the bikes, and I have this immense Buda belly going on, and have to ride a mellow 18mph to begin with so as to not upchuck my 3 pounds of food. Ryan’s good with that to. Now to this point Ryan has turned in his best ride of the trip, hanging with me every step of the way. So we try to keep it mellow for a bit.
Within about 20 min of our return to riding my distended Buda belly begins to subside and I feel much better, so I gradually pick the pace back up to 19-20 and ride that old freight train again. It was just a fantasy come true to be able to catch a tailwind like this for so long, and I was determined to get every last K we could out of today. So I just go on it again and road for about 1:15 hrs. I waited for Ryan for a bit once we hit the 6 hour mark in the ride time. He rolled in and was hoping to stop at the next town, some 11K away. I was good with that as we were already over 100 miles. But when we get to this town, it’s like four houses and a farm, and we see another sign: 25K to Radisson. And he says, “let’s go for Radisson.” And I’m super stoked to get even more miles with the tail wind. And more than anything, I’m totally stoked to make Sunday a 42-mile noodle to Saskatoon, where we have lodging awaiting us with Malory’s mom.
Again, shift into the big meat, and down the road we go at 20-21mph, just tooling along ticking the K’s off like a metronome. Within 45 min we arrive in Radisson. We’re both dying for another dose of ice cold coke, so we make a beeline into town to hit the grocery. This is a wonderful little town, kind of like the visions we got of Mayberry on TV. And we get to the grocery 5 min before closing. So we scurry about grabbing dinner stuff. I snag Yogurt, 2 cokes, and a jar of raspberry jam for sandwiches. Ryan, a liter of Orange Burst soda, chocolate chip cookies and a can of beef & beans.
We sit on a little park bench in utopia, guzzling our sodas, and basking in our 132-mile ride for the day. Our butts are so sore it hurt to sit on the bench, so we end up shifting from side to side, but that’s a minor detail what with the scope of our ride today. Our next phase of the day was to find a place to pitch the tents. We rode to the local church, but it was closed, and we just didn’t want to pitch tents without at least asking someone. So we see a woman doing some yard work next to the church. We asked her about the camping possibilities in the town. She then told us about a free camping area just outside of town that had free firewood, water and a shelter building. She gives us directions and we ride off on dirt roads to the camp.
About a K down the road, with take the left over the RR tracks as she told us, and hit this sand track, and I mean deep sand, so deep that I darn near biff it. So I take to the grassy berm. We find the shelter, the water and it’s paradise. So here I am at a picnic table finishing my portion of the blog at nearly 8pm MST. Ryan make his famous mac & cheese mixed with the beans and beef can. This is just perfect as we have a wonderful shelter, water, and a totally light day tomorrow to Saskatoon.
Well, that’s my gig for today. Late…………..Pete
Ryan adds:
First of all I gotta say thanks to Mallory from yesterday. She got us online, let me use her laptop, laughed the whole time, called her mom and got us a place to stay in Saskatoon, and gave me her free pound of coffee she gets each week for working at Starbucks. Unbelievable!
We stayed in Lloydminster and it sucked. It was like La Habra but without the cool Mexicans and their lowriders. It was just a joke. I was glad to get out of there. If I wanted to hangout in middle class communites with bright shiny strip malls I would just go to the OC for a few weeks back home. We came up here to hangout in really small towns. Towns like Revelstoke, Niton Junction and Vegreville. They gotta have a Subway though. I am completely addicted. When we go to Subway we put every possible topping on our subs. I wont put jalapenos, but everything else goes on. The workers always look at us a little weird and then I explain that we rode like 200 kilometers and then they look really dumbfounded. It’s always hilarious when we walk in these places because we are wearing spandex, we smell like shit, and we look like we just got hit in the head with a shovel. Plus we are so tired we talk a little slow
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