6/1/09 Segment 8, Day 10: Chilliwack, BC to Manning Park, BC
I don’t know where to start. This was an epic day of massive climbing proportions. There was pleasure, pain, and downright agony today, our first day climbing up into the Canadian Rockies. Our start in Chilliwack was right on time, as we pedaled out onto TransCan 1 at 8:30am, but today into a very nasty headwind. And what we had hoped to be another great day riding the freight train tailwind was now turned around and pushing us back every K of the way. Now our average was 10-12mph instead of 18-20 on long, straight stretches. Oh well, that’s life in a cross country ride – some days the weather is with you, and some days it’s not. Besides, we were treated to some spectacular sights as we rode right up against the front range of the Canadian Rockies. That more than made up for the headwind.
We were told that the climbing starts in Hope, BC. So we stopped in Hope, some 2.5 hrs into the ride, to grab a coke and change over some currency. Hope seems to be the Katmandu of BC, the start point for all traffic going up into the high mountains, as there were hikers, bikers, motorhome tourists, kayakers, and a host of people inside the town. By this time the temps had got up into the low 80’s, something pretty outrageous out here in the foothills of the Rockies. So we know we had to get a move on it before we were riding up the mts during the hottest part of the day.
Fate would have it that Ryan’s cleats had come loose, and actually one screw came out and was lost. So we had to spend some time getting that situation taken care of. By the time we were done, we’d spent an hour in Hope – way more than the quickie that we had “Hoped” for.
And then the climbing began……out of town to the access road……up the access road……..up the entry to TransCan 1……..up TransCan 1……….and finally up to Rt 3. And that was just to get to the REAL climbing. We met a gentleman by the name of Barney just before the Rt 3 jcn, and he was supposed to do the ride across Canada also, but something at work had come up, and he had to settle for a 300-500 mile loop out of and back to Vancouver. Anyway, Barney joined us for the climbing today. He knows the area, and detailed the days climbing – and it was a very sobering itinerary he laid out. We were to surmount Allison Pass today, not just one climb, but a series of climbs, taking us from the 200 elevation of Hope, to over 4300 feet to Manning Park.
I thought I’d be fine today not using the little cookie, just going middle ring the whole time……..NOT! I made it up the first climb in the series in the middle ring, some 40 min of climbing up to about 2400 feet. Waited at a place called Hope landslide for Ryan and Barney. Barney rolled in about 15 min later, and we talked more about the distance to Manning Park, and the lack of camping/amenities between these two points. So we pretty much had to make Manning Park, or camp off on the side of the road somewhere for the night – and all we had was peanut butter, bread, jelly, and 6 packs of Raman.
As Barney and I talked, I kept wondering what had happened to Ryan, as it was a full 30 min since I topped out on climb number 1. Barney took off and told me if Ryan had trouble that he could have his wife or himself come back in the motor home to pick him up. I waited another 10 min. At that point I was getting pretty concerned and turned around and was starting to ride back down the mountain. That’s when I saw Ryan walking – he had snapped a chain. He looked tired, pissed, disappointed, all at once. I told him of our situation with respect to camping, and was going to fix his chain up top so he could get under way again, but he was pretty adamant that he was toast for the day, and going any further would be pointless. Relayed the offer from Barney for a pick-up to get him back to Manning Camp, and he was good with that.
Only problem was that Manning Camp was over 40K away with several more big climbs. I told Ryan he’d probably see Barney or his wife in about 3 hrs. And on I went, trying to catch Barney, and trying to make Manning Park in a good amount of time. There was just one descent where I was able to go big ring, and the the stair stepping of climbing began, and it began with a flat out smack to the face!. About 15 min into the second climb I was creaking along in the middle ring, out of the saddle, and straining with each and every pedal stroke ……..pride VS good common sense, and good common sense prevailed. I had to get off of my bike and manually shift into the little cookie because my front shifter would not make the drop down. So that little demon is now off of my chest.
That little cookie never felt so good. I could spin along at 5mph and not strain my lower back to the point of lumbar herniation like I was doing in the middle ring. Made it up to Barney and told him about Ryan. He was good with that and so I rode on to get to Manning Camp to tell his wife, Valerie, about the situation. The next climb was a bit tougher, even in that dag gone little cookie. I’m now almost out of water, sweat is pouring into my eye sockets and burning my eyes, it’s running down my back, down my arms and into my hands, and it’s hotter than hell, and I’m thinking that this 40K of riding is going to take me nearly 3 hrs to do at my current climbing pace of 5-8mph. I continued to ride on.
Legs were getting pretty whipped by that point, and then I saw another mileage signpost to Manning Camp – 19K! The old heart sank just a bit as I did the calculations in my head. Ryan would be lucky to have someone back up there to meet him in 4 hrs, let alone 3. Nothing to do but ride on. And at about this point I hit the big boy, the actual pass. With ice cold water cascading down off of the mountains all around me, as I was going through switchback after switchback I thought way more than once about stopping and filling my near empty waterbottles up with that cold water – but knew of the ramifications of drinking untreated water. Just rode on with a sticky, dry mouth, knowing that I could gorge my belly on ice cold water once at Manning Camp.
And the climb continued on, as I watched big streams slowly turn to small creeks, as I watched the snow patches get bigger on the side of the road, as the vegetation changed to higher alpine vegetation. And it just kept going on and on and on. Finally I noticed that the stream had finally disappeared – a good sign that the top is near, and I could see cars disappear over the horizon several hundred meters down the road after they passed me. It was a good feeling indeed, and I figured that the descent would take care of the rest of the mileage – and it did.
I descended for about a half hour, riding through snow zones that felt like the refrigerator door had been left open, downright chilling me as I flew down the mountainside. I hit Manning camp with 7:31 hrs of ride time in, at a 10mph average for 77 miles. Met Valerie at the camp, explained the situation, and she gave me two beers and a bottle of water as she went off to check on Barney and retrieve Ryan. Barney pulled in about 30 min later, and a bit after that another cyclist named Brian pulled in. Brian is out to do the Trans Canada in 40 bloody days! Carrying only 28 lbs of gear, and hoping to ride 150-250 K per day. We all talked for a bit until Valerie pulled in with Ryan. By this time it was 8:15pm.
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