Day 33

6/24/09: Off Segment; Yorkton, Saskatchewan to Dauphin, Manitoba; 110 miles.

Great day! I have to say that days like today are what this is all about. Now first thing is that we’ve made over 2000 miles. Second thing is that we entered our fourth province – Manitoba. To bring you up to speed, last night we kind of roamed the streets of Yorkton searching for food, as usual, and happened upon a little mom and pop place that had home made icecream. So what do you know, I ordered a pint of black cherry – amazing stuff, and gone in 30 sec. Then it was back to the church for a little more work on the computer, checking our route for today, and this thanks to Pastor Steve for his contribution to our trip with some provincial maps of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Then sweet dreams.

         We made it up by 7am, and that’s me, with Ryan probably hitting it an hour earlier and making the coffee, again courtesy of Pastor Steve via the church kitchen. We were out the door of the church at 8am, and Pastor Steve saw us off. Great man, wonderful hospitality. I wish we could have had some more conversation time with him as he was a pleasure to chat with.

So it was back on the road, this time on Route 10 east, a secondary, on a perfect, cloudless day, with a moderate tailwind coming out of the west. And we were just ripping it up from the get go with a perfectly straight road that ran for miles on end due west. Within the first 20 min we had a 16.5 average, and we’re not even warmed up yet.

         Now we did have this issue with these horse flies. Now we’ve had them on and off ever since Jasper, where they’d fly around for a bit, maybe two at a time as you were riding down the road. A minor nuisance, but never really a pain. But today, WOW, I would have anywhere from 4-10 of these monsters flying around me. And no matter how fast we went, these things were right at our side. Like glue! And it kind of ticked me off, so I decided to get a little thing going, kind of like what the WWII pilots did with shootdowns in the war, as they put stickers on their planes for each “kill” they made. Well, that was me with these horse flies. I’d wait for one to land on my handlebar bag……and WHACK. One down, and one sticker of a fly to put on my top tube.

         I told Ryan of my goofyness, and he just kind of laughed. So whenever I scored a hit on my handlebar bag, I’d hold up the number of fingers for Ryan, listening to his Ipod, to see. I mean these things were relentless. They would land all over the luggage, and kind of sit there waiting to get you at the right moment. So I kept whacking them on the handlebar bag because that I had the easiest proximity to. So the count kept going up……3 fingers, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, which I whacked on my arm. Now I have the potential to put 8 fly stickers on the top tube of my bike!

         Finally, for some reason they just disappeared. Why, I’ve no idea, but we had to deal with them for about 2 solid hours. And NO, I didn’t get a bite, so I was a very solid 8 and 0. By about that time we descended down to a very beautiful lake area and into the province  of Manitoba. And like all of a sudden the terrain changed, form really flat to rolling with hills, it was crazy. I mean it cannot just be a sign that suddenly changes things. And not only that, but the trees were beginning to change – to where there were many more evergreens. So these rollers suddenly became a challenge, as we were up to an average of 17.5 by then, but the climbing really began to dig into that. Heck I had used the middle ring hardly at all in Saskatchewan, but in Manitoba I had used it 3 times in the first 40 min.

         Three hours in we stopped at a nice little town by the name of Roblin. I exchanged currency and had a great conversation with a lady at the RBC bank, where she was giving out cookies, ice sticks and ice tea. I told her how much I loved the little town, and how it was probably a great place to raise a family. She agreed, as she was greeting people, all by first name. She did say the kids want to get out of a small town like that, but later return when they’re adults to raise a family. Go figure. Sometimes you don’t know what you have until you’re gone. I love these little rural towns, and now that we’re off of the Yellowhead, Rt 16, we’ll really get a chance to get our there and see more of rural Canada. It’s pretty exciting right now with such a cool change of pace.

         So we hit the local supermarket in Roblin, and ate lunch under a gazebo in front of the store. Then it was back the road, which has changed numbers to Manitoba Rt 5 east. And again, we were flying, on a spectacular rural road, with amazing scenery surrounding us. This was one of those rides where you just shake your head at how cool everything is. Now there is now asphalt shoulder on this road, but the traffic is way more mellow than on Rt 16. Once in a while a truck, and some car traffic, but in general it was such a joy to ride on. No trouble with people, and a lot of honks of “go get um”. And the speed kept on creeking up, to 17.3 average, to 17.5 average and a 17.7 average.

         About 4.5 hours in we stopped at a little gas station store in Grandview, Manitoba. My mouth was getting pretty dry, and I was craving a coke. So we go in, and Ryan gets a slushy, a bright blue one. So I get a Pepsi and a red slushi. Amazingly great. That cold, cherry flavored ice just tasted spectacular. I literally guzzled the stuff down, while Ryan was fighting the notorious headache syndrome from eating the ice slushy too fast. Not me. I inhaled the stuff – no brain cells to explode in me! I finished the pop and slushy, and then I commenced to throw down about 2 bottles of tap water on top of that……. and I felt like I had just been filled up with a fire hose. So we talked with the locals for a bit, and listened to what routes may be good in crossing Manitoba and bypassing Winnipeg. They were great folks, and each had his own opinion on what was the best way to go as the “touring” route. We had some good ideas to chew on.

So we get er going again, and my belly is just like, well, like someone inserted a balloon in it and then filled it to capacity. Wwwwwwwooooo. Not a good feeling. And I yelled back to Ryan that it may take me a good 30-40 min to get back into the swing of a good hard pace. In the meantime I just wanted to keep the 120 ounces of liquid in me. So I pedal and burp for about 20 min. I mean I was literally sloshing, the liquids just mixing with the Pepsi carbonation and creating these nasty animal-like burps. After about 30 min the carbonation burps stopped and I was more in the gig again.

We’d get these long, long straightaways, that would go for 5-8 miles, and it was slightly flat so the pace was just crazy, and I’m talking like 21-27mph. So I jumped on the big meat and went  into the TT mode. “Time to get it done and finish the day with………..food!”  Now we had a bus stop to drop off kids, and I kind of sighed in frustration, but then the driver really got it up to speed again so we were able to hammer. And as we were hammering I noticed that the clouds had been building up to the point to where we had some rain storms ahead and behind us. It’s so flat out here you can see for miles in front and back of you, so these storms looked close, but even jamming at 20 some mph, we just couldn’t get past them. I did get a touch of rain for about 5 min, more than likely the very periphery of the storm in front. You could see this long draping of rain hanging in the sky, kind of just moving along like a tornado would.

This is where I really pushed hard so as to beat the storm. One of the worst things that can happen on a ride is to be racing a rain storm, to ALMOST get to your destination, with maybe a few min or a couple of miles to go……and BAM……you get hammered with rain. That totally sucks. And that is what I did not want to happen here. And you could see fresh puddles of rain on the road as I rode on, with Ryan just a tab behind me now, so I knew that we were riding on borrowed time at this point. Finally,  I passed the Daulphin City Limit sign, looked behind me and saw this nasty wall of black, and I’m hoping that Ryan is kicking it like I was kicking it. At this point we had gotten 110 miles in 5:50 hrs, not bad ha?

Ryan pulled in about 8 min later and we ask a couple of people for the location of a Subway. We get em, and ride about a block, with the wall of black clouds just on our tail. Get inside, order, sit down, and all hell breaks loose outside with the storm. It rains like crazy for about 15 min while we’re devouring our subs. Yup, same old for me, and a single for Ryan. And I’m able to tap into someone’s wifi inside so I work on returning client emails for a bit, do a quick skype, and then let Ryan take over.

He had looked for a place to stay, and the owners of a bike shop suggested some free camping in the city park. So we finish up in the Subway with the computer and head over to the city park. Now a sign there says that camping is 14 bucks, but the bike guy had said they let tents pitch for free……..Right! We set tents up and then the camp caretaker comes over to collect. Not only is it 14 bucks, but 14 bucks per tent. Now we’re not poor and homeless, but 14 bucks per tent on one site is a bit ridiculous. Oh well, tents are set up, the mosquitoes are biting big time, it’s 7:30pm and we are just wiped out. And the guy is a good sort, just doing his job, so 28 bucks to camp next to a mosquito infested bog! They do have a shower here so we were both able to wash a couple salt shakers worth of salt off of our bodies and then soak our cycling garb in hot water to wash the salt out of them. It was well over 80-degrees today, so we were totally salt encrusted. Same with cloths.

I’m now here in hotel Hille, and Ryan said he’s hitting the hay in his 14 buck a tent Hille. This was a great day, and it looks like we’ll have some real interesting terrain to cover here in Manitoba. We’ll be heading off into some remote area tomorrow, continuing east on Rt 5 towards Lac Manitoba. From there we’re looking to do the interlake route on Rt 68 that goes right through the middle of Lac Manitoba, and onward to the west shore of Lake Winnipeg, and down south along the west shore. So tomorrow we may not have any wifi available, so the next blog could be a couple days away. We’ll see.

Well, I’ll try to post this now. All the best to all of you following, and we’ll talk to you soon. Late……….Pete

Day 32

6/23/09: Off Segment; Wynyard, Saskatchewan to Yorkton, Saskatchewan; 90 miles.

Wind. We got to know it in a very intimate way today in Saskatchewan. It was kind, it was less than kind and it was cruel. Wind would be the word for the day here on Tuesday.

         Last eve I left you hanging on pins and needles with the chance walk over to the A & dub. Well, rather than the rootbeer I opted for a couple bacon cheeseburgers. Ryan got the large chocolate shake. While we were inside eating the rain began to set in, and it rained lightly for the remainder of the night on and off. I awoke at around 5am and it was raining. Six, it was raining, and 7, still lightly raining. It was then that I just quit looking at the watch, figured we’d get a late start at the very best, and hit the hay for another hour. Finally, just after 8 am, I could see some sun breaking through the clouds. Listened to the local forecast on CBC radio and talk was of sunny with very high winds.

         And I could feel them rattling my tent, almost to the point of picking it and my and all my gear up in one fell swoop and tossing us down the back lawn several meters. It was cruel. Then Ryan comes back from A and dub and his coffee and tells me that it’s a headwind. Now I just heard on the news that the wind would be out of the southwest, so I’m a little skeptical of Ryan’s prognosis. I was pinning my hopes on the local news. Packed up all the gear inside the tent, got all the gear out of it, and then broke down the tent. And once I pulled out all the stakes the thing just about blew away like a giant patio umbrella turned inside-out. I literally had to stand on it while I was packing it up. Yup, wind was the word for the day.

         I’m ready to go and Oscar…….er ……….Ryan is just beginning, so I roll over to the A and dub for a coffee and muffin, parking my bike alongside the big A and dub sign barrier. It was just big enough to park the bike and yak lengthwise. Go in, hit a quick coffee and muffin, glance outside at the trees, weeds, flags, signs, at everything bending in the wind………including my bike, which was tossed to the ground, all 100+ pounds of it. Now that really P-------- me off. So I down the coffee like a double shot of whiskey, and go outside to inspect the damage, if any. Everything looked to be ok, so I went about the gnarly task of picking the whole monstrosity back up, which can be quite tricky.

         We finally get going at about 9:45am, another late start, but what with the rain up to 7am……what can you do? We get a good first stretch of roadway, that’s probably trending to the northeast, so we have an insane tailwind, and we get lulled into thinking that today is going to be some kind of a cake walk. But let me tell you, and this was the case over and over and over again all day long: as soon as you near a town the road takes a hard southerly trend to the right, straightens out, and gradually bends back around again to the left. This is a cookie cutter thing out here on this stretch of road. Town…..road bends to right, straightens, gradually bends to the left. So the riding goes like this: Bend to right = wicked crosswind; straighten out = manageable crosswind; bend to left = a gift from God tailwind where you can reach speeds of 26+ mph. This occurred no less that 8-10 times, depending on how many towns we went through. Again and again.

         So you’d see the road bending to the right you know: A – you were about to go through another town, and B – you were going to be in for a fight with the crosssind. This crosswind was so vicious that you could not one hand the handlebars. I’m telling you, I was leaning to the right, into the crosswind so I wouldn’t be blown out into the center lane of the highway! This is now lie, and to prove it my right shoulder is pretty sore from applying pressure to the right hand side of the handlebars the better part of the day of riding.

         Ryan was actually tacking with the wind as a sailboat does. I mean this was one of the craziest winds I’ve ever ridden in. My ride in Iceland was the only other place where I experienced a wind that was so unending. Now on occation the wind would gust up to say 35mph, and then it was Katie bar the door, because then you’d be thrown violently out to the left of the berm, and into the edge of the actual driving lane. So if I had to adjust my sunglasses, I’d have to time it right so as to do it during a period where the wind was just blowing at say 25 or so mph. I thought back to the people who we had met in BC and Alberta, who were from these parts, and I remember them telling us with a smile on their faces about the winds of Saskatchewan, especially if the wind was in your face. So all of this remember was in dealing with a crosswind and tailwind.

         Now the tailwind part. Totally incredible. You could darned near just sit on the bike and let the wind blow you down the road. Now I’m exaggerating a good bit here but really, this was crazy. We reached a max speed on the flats of 26.7 mph, and this was after one of those bends to the left that I had mentioned. For one glorious half hour we had this straightaway that was trending to the northeast, and we did no less than 24 mph. So about 3 hrs in we were at a 16.8 mph average. And a good portion of that was into the crosswind. There we could maintain anywhere from 12-20 mph, depending how hard the trend was towards the south. More to the south, the slower you go and the more you have to fight the crosswind. More to the left, and you’re loving life.

         We pulled into a little place to snag some lunch, but it more resembled a ghost town, with nothing open or inhabited but a small house that was being used for a commercial business. No food, no gas, nothing. So on we go for another 15K down the road. And I’m having a really tough day fighting this crosswind. My legs are still on the cooked side, the wind is howling in my ears so strongly and so loudly that I think I’m going deaf, and I’m being blown all over the highway, like a rag doll. So we go on riding and fighting, fighting and riding. And we finally come to this little hole in the wall place with nothing but a gas station Coop. Food – nothing but candy and chips. NO COKE. That, was a sin. Only Pepsi. So we snagged pop and candy – not exactly the perfect lunch that I was envisioning.

         I finished my stuff, leaning up against the wall of the outside of the gas station, on the side of the station that was a wind break, in the warm sunshine, and I dozed off for a few minutes. I was so darned tired from the last few days of cycling that it all kind of caught up with me that moment. I just couldn’t fathom getting that raw butt of mine back on the bike again to fight the wind for another 1.5 hrs. But……got to keep moving, so on we went to Yorkton. And when I saw that 43K to Yorkton sign, I just shifted into the automaton mode and hammered it. Putting it at 18-20 mph in the crosswind, and all of a sudden I was there. Waited a few min for Ryan to catch up and we road into town together, tired, hungry, and ready to get out of the wind.

         Ryan had a thing for some pizza, so we did something totally different and hit a pizza hut. We each got a XL pizza. In the meanwhile Ryan had asked our waitress if she know of a church we could camp at. Well, she came back and told Ryan that her pastor would be down to talk to us. And not long thereafter Pastor Steve came down and sat with us. I was on Skype talking to Judy, so he and Ryan talked for a bit. And then when Ryan did his Skyping, I had a great time talking with Steve. We covered a ton of subjects. It was one of those conversations that you could take in a myriad of directions, and we covered some pretty cool ground talking about the value of time, perusing your dreams, and living your passions. So we finish and Steve escorts us to the church, a very pretty brick building in downtown Yorkton. Steve said we could actually sleep in the church basement, which is just wonderful. We have a small kitchen, a reading room, a restroom, and a great big meeting hall area to sleep in.

         The warmth of the people here in Canada is just beautiful. Thanks very much Pastor Steve for your hospitality and generosity.

         Well, when my bike got blown over I think my snap shot camera got broke, because my flash is not working, so I’ll work on that while Ryan gives his perspective for the day. Cheers all…………..Pete

 

Ryan adds:

I slept 13 hours last night. The 118 mile we did left me like a zombie. The last few miles I was swaying back and forth on my bike mumbling to myself. Normally I mumble to myself a lot, but not like a zombie.

I woke up this morning and got coffee. I came back and Pete was yelling at his tent. One thing I have learned after a month is that Pete yells at his stuff. Inside my tent I covered my face with my pillow and I am just laughing my ass off and he has no idea how absolutely hilarious it is. Pete yelling at his tent. Pete yelling at his laptop. Pete yelling at the slow internet connection. Pete yelling at his front derailer. Everyday is happens at least once. Pure comic relief.

         We have finished 1 month of riding today and we just passed the 2000 mile mark on our journey which means we are 1/3 of the way done. I am most proud of the fact that out of the first 30 rides we did I finally finished one of them one Pete’s wheel! Comically the day I rode the whole ride with him we had a big tail wind and a flat ride. Progress not perfection right. All is good. Another great day. 

Day 31

6/22/09: Off Segment; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Wynyard, Saskatchewan; 118 miles.

         Well, Grace cooked us a dinner last evening that was epic. We had home made mashed potatos, a fresh salad, grilled zucchini and mushrooms, and a steak on the grill. I mean these are two dudes who have been making Subway a way of life now for a month, and when we get a meal like that, that totally registers off of the scale!

         The rain finally died down in Saskatoon last evening. But wow, what a day of rain they had. Numerous people told us that it just does not rain like that up here. But what with several weeks of drought, it was a pretty good thing to get that much rain. We hit the hay and I slept like a log. It was great.

         In the morning Grace insisted on making us some home made pancakes with berries. And again – a homerun. I must have hat 6-7 cakes slathered in butter and syrup. The weather outside this morning looked pretty foreboding, and what with the massive slap in the chops we got yesterday dealing with the rain, we were both gun-shy to get out there under the steely grey skies and the ferocious winds. You could just feel that is was about to open up again and slap us around like tiny matchsticks. But we had to make time here in the Great Plains, so we packed it all up, bid farewell to Grace, and took to the streets of Saskatoon and back to Rt 16 east.

         Once we got on 16 we were at least slightly relieved that the wind was out of the southwest, so we had a cross tailwind whenever we were headed in a due east direction, and then anytime the road twisted or curved slightly to the south……nasty cross wind or cross headwind. So you’d just pray that the road stayed on the straight and narrow to the east, really to the northeast! For the first couple of hours it just looked like it could rain like hell at any minute, and I would consistently glance back to the west to look at the skies, just to reassure myself that things were ok. We had several long, gradual ups to do, and with a slight curve in the road to the south, this would turn into a grunt into a cross wind, and slow us down from our 17-18 mph to a gnarly 11-13 mph. I mean it was that drastic. We were told about the winds out here, and they can be crazy hard – now not as bad as what I experienced in Iceland, but these could be a distant second.

         We put in about 3 hrs, by noon, and again, it was one of those days where you could feel that it just wasn’t there in the legs, but………no choice but to keep it moving and cover some ground. So we took a short food and drink break in Viscount. It was a very small town, and the grocery was connected to the tractor parts store, and inside were three gents playing cards and drinking coffee. We bought some cookies and coke, and joined them at their card table to talk and eat, as it was still a bit nippy outside what with the thick cloud cover and the ferocious winds. And it was fun talking to the fellers about our trip. One of the guys had said that it rains so hard in Saskatoon yesterday that manhole covers were spit out of the streets! Now that’s flashflooding by gosh. This storm even made the Saskatoon daily newspaper today, front page. So it was a rip snorter for sure.

         Done in Viscount, we kept it going, just hoping to keep gaining ground on our 2-day deficit and stay ahead of the ominous weather pattern we’d just ridden into. Again, same story, just hoping that road would stay in an east-northeast direction so we could catch the cross tail wind. And we were fortunate, because by 4 hrs in we had just about a 16 mph average.  Our next stop was Lanigan, and that was about 4:48 hours in. Guess where we went…………come on now…..Subway. I had 2 12-inchers, but only ate one there and stowed the other in my rear manbag for later consumption. I just did not have the gremlin going full bore what with the enormous breakfast we had eaten at Grace’s. I swear, those cakes could fuel me for a good century of this kind of riding. Ryan just had a coke, and then on we went, trying to eek out a 100 mile day today.

         For a couple of guys whose legs were shot today, I think we did one heck of a job just persevering hour after hour and K after K. About 5:40 hrs in we get to a T in the road where we have to go south for about 6K, and damn, that cross wind was just killer. The wind had changed to a flat out westerly, and was so bad it was as if I was holding my brake levers down while I was riding. Thankfully it was just several miles of that. Then we turned back on 16 east and enjoyed a killer tailwind for the remainder of the ride. Now I have to say that I attempted to cajole Ryan onward by giving him a throwdown: “I’ll sport for a motel if we ride to 8pm,” I told him, hoping to ignite some demon in him which would send him down the road like a formula 1 race car. At this time it was 4pm, so that would mean nearly a 10-hour day in the saddle were we to ride to 8pm. Well, he was at least thinking about it.

         But as fate would have it that was just about the time we began to hit some little hills, and these were unusual for the terrain we’d been riding in up to this point in Saskatchewan. These were more of the short and steep variety. I guess after 100 miles, anything that’s remotely climbing is hard, and that could well be the case here, but I do know that I was out of the saddle a good bit in that section, and it proved to be the proverbial last straw for Ryan’s cycling for the day.

I do want to say that Ryan has done an outstanding job so far in the Great Plains. He’s only been cycling for two years compared to my thirty, and he’s knocking down triple digit days left and right. I’m used to just grinding it out for hours on end, and that’s my MO, but this is totally new territory for Ryan, especially carting 75 pounds of gear down the road. So a major hat’s off to him for what he’s been able to accomplish thus far. With that said, I was not the least bit disappointed in our not riding until 8pm. Hell, we rode to 6pm, and nailed down 118 miles on a day that looked like we may not even ride, and on legs that said no from the first pedal stroke out of Saskatoon. Good day indeed.

I pulled into the Wynyard Subway and waited for Ryan. He rolled in about 10 min later, and said no mas. So we went inside and he doubled up on 12-inch subs while I stayed with a single 12-inch – seafood salad this time just to shake things up. Now this guy is really starting to catch up to me in the eating dept., because he had one sub totally gone as I had just finished my half. I really believe that there’s going to be a day when one or both of us are hungry enough to manage 3 12-inch subs in one sitting. We’re on the cusp of this right now, and when I pass 2.5 subs – I’m in new territory!

I’m in my tent right now, and Ryan is crashed hard in the hotel Hille. We’re camped behind a church in Wynyard, and it’s a nice, quiet little community. I’ll shoot this onto the blog via my air card, and maybe take a walk over to the A & W Rootbeer place for a Rootbeer float. Yea……that’s sounding more and more like a great idea. Tomorrow we’ll shoot for Yorkton or further, which should put us within spitting distance of the Manitoba border. Take care and have a great evening………..Pete

Day 30

6/21/09: Off Segment; Radisson, Saskatchewan to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; 45 miles.

         You just never know doing something like this. And today…….well, it was the antithesis to yesterday. You see, I had this sneaking suspicion that today would be as it was because the forecast for Lloydminster was for a very wet Sunday and Monday. Now, I’ll have to admit that there was a part of me, that “glass is half full” part of me, that said, “hey, we’re 132 miles from Lloydminster, and that’s their weather, so we’ll be just fine way out here in Saskatchewan. NOPE.

         The night in Radisson was restless because we were so close to Rt 16, camping a mere 300 meters from the main interstate. So every large truck, SUV, camper, you name, we heard it. And some of these pups were so loud that it rumbled the tent. The campsite was awesome, it’s the proximity to the freeway that had us fooled. So I think that after logging a massive day like yesterday, coupled with a very bad night of sleep was fuel for a long day.

         So I woke up at 5am, and I can feel the wind picking up, blowing the vestibules of the tent with some pretty good force. I peeked out the vestibule and I see this massive layer of grey moving in on our pink sunrise. And it was then that I began to realize that my “glass is half full” part of me was full of sh--! Yep, you could feel the cool front moving in. Now had I been better recovered and not sleep deprived, I’d of rousted Ryan and insisted that we get our arses out of there and beat it fast to Saskatoon. But…….I drifted back off to a half sleep only to wake up at 7am and see the sky completely covered in a massive grey mass, with the wind blowing at 20-25mph out of the north-northwest. It was an ominous feeling kind of knowing that you were about to ride into the eye of the hurricane.

         We packed up pretty quickly, ate, and got out onto the road……and God what a difference a day makes. Today, it was all I could do to put it down to a 14mph speed. Right off the bat we were battling a cross wind that was making you really put the lead down into each and every pedal stroke to gain an advantage on the distance to be covered. And then we round a long sweeping corner and there it was, dead east, staring us in the face like the grim reaper – a wall of black. Ryan blurts out, “we’re getting wet today.” And I’m thinking………..”YEA?” So we keep pedaling, struggling to maintain even 13mph, working our way into the eye of the storm.

         And I eventually see cars coming going west, coming out of the black hole with windshield wipers still on, and it’s there that I know it’s just a matter of time before we get our initiation to a Great Plains rain storm. Pedal another 10 min and it’s just barely drizzling. Add another 10 min and it’s a steady, but light rain. And then another 10 min and we’re in the middle of a deluge, the kind of rain were it hurts to hold your head up and look straight down the road. It was blinding. And it this point I knew that it was going to be one of the longest 40-mile rides I’d ever do.

         The minutes go by like hours, as were pelted to a pulp with these heavy raindrops. Ryan tells me he has to pull off to relieve himself. And I’m like, “have at it dude I’m just going to keep this train rolling.” So I pedal on, into the abyss, and I just cannot see more than several hundred yards in front of me. I’m thinking, “ok I hope these waterproof things work.” These things are my Ortlieb front back and front panniers, and my yak dry bag, all getting their first real test against massive doses of H2O.

         Like I had mentioned in a previous blog, riding into the rain is much different than tearing down camp in a morning rain and then riding in the rain. And my optimistic side says that at least we were able to start out dry and ride for a half hour before we got slammed. And what the hell, this is what adventure is all about……….right? So I just keep it rolling, with rooster tails of water shooting up into my shoes, and torrents of water running down my face, into my eye sockets, and down my jersey. Finally, after about an hour, I ride out of the eye of the storm and into a mellow little section where it’s just a fine drizzle. “Ok, we made it,” I think. And I pedal along hoping that the sky will clear and I’d get myself and my bike wind dried.

         Perfect timing as we hit a good descent down to cross the North Saskatchewan River. That would have been totally gnarly if it had been the blinding rain I had just ridden through. Then there was a very gradual up out of the river valley and back onto the flats…….and back into another front. And then the wind picked up, big time, to the point to where I was only able to push 11-12 mph. I mean this was a complete fight against the pedals to maintain any kind of forward progress. So I begin to do the math thing, you know, figuring out how long at what speed it will take us to get somewhere – and at 11 mph it was a good 1:30 to get to Saskatoon.

         It begins to rain harder and harder again, and in front of me is another wall of dark grey. I know it’s going to be a fight to get every inch of territory today. BANG……my rear tire blows like a gun going off. And I float with the bars so as to not go down with the squirrelly rear end sliding along the road. Yup, I yell out loud, “SH—just what I need.” And I wrestle the bike and trailer to a standstill. Now I’m in the middle of nowhere. So I walk the bike to a stop sign, and lean the front on the sign while I remove the trailer – in the rain. And I know while I’m doing this that the longer I’m not riding and moving, the colder I’m going to get. Trailer off, and next the rear wheel. Pull that and I use a coke bottle to rest on a dropout so as to not rest on the rear changer. That done I inspect the damage.

         Ryan has all the tools and the tubes, so I do my best to get done what I can until he catches up to me. I’m able to remove the tire without tire irons. So I pull the tube and see that it’s a blow up – maybe the rim tape blew out atop a spoke nipple? I inspect the rim tape – perfect. Weird. So I inspect the inside of the tire. Perfect. I was secretly hoping that this rear tire would last me 3000 miles – I mean it was wearing  so little thus far. Then I look at the bead – BINGO. Just above the bead the side wall is ruptured, ripped with a tear about 1.5 inches long. Tire……trashed. Tube…….trashed. Ok, let’s pull a brand new tire and get that on until Ryan arrives.

         So about 15 min later I see Ryan tooling down the road. If I were him, I would have had a sinking feeling in my gut seeing the other guy standing there on the side of the road, bike and yak separated, raining, cold, just not happening. He pulls in and I fill him in. “I need a tube,” I shout out. So he digs through his yak, pulling tons of gear out to retrieve a tube. I put it in, and he asks me if I need tire irons. “Nope,” I say. I’m a pro at putting these thing on without tire irons! Until I get to the last 8 inches of tire bead. And I mean I struggle, I strain, I curse, but I just cannot push that dag gone bead over the rim. It was as if it were a smaller tire for too big a rim. So how I have to ask Ryan to re-dig out the tools and the tire irons.

         I darn near break a tire iron on just a half inch of bead, trying for all I’m worth to get that damned bead under the rim. And my biggest fear is pinching the tube. So I get a half inch in, and then struggle for another half inch, each time worrying about pinching the tube. Not in 20 years have I had that much trouble getting a tire in the rim. So again and again, way too many times do I use the tire iron to man handle the tire into the rim. Finally, we get it, but I’m very scared that the damage was done. So by this time I’m shaking I’m so cold, and I want to put on my goretex top, but want to make sure the tire is good first. So I take 10 pump strokes and hear a hissing out of the tire. SSSSSSSHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTT. I did it. Pinched the tube.

         So now Ryan has to take everything out again, retrieve another tube and we have to go through this whole ordeal again. So this time I put the tire on and off of the rim without the tube. I do this several times hoping to stretch the new bead out a bit. I put the new tub in, secure it in the rim well, and then commence to fighting the bead again. I summon up all I have with my thumbs to try to just press it on as I usually do. And I get to the last 8 inches. It’s a fight. I’m freezing cold, shivering, and know that I just have to get this one to take…..or……I don’t know. So I push with my thumbs until they are both numb. DONE!

         We blow it up, and it’s good. By now it’s raining hard, really hard. Wheel……on. Yak………on. Then it was time for my goretex jacket. I was shivering so much that I had trouble getting my arms in the sleeves. Manage to get tucked in, and we were off. And the rain is just crazy hard. I was shivering and shaking on the bike as we tried to get up to speed – 13 mph.  And then a sign: Saskatoon – 27K. “Ok,” I thought, “this is dig deep time.” So I just put my head down and pedaled, and pedaled, and pedaled. We would catch these immense waves of wash off of truck and cars from the road, totally spraying us in a massive swath of water.

         After about 20 min I started to warm up. The goretex was doing a fantastic job keeping the warm in and the cold out. So I got my head a bit better and picked up the pace to 14-15mph. Wave after wave of fronts greeted us as we road those last miles. Finally we pull into western Saskatoon, and stop at a Travellodge to call Mallory’s mom, Grace. We get directions instead, and follow them into the downtown, across the Broadway Street bridge and all the way to Grace’s home. We’re wet as drowned rats, tired, cold, and it’s still raining like no tomorrow. Ryan knocks on the front door. No answere.

         And I’m like: “I just have to dry off because I’m about 10 min from hypothermia.” Then we go to the back door, and at this point I’m thing of ducking inside the church next door just to get out of the rain if Grace is not home. And music to my ears, Ryan is taking to someone at the back door. It’s Grace. She let’s us park our bikes and yaks in the garage and welcomes us inside. We’re dripping wet, soaking, stinking, ripe with days of BO, and looking like a couple of homeless dudes from the states.

         And it’s a repeat of each and every great person we’ve met on this trip. Grace invites us in, grabs some towels for us and urges Ryan to take a hot shower. Meanwhile she makes some piping hot, strong coffee for me while I wait my turn. And outside it just pouring, crazy pouring. Like Noah’s Ark pouring. And does it ever feel good to be warm and cozy in a dwelling.

         Grace introduces us to her son Scott, then offers us some food. We tell her that our appetite is way beyond that. We ask about a subway. YUP, there’s one only a block away. And Grace offers to drive us there while she get’s groceries. Way to cool! So we do the Subway thing, and shock the two servers by ordering 2 12-inch subs each. Ryan has graduated to the big league! I kill one and then Grace comes in. And I think she’s a bit blown away by the quantity of food we’re inhaling. Next up we go to the grocery, a bakery, and then a beer store.

         Right now Grace just served up some home made dip and home made chips where I’m here blogging. She’s got steaks on the grill, and we’re being treated like celebrities. The hospitality here in Canada is beyond belief. The rain – it’s still coming down in buckets. And boy am I glad we got in that long ride yesterday………because we’d still be riding in this if we haden’t!

         Well, almost dinner time. I want to thank Mallery for calling her mom and setting us up and Saskatoon – a great little city. And I want to especially want to thank Grace for her warmth and hospitality.

         Also on the list is my dad – Happy Father’s day. I love you dad!! Ken, you treated Ryan and I like sons when we were in Edmonton – a Happy Father’s Day to you to. To the rest of you dads out there – here’s to you! Out…………Pete

Ryan adds:

RAIN. RAIN. RAIN. Today was like someone turning on a garden hose and shooting it in my face for 4 hours. We thought after doing 132 miles yesterday that we had earned ourselves and easy 45 miler to Saskatoon. WRONG. I had road grime and dirt on every square inch of me. My socks were soaked. I had what felt like sponges in my shoes full of water squishing around every peddle stroke. I got fed up after about 2 hours and decided to destroy myself in the name finishing this ride early. So facing buckets of rain in my face and the worse headwind of the entire trip. I put it in the big ring, downshifted and started hammering. I was getting a little rythym for about 30 minutes and I see Pete up the road holding something. I think to myself-great. Dudes got a flat. Pete looked so angry I thought he was gonna throw his bike in the air. It took 30 minutes to fumble through our crap cuz we were freezing. Pete gets the tube and tire on and actually popped his tube he had just put on and we had to start over. The flat took 1 hour to fix. We were cold. It was raining horribly. I could only laugh.

Day 29

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

 

I gotta say that today my ass hurt about as much as it ever has in my whole life. How bad? It hurt about 30 minutes in today. It’s hard to explain how much it hurt. When you ride as far as we did today you find the smallest things to bring you joy. I have ridden so much that my middle finger on my left hand has been numb for about a week. I can’t feel anything at the tip. Your back hurts. Your neck hurts. Your legs hurt. Your feet hurt. Many times my feet are numb for hours when we ride. But simple things like stretching your legs on a descent. Moving your shoulders forward for a few seconds. Switching hand positions. Its like your constantly trying to tweak a little something on your body to make yourself feel better. Sometimes it s the art of distraction for sure.  Too tired………more tomorrow……Ryan