Rain overnight made the pack up a pain and my tent was full of water, however I had had a good nights kip even with trains rolling past, (they are up to a mile long I am told) and a chorus of snoring around the camp.
Breakfast was plentiful and we broke camp about 8am heading east along the Trans Canada Highway. There was lots of highway today but the scenery was great with mountains in the back ground and lakes to weave around.
I was feeling much better today and a stiff climb early on reassured me that I was back on song. I think I need to eat more during the day, its quite hard to force yourself to feed but if you don’t you just run out of gas and then its really unpleasant. The down side I think I’ll end up putting weight on rather than lose any.
Today’s route was a rolling one, we skirted a couple of large lakes and then had the odd climb or two until we got to lunch at Salmon Arm. One of the tour, Nan, lives in Salmon Arm so the locals were out to welcome us with water and cheers after which we all went to Tim Hortons, A Canadian Coffee/sandwich shop, which is a bit of a national institution.I took the opportunity of civilisation to visit a bike shop for a few bits and pieces, notably a new saddle, as my trusty friend split yesterday and although I tried to tape it to stop it ripping any further I kept catching the sticky tape on my shorts which was even more annoying than a split saddle. My old one was about 12 years old so I can’t complain about value for money!.
I have bought a new split centre gel saddle which feels quite comfortable but I am a little worried what impact it might have on my bum as I get used to it.
I have had a few gear issues today also. The weather has been foul for most of the last week and although I have been cleaning the chain etc it has been getting some severe abuse from muck and dust so it started skipping a bit today. As soon as I got to camp and had my tent up I got the bike straight onto a bike repair rack and gave the chain and gears a good clean and changed the saddle so hopefully it will be ok tomorrow.
The weather finally picked up today and at about lunch time I was able to introduce the Canning skin to Canadian sunlight. The second half of the day was warm and sunny and the forecast is for more of the same for a few days.
The second half of today was brilliant, a couple of cracking long descents and then we had about 20 of us in a pace line working against a head wind. Its quite exhilarating whacking along at about 25 mph with about 2 feet between you and the person in front. The idea is the leader rotates every 1km and whilst they work quite hard the others get a bit of a rest out of the wind in the line behind.
When it works properly those about 4 or so place back hardly have to pedal as they almost get sucked along, but you have to really concentrate and watch the hand signals that come down the line telling you about debris of a change in direction etc or you risk hitting someone up the rear and catastrophe.
Tonight’s camp site is amongst a pine tree wood, very nice but a little cramped and the Mosquito will no doubt make an appearance tonight so I have slapped the Deet on early. As I sit here typing I have a bubbling stream running behind me and the dinner crew are hard at it preparing Chicken Paprika for tea.
Tomorrow is a longer day, about 80 miles but with some “bumps” in it as they describe climbs here, and we start Rogers pass, a famous pass named after the man who discover a route for the railways to get across the Rockies.
Hopefully the weather, saddle and gears will all work for me, if so the bonus will be a hot spring to bath in at the campsite in Albert Canyon.
Onwards and Upwards.
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