Day 9 - Albert Canyon to Golden- 72 Miles

The day dawned wet as usual, so after the usual high carb force fed breakfast I donned all the waterproof gear and headed off up Rogers Pass.

The climb was steady but the weather was awful, head winds and rain combined with the constant traffic made for a really tough grind up the 36km or so to the top.Having said that the clouds made the scenery quite menacing looking and the occasional glimpse of snow on top of the mountains still made for nice viewing.

A couple of bears were sighted by others on the way up but I had no luck.

When we got to the top we were freezing and soaked both from the rain and from the exertion of climbing for 2 hours. Luckily one of the lads tapped up a member of staff who took some of our wet clothes and threw them into the hotel drier. It was a real bonus as none of us were looking forward to a fast descent when wet as the wind chill would have been awful.

Having dried out we emerged from the restaurant into a dry sky and as luck would have it that was the last of the rain for the day. The descent was brilliant, 11km straight down through tunnels and round long sweeping bends. Once at a the bottom we took some layers off and set off  along a  series of steady climbs and descents for about 50km and then we plunged down into the river valley loosing 600ft in about 3km! The rest of the ride was along a relatively flat valley floor in warm sunshine, the only downside was the very busy holiday traffic which meant it was difficult to enjoy the countryside.

Along the way today I had another first; we moved into a different time zone “Mountain Time” and moved forward an hour I am now 7 hours behind the UK.

My main frustration to day was that my phone has given up the ghost, I couldn't get it on and when I eventually managed to get it working it won’t pick up a signal. I spent most of today trying to fiddle with it and eventually had to borrow another tourists phone just to contact home and reassure them that I hadn't been eaten by a bear. I hope to sort out a pay as you go tomorrow and at least I have internet for the rest day so I will be able to talk to the family.

We have a rest day in Golden tomorrow, Monday, I have already sorted my washing and as I type it is in the dryer, let’s hope it doesn’t shrink!

Tomorrow I will try to do as little as possible, catch up with Zoe and the kids and sort my gear out ready for Tuesday. We have two more days of mountains and then we hit Alberta where it levels out a bit. I will hopefully get hold of Alex this week just to check all is OK for his planned meet in Drumheller next Saturday.

Onwards and Upwards!