Blog

I missed a couple of days of blogging due to no wifi and being tired.  But we have now reached our final stop in Beautiful BC.  Its really to bad it was cloudy and raining the last few days of riding from Revelstoke to Golden and Cranbrook to Sparwood because I believe we missed out on some great scenery.  The ride from just outside of Revelstoke to Golden started off well with little rain but we were prepared for it to rain as we got going as that is what the forecast called for.  We left a little later from Canyon Springs where we stayed because our cabin rental came with a free breakfast so we took advantage of that.  The previous day we ended up going about 33km past Revelstoke in order to make the ride into Golden shorter.  We were warned about snow sheds on the hwy from Revelstoke to Golden and there were a few of them.  We were told by some locals that the safest thing to do was to walk around the snow shed which we were prepared to do until when approaching the first one we spotted a bear just to the right of the path we would have needed to walk on.  So needless to say we made sure there was no traffic and we biked (fast) through each shed with no issue.  We ended up seeing three bears fairly close to the road.  Sorry no pictures as I have learned that seeing a bear on a bike induces way more fear than in a car.  Its also apparently enables one to reach speeds that were previously unreachable.  By the time we arrived in Golden it was pouring rain and we then had a 2.5 hour drive to Cranbrook where the ride would continue the next day.  Luckily the Tim Hortons has large bathrooms and we managed to dry off and change into some somewhat clean clothes and grab some lunch courtesy of a donated 100.00 Tim Hortons gift card that was donated to Svend before he left for the ride.  The drive to Cranbrook was nice but as with the ride to Golden would have been great if the clouds and rain were not around.  Either way we made it to Golden safe and sound.  We stayed with Gerre Barnett, Nicole Pallone's (VP of CanPKU) mother.  She took us all to Boston Pizza where we carboloaded on pasta and beverages.  We also managed to do laundry at Gerre's place so thanks to her for allowing us to basically take over her basement.  Once back from Boston Pizza we watched LA win the Stanley Cup.  It really never gets old watching the cup get presented.  It was also nice to see Kyle Clifford and Tanner Pearson win the cup as they are local guys from the Kitchener Waterloo area so I guess the Stanley Cup will be making an appearance in the Region this summer.  The nice thing about being in BC when the game goes into double overtime is that when it ends its still before 11pm unlike in the east.  

Today we left Cranbrook at 7:30 am and headed to Nicole's home in Sparwood BC.  It was another cold and rainy day but the sun came out just as we made it into town.  We also saw another bear today which increased my speed again.  This time the bear ran across the road not to far in front of us.  Once in Sparwood we had to stop by the big truck (see pics in the photo section of the site) for a few photos. While at the truck we met a couple of guys riding from Banff to Mexico as part of a race.  They expected to be done in 3 weeks and it was all back country riding with over 100,000 feet of climbing.  The one guy was using a single gear bike too.  Very impressive/slightly insane.  Sarah, maybe next summer?  We eventually made it to Nicole and Dino's and thus made it to our last stop in BC.  After a rest day tomorrow (long overdue) we will head to Claresholm Alberta.  Its calling for rain for the next 4 days so that could be unfortunate weather to ride in.  Looking forward to getting into Claresholm and meeting my co workers parents who have offered to let us stay at their place.  There is also a family in Claresholm that has kids with PKU so looking forward to meeting with them too.  Its about 9:50 here and Im tired so off to bed.  Tomorrow we have a booth at the coal miners days (?) and will be handing out cards and selling t shirts all to help promote awareness for PKU.  Im looking forward to waking up tomorrow and not changing into spandex shorts for the first time in 8 days.  (There is something I never thought I would say.)  Anyway back on the road in two days.  Thanks everyone for your continued support.