GearUp Day 5: Grand Forks to Rossland

Well I am just going to come right out and say it...today was GREAT!!! (I bet you weren't expecting that).  But seriously, today went really well and much better than I thought.  A lot of it had to do with setting a nice easy pace on the climbs and also the weather was perfect (finally).

We got on the road at about 8:30am and had a nice easy ride for about 33km's, riding along Christina Lake and then beginning our ascent.  I began climbing at right around 9:45am and I think it took close to 2hrs to make it to the top.  I took quite a bit of video so I hope it works...the videos from the last two days have not been able to upload.

From the top of Paulson Summit we descended down to our lunch break at Nancy Green Park and from there climbed up again to Nancy Green Summit.  The whole day today everyone was commenting on how awesome the weather was, mostly over cast with the sun popping through here and there to make sure we didn't get too cold.

So yeah, over-all it was a great day.  It is nice that it was a bit shorter as well, 98km's, and we got to our hotel by 2pm.

Tomorrow is another big climb, Kootney Pass, and it is the biggest of the trip.  It is funny how the certain mountains effect people in different ways.  Everyone has their "hardest hill" and last year for me it was Paulson.  Therefore I don't know what to think for tomorrow, it is going to feel easier than today or more difficult...I guess it doesn't really matter, tomorrow will take care of itself.  For now we are off to the pub!

Here is a look at tomorrow's ride, the elevation map for tomorrow is the best one of the ride, you gotta wonder why they can't just build a tunnel, think of all the gas money truckers could save.

Here are some pictures from the day:

In this one you can see the road we just climbed up.

The popular blue bridge:

Paulson Summit

This view is better in-person

Video from Anarchist

Here is a short video I took about half way up Anarchist Summit on Day 4 (yesterday).  You can see Osoyoos way below us, you can also the see the rain clouds catching up to us...about 5 minutes after this video the sky's opened up and it never stopped.

Video from Day 3: Manning Park-Osoyoos

Here is a link to the video I took on Day 3.

Day 4: Osoyoos-Grand Forks

From one extreme to another, that's all I can say about the weather so far on this trip.  Once again the weather was the popular topic of discussion (and sorrow) today, but for the totally opposite reason as the previous days.  Today it rained, and rained, and rained...pretty much the whole 124km!!

Overall today was another pretty tough day.  We began the day about 800 meters from Anarchist Summit and so without any warmup, we began the 30km climb right off the bat.  It was about 4km's into the ride that is began to spit...by the time we reached the top of the summit our visibility was down to about 30 meters as we were socked right into the rain and clouds.  from the top on Anarchist Summit it was a long and cold(!) descent into Midway for lunch, where we all stood around the lunch table changing out of our wet gear and into dryer warmer clothes.  I think everyone faired a bit better after lunch as we were all in cold weather gear and knew what to expect.  Some riders got caught in a torrential downpour where drivers later said that their windshield wipers couldn't keep up with the rain.

After summiting our second climb of the day we had another 20km descent and I think everyone was just praying to make it to Grand Forks safely.  In one particularly sketchy section I was passed by a logging truck that happened to hit a swell in the road right as he passed me and it was as if I was hit with three 5 gallon pails of water as each of his axels screamed past me...over all it was a day to remember (usually I am a fair weather rider).

I did not take much video today as it was difficult and dangerous to navigate the camera and stay on the road in this kind of weather, but here are a couple shots from the day.

Paul and Bill at the top of Anarchist:

Pulling into our hotel like a bunch of drowned rats:

Tomorrow is one of our biggest climbs, Paulson Summit, I hated this climb last year and I'm sure tomorrow isn't going to be any better :)

Day 3: Manning Park-Osoyoos

I am very happy to report that today is over!  That's pretty much all I got to say about that...okay, I'll tell you a bit about it.  Today was another very difficult day.  This was the longest ride I have ever done, 183km's, and again, it was some of the hottest weather I have ever ridden in.  At one point during the second climb of the day my bike computer was registering 40 degree!

The day actually started off very well, we left Manning Park just a little after 8am and had a really nice 30km ride until our first climb of the day.  Sunday Summit isn't a long climb but it was good enough after suffering through yesterday.  From there we descended into Princeton and kept right on going.  From Princeton we set our eyes on Keremeos where we would have lunch at the 134km mark. This took us to about 1:45pm when we pulled in there.  From here on I, and most people, began to suffer.  Right after leaving the lunch stop you could tell the heat was on!  We had a pretty strong headwind for most of the day and there were times between Keremeos and Osoyoos where it felt like we were standing in front of the furnace, the wind was just so hot and dry.

This also coincided with our second and largest climb of the day, Richter Pass.  When we finally got to these climbs I was just wasted and just had to keep telling myself I was going to be okay and to just take is easy.  I rode this whole section with two other rides, Norm and Joan, and having them there was very nice as they helped provide the morale boost.   When I finally pulled into our hotel here in Osoyoos my legs were cramping so bad I could barely get off my bike.  Out hotel is right on the lake here so everyone pretty much just got off there bike and walked into the water with all their biking gear still on.

Anyway, tomorrow is a bit of a shorter day, 124km :(  We begin with the long climb up Anarchist Summit, it is about a 30km climb to the top but we have a rest stop at about the 16km mark.  Here is what tomorrow looks like:

Here are some pics from the ride today.

Day 2 Video

Here is the video from today.

Day 2: Chilliwack-Manning Park

Well all I can say is that the curse of Day 2 is still alive and strong!! What is it with me and this day?!?!  Okay, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but today was a brutal day.  It started out quite well.  I felt strong leaving Chilliwack at 8am this morning and even when we left Hope at around 10:45am I still felt good.  But about half way up the Hope Slide the climbing began to take its toll.  I ended up getting my first flat of the ride just over half way up the Slide and after that I just couldn’t really get a good rhythm going.  The main thing that made the ride so hard today, and everyone suffered today, was the heat.  I have not ridden in heat like that yet this year and the scary thing is that tomorrow is going to be hotter as we get ride into the BC desert.

A lot of people experience leg cramping today as buckets of sweat were just dripping off of us.  I was less than a km away from the Manning Park lodge and I had to pull over and stop because both of my legs were cramping so bad.  The volunteers waiting for us at the top of Allison Pass said that every single person let out an expletive as they summated the climb, as I said, pretty much everyone suffered today!

Tomorrow should be a nicer ride but it won’t bring much relief.  It is our longest day of riding, 185km’s, and as I mentioned, it is going to be hot!   

Today we had about 40 riders with us, but now it is just down to the 21 nine-day riders.  It is a strong group and I foresee myself hanging out near the back for most of the ride J  However, I am so thankful to be doing this ride again and I know I need to keep that in mind. 

I did take quite a bit of video but I don’t know if I will be able to upload it tonight as the internet here is very slow.  If it doesn’t work out I will try upload it tomorrow night from Osoyoos. 

Here is what tomorrow looks like.

Allison Pass:

ps. please forgive me if there are lots of spelling/grammar/typo mistakes...I'm just too tired to edit this.