We hung around in the motel for a while due to dense fog, although we were right on the highway we could hardly see it!! We had a big breakfast of fruit, yogurt, granola and juice because we were close to a grocery store and had a fridge in the motel room which was a whole lot better than oatmeal!! Finally we decided we just had to go for it so put on our lights and headed out. After a few km's we rode out of it and into a pretty nice day. The road was fairly hilly but there were some nice viewpoints. At one we met a guy in an orange westfalia with Northwest Territory plates, he was heading back to Inuvik and offered us some fresh fruit, he also told us the train was coming and I think I managed to get my best train shot of the trip so far (see below).
Bridge over the Steel River.
Viewpoint.
Train shot, although photo doesn't do it justice.
There were quite a few hills, Blair has a fancy bike computer and by the end of the day we had climbed over 900m (would have been interesting to know the cumulative climbing during my days in BC). He rides a bit faster than me and I have decided not to try and keep up with him, I have developed a pace that has worked for the last 8 weeks and I am happy with it. So I got an interesting perspective today, almost an out of body experience as I watched Blair on the road ahead, I realised this is what I must have looked like for the last 8 weeks. I watched him struggle into the wind, have the occasional Bob wobble on the descents and get passed very closely a few times by trucks. It made me more appreciative of what I have been through. Unfortunately the shoulders are still very inconsistent ranging from a fully paved one the width of a lane to a few cm's to the right of the white line!!
Blair had arranged to stay with a guy in Marathon that he had met in Nelson last winter and Joe rode out to meet us and escorted us into town. He offered us tea and we chatted until Barb his wife came home. Then after we had showered they served up chicken fajitas with all the trimmings, it was the best food I have had in a while. Joe and Barb were wonderful people and have clearly got involved with a number of people crossing Canada by bike and last year Joe ran with the British guy who was running across in a superhero costume so we talked until late with lots of tea.
Today marked 8 weeks of riding and tentatively I think I will be riding into Ottawa in about 2 weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment