1996 - The Big Cycle of 1996 - Part 1

The Big Cycle of 1996 (or) Ken and Keith's Excellent Adventure
Celista - Barriere - Jasper - Lake Louise - Revelstoke - Salmon Arm - Celista
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Our route

The start of the Adams Lake road

Day One - Celiste to Barriere

We left the north side of Shuswap Lake near the tiny village of Celiste on the morning of August 3, 1996 and took the road that goes up the west side of Adam's Lake and over to Louis Creek on the Yellowhead highway. We carried camping equipment including tent, sleeping bags, stove and a day's supply of food. Needless to say, out bikes were heavy, slow to accelerate, and correspondingly slower to bring to a stop. Our goal was to cycle up the Yellowhead highway to Jasper, south to Lake Louise, and then west back to our starting point on the north side of Shuswap Lake.

There was about 40 kilometers of gravel on the stretch that went along Adam's Lake. Fortunately the weather was cloudy so it was not that hot. We climbed about 300 meters above the lake and had some nice views.
The country between Adam's Lake and the Yellowhead Highway was beautiful. Coasting down the last few kilometers on pavement was a welcome relief despite the thundershowers. Our first day's ride was about 85 kilometers. I was very tired at the end of the day.
Our first night was spent at a campsite at Barriere. It was close to a restaurant where we had lasagna for supper. Later, we had a chocolate bar for dessert and I finished off the evening with a Mercendol just before we went to bed at 9:00. Oh my aching muscles!

Day Two - Barriere to Clearwater Ken and Keith entering Clearwater We had decided we had too much clothing with us so we hid the extras at a rest stop just north of Barriere. We picked the bundle up two weeks later when we had finished the trip. Cycling the 60 km the next day to Clearwater was so chilly that we could see our breath! It was also a very wet ride. New road construction between Little Fort and Clearwater created a no shoulder situation which didn't help either. The good thing was that we had a bit of a tail wind. I felt tired but that was to be expected as I was overweight hadn't done much training. My bike was concerning me a bit as the rear brake would drag if the right hand bolt was done up tightly. The bike mechanic I usually deal with had put a little washer on the left hand side to avoid this problem and I decided to try to get one for the right hand side in Jasper. The brakes worked fine but the thought of a dragging brake on such a long trip was very depressing. Ken discovered a very tight front axle. We hadn't brought cone wrenches and weren't able to correct the situation until we found a bike shop in Jasper. We stayed at the Dutch Lake campsite in Clearwater, cleaned the grime from our bikes and did laundry. Looking out the laundry room window I saw fresh snow on a distant summit! The thought of days of cold rain was depressing. Day Three - Clearwater to Blue River Motels are great! The third day was spent cycling the 108 km from Clearwater to Blue River under threatening skies. We were off by about 7:00 am. Vavenby offered no services until later that morning so we cycled another 10 km to a small cafe and campsite. The day consisted of rolling ups and downs with a lot of fairly flat sections. We stopped at Avola for lunch. We had great tail winds after that, leading up to Massiter Summit. I drafted Ken for quite a while easily staying at about 30 km/h. The climb up Massiter Summit was about 5 or 6 % and about 5 km long. There was a nice downhill run down the north side. Dark skies at the end of the day convinced us to get a motel. I felt tired again at the end of the day, but not as badly as I felt at Barriere. It was easy to stay hydrated and the breaks at the different cafes were very welcome. Day Four - Blue River to Valemount The rain had let up :-) Our fourth day (Aug 6) started out poorly. The motel cafe didn't have enough pancake batter for our breakfast. Do you believe it! And it had run out of potatoes the night before! The waitresses seemed to take on quite a disinterested approach to their jobs. Talk about being out in the hinterland! To top it off the morning was rainy. Looking north where we were headed looked downright ominous. Low dark clouds smothered the valley where we were headed making it look terribly depressing. The ride started again with a tail wind, but it was soon cold and raining so heavily that I felt I had to trade my SuperMicroft jacket for my heavy duty goretex jacket and waterproof overmitts. I also had on goretex faced tights and waterproof over booties over my cycling shoes. I pulled the hood over my helmet and tried to get used to the idea that Valemount was 90 km ahead with absolutely no services of any kind in between! What a depressing prospect! It rained hard for about half an hour, then stopped. That was the last rain we had while cycling for the whole trip. We passed a woman walking north and she was very talkative and wanted us to turn around and chat. We smiled, waved, and cycled on. She seemed just a little odd in her mannerisms. We began to stop every 10 km. Ken was naturally faster and our regular stops got us together on a regular basis, and just importantly, gave our bums a rest. We tried to nibble on something and drink during each of these rests, even if it was just a sip and a suck on a hard candy. I found I couldn't go too long without "fueling the furnace". About every 20 km I found having half a chocolate bar was helpful. At the 40 km stop we had half a sub sandwich which we had bought at Blue River. I had roast beef, cheese, some sort of salad like addition, and some rather tasty mustard. By this time the weather was starting to get quite good, with a strong tail wind from the south. The final run into Valemount was mostly downhill, where we got up to 35 to 40 km/h with little problem! The former KOA campsite in Valemount was opposite a number of restaurants. We had a very filling meal of zucchini strips, pasta, and topped off with apple pie and ice cream for dessert. The furnace was full again! We planned to only go to Robson Center the next day, which would be a run of only 35 km. That would set us up for a reasonable 85 km to Jasper after that. I looked forward to the easy 35 km the next day, not because I couldn't do another 90 km, but just because a short day would tend to allow me to recharge my batteries. Food and rest was obviously the key in doing that. Travelling fully loaded as we were, and going over hilly terrain, created a situation where it was impossible to eat too much. I found it difficult to replace what I was burning up during the day. With me especially, staying hydrated was extremely important. Without doing so, I tend to get headaches and become quite useless. The cool days we were experiencing were making that easy. .. on to part 2