1998 The Big Cycle - Part 4

The Rockies Cycle (or) Shuswap to Radium to Jasper to Barriere to Shuswap
My Flickr site for more pictures - 

slightly longer route as in 1996 and done anti clockwis.

Day 11 Jasper to Mr. Robson Center - 90 km)

Frequent stops were welcomed.

We left Jasper at the tardy time of 9:15 after picking up a chain breaker as the one that Ken had, had no pin to push the chain links with. We were to miss our usual early morning start. It felt strange to be only three. We missed Ken.
I'm tired! We're all tired. We had headwinds all day and it was a lot of extra work getting to Robson. I only had pancakes for breakfast and I wondered if part of the reason for my tiredness was not having enough of the right fuel in the furnace.

Day 12 (Robson Center to Blue River 133 km)
A nice early morning start with the aim of having breakfast in Valemount. We picked up some groceries for the long stretch between Valemount and Blue River which had not services. The afternoon was VERY HOT! I took to taking stops at bridges and hiding under them. Thus the nickname "Troll" which I soon acquired. The campsite in Blue River was dusty and run down.

Morning at the Mt. Robson viewpoint.

Day 13 (Blue River to Clearwater - 110 km)

Lots of forest fire smoke at Massiter Summit.

We were up before 5:00 a.m. and had breakfast with firefighters. Well, not actually, but they were at the restaurant. The previous day saw many large helicopters dragging large buckets flying to and fro from the fire south of town to the fire fighting base on the north side of town. It seemed to be quite a large organization. As we approached Massiter summit, we saw the smoke. It looked thick, and not the kind of thing you wanted to breathe. Chuck and Dale pulled clothing over their mouth and nose, and I made a point of breathing in through my nose. Down into the unknown we went.

After passing a check point, we got buzzed by a helicopter close enough that we got its rotor wash and wondered if it were trying to get us to stop. It pulled up right over us, and we tried to not cycle off the road and glance up and try to figure what the heck was going on. It soon buzzed off. We heard crackling and popping in the bush to our left, and we saw trees on fire. The smoke persisted even after passing the southern checkpoint but was gone by Avola. The gas station attendant at Avola was a cranky guy. He should really have taken a "Good Host" program. Breathe gently ;-) The last 20 or 30 km were hot. Dale had a race with a couple of Germans we had met before, but they were young and travelling lighter on 700c tires. We camped at the Dutchman Lake campsite where Ken and I had camped before. We had prime rib for supper and had a pleasant talk with a couple from Rochester New York. Day 14 ( Clearwater to Barriere - 60 km) Another broken spoke! Well, the day started out on the wrong foot right away. We got out of the campsite all right, but when Dale and I got our first cup of coffee, it tasted like poison. I'm not saying it tasted like poor coffee. I'm saying that it tasted like it had some noxious chemical added to it. It was scary! Okay, breakfast was completed and we started on what was supposed to be an uneventful 60 km of gently rolling highway to Barriere in the cool of the morning. It was not to be. Just as we were descending to cross a bridge south of town, Dale stopped to find out what was causing a strange sound on his bike. We found a loose spoke! No problem: we tightened it. While this was being accomplished, Chuck was checking over his bike and found a broken spoke on the free wheel side of his back wheel! No problem, we thought, we would replace it. Low and behold, the spokes that he had been given were all to short for his wheel! I was able to put a hook in a spoke with a pair of pliers and hook it through the hub and tighten it up a bit so there was very little wobble in his wheel. We cycled back to Clearwater to find a bike store. We had to wait a half hour for it to open, only to find that like two years ago when Ken and I checked it out, that it lacked what we needed. We got the name and address of a bike store in Kamloops. We cycled on towards Barriere in the hopes that Chuck's back wheel would last until Barriere where he could hitch a ride into Kamloops and get it repaired. We got to Barriere, Chuck was able to get a ride quickly into Kamloops, get his wheel fixed, and come back, but with no extra spokes! Oh well. Only 80 km left the next day, but it was over 40 km of gravel. I hoped that we would have no more spoke problems. Day 15 - August 16 ( Barriere to Celista via Adam's Lake - 86 km) Where's Ken? Up at 5:00 a.m. again and breakfast at P.J.'s where it soon began to rain! On with the goretext tights and microft jackets. Fortunately, it didn't last more than an hour. The road to Adam's Lake was good. You could always find a smooth area to cycle on, but you didn't have to watch out for cows and their ensuing "traps". The road along Adam's Lake started off okay, but soon I saw Chuck stopping and taking off his rear panniers. Oh no, not a broken spoke! Fortunately it was only a flat. The road really degenerated into a washboard torture test. If you tried to avoid the washboard, you found deep dust and loose gravel on the sides of the road that was just waiting to throw you off balance. It was awful. I guess since logging was not taking place there was little reason for the road to be looked after. My back tire developed a lump, but I successfully ignored it as we didn't have far to go. We got back to our cars about 1:30 p.m. after cycling 1400 km if you counted all the little side trips. What with the heat at the beginning and at the end, and the last 5 days feeling like somewhat of a let down after cycling through the beautiful Rockies, it was a more demanding trip that two years ago with Ken. I really enjoyed the company. Chuck is always optimistic and Dale always sees the humorous side of things. Ken? Well Ken is his usual stoic, strong, good natured self. It was too bad he wasn't able to finish the trip off with us. I'm lucky to have so many good people to spend my time with. Is Dale a lobster now? He certainly has fulfilled the major trip aspect of the initiation. All he has to do is live through an annual general meeting! ;-) The End of the Cycle!