Met at Cadence 8:30AM with Craig, Dallas, Ken, Thomas, Jon, Devin, and Myself. The wind was high and the temperature cool, we headed up the normal way to the NW. Nothing major to report except the dam wind.
There was nowhere to hide nothing like starting the day into a leg burning NW wind, heading north west?? Everyone took there turn up front and as we crossed Big Hill Springs road we got the wave from Lachlin driving his car. He had missed the start but was determined to catch up and have a ride. Lachlin caught on and helped pull the train forward into the unrelenting wind. The wind stole Dallas' bottle cap and jammed it into his wheel creating some brief but hilarious sounds. It also picked up Jon, at a slight 110lb??? and took him to the ditch for a great display of "WTF" and "how did he do that".
At the left hand turn to Water Valley Dallas finally admitted he was have some troubles.....with his wheel that is. The beast had been riding with a seized front bearing that barely made one rev!! We hid in the ditch while he tried to fix it to no avail and had to carry on with no front brake.
West into the wind again with the promise of a warm, calm place to eat a good lunch. 10 minutes in and Dallas had to pull the pin. The bearings where gone and his wheel was wobbling dangerously. We would have to shoulder on without him. ****update-Turns out Dallas turned around and his bearing completely fell apart, leaving him to start to walk home until a friend could come out and pick him up.
The pace ground out and the only safe place was Lachlin's left hip and it was occupied by Craig. had to be a bit of a road hog and grab Craig's left hip as the road climbed to the Saloon. Ken and Thomas worked together in a two man battle to the Saloon. As we arrived we could not see Jon? Where had he gone?? Was he just down in the dip. Craig and Lachlin turned back to see if the could help him with the final stretch.After watching them ride 4 of the 8 km back to the turn Ken, Thomas and I knew he had called it a day. Craig was worried that Jon had a flat and no tubes and kept on. ***update-Jon wass out of food and did not know how close he was to salvation. He turned around and made his way home.
The three of us entered the Water Valley Saloon, which was empty but had all the makings for a fantastic Saturday night of Jack and line dancing. We ordered up some lunch and enjoyed the ambiance and great service from the Bartender. Craig and Lachlin showed up, sans Jon. We hope he is good and not blown to a place where there is flying monkeys and a man behind the curtain.
Burger and fries and a hot chocolate to place in the groin for heat and all was good. The saloon was the turn around point and Ken and Thomas devised a plan to go south and hit up Horse Creek road for a great day out.***-update the boys hooked together a 100 miler, nice. Lachlin carried on with Craig and i for a short while on the gravel until turning around and picking up his car somewhere on the back track.
Now here in lies the adventure part of the ride. 76 km in, still heading away, no facilities, gravel roads. We left and decided to take a half notch off the pace that was happening with the group. Craig said he was not feeling all that great, something about his birthday, good wine bad cheese. As would prove the case he stowed it away and was kind enough to carry on with my initiation.
The roads were passable with some sections of soft wet gravel. Lots of deer and few cars as we took in the splendor that is Harold Creek road. All that way but worth it. The remoteness and views as we headed to the ever increasing elevation of the foothills have to be seen. Erik has talked about starting from the Saloon and I would be all over that. I had a flat that we fixed in good time but under no stress, ate a touch and carried on.
We didn't talk much at times, and others we were chatting like mad. 4pm and knowing that we would be return after dark still could not take away from the fact of what we were doing. We hit the forestry trunk road and caught some breaks on some packed gravel.
As we hit the pavement you would think I would get recharged but that sure didn't happen. The 100km between stops depleted my water supply and I could not digest any food. Big mistake taking in half a protein bar to find out my H2O stores were low. Craig reached deep and took his fair share of the pulling. I could pull through but not for long. I had no idea that Cochrane was that far!!!!
I had to pee but did not want to break Craig's tempo. Hold it and go. 3 weeks ago I had not felt that bad in the legs, now I had not felt this bad systemically in a long time. In fact since the XC8 where Craig and I did battle for 8 hours. Funny that!!
Oh did I mention the wind had changed direction. Of course it did.
We cruised to Starbonks, which I am told is the place to recharge in times like this. Here was the menu-an organic blueberry date square, apple fritter, tune melt panini, and Grande dark roast-7:30pm and that was just me.
We sat in the comfy chairs and started the feast. Knowing we had to climb the Cochrane hill and still return home. We both down another dark roast and headed out-8pm.
The summit was close at hand and the weather was windy yet stable.
Now was the time. The sun setting to our backs we choose the well travel south route hoping to avoid the avalanche of cars down the main chute. Gaining the first plateau at Glen Eagles, we proved that not letting the excitement of what we were doing get the better of us. Skirting the house sized houses, we looped onto the main track. Soon we could see it, the intersection of 1A. We steadied the nerves and pushed for the summit. It was ours. We only now had to cover the upper plateau to the down slope at Stoney trail.
After a day of struggle we both felt good and the pace was high and we covered the pavement well. We had to part ways at Stoney trail and I had nothing but down hill Bow Cycle and my car. Arrival time-9:29pm. 9.5 hours of riding and a 12 hour day, 210km, 60 km on gravel.
Thanks for the ride!!!!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment