PowerCycle

06/29 Today it was all about the hills and the wind. The hills were a bit unexpected and I suspect I’m in for a lot more of the same. Climbed 3149 feet which is more than when I’ve crossed mountain passes. The worst part by far was the wind. The sun was out but all day I had to ride into a cold, strong headwind. To add to it there were basically no shoulders and lots of heavy truck traffic. Not a fun day.

The scenery was great but after a while it all kind of looked the same. Lot’s of tree-covered hills the whole way but you never really get high enough to get a good view of anything past the next few big hills. Not a single house or building the entire way so it’s very remote.

I’d planned to ride about 15 miles further on but when I saw this place I threw in the towel. It’s not a premier camping spot by any means. $20 gets you zip (OK, there’s a pit toilet with big, fat flies in it). There’s a water pump but they warn against drinking from it without boiling the water. Might as well filter water out of the river that’s 20 feet away. They don’t charge for firewood but I’ve had a campfire 2 times on my trip, both times were with other people. No tent pads either so even finding a flat spot was tough. Not sure what the problem is with multi-use fees. Sure charge people that come out here to camp $20. People passing through who just need a place to pitch a tent shouldn’t have to pay more than $5 for a place with no services and who aren’t using the immediate area for recreational purposes. Set a small area aside from the rest of the higher-priced spots if need be.

Saw 2 other guys riding down from Alaska. They were heading to Montana. Didn’t catch their names though.

The monster book I bought in Jasper, The Milepost, is turning out to be a good investment. The information has been spot on which really helps plan the day out. They mention long, uphill/downhill grades starting after the city of Grande Cache which is where I’ll be staying tomorrow. They did mention in the summary that the road has moderate grades and curves but the book is geared toward cars/RV users so it didn’t go into detail. An elevation profile would be a huge plus if they could add that (and make the pages perforated so its easier to rip out sections you don’t need).

GPX Track

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Leg 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.