Who’s Tripping Down The Streets Of The City

After yesterday’s uneventful day – from a cycle touring perspective – today was another pretty uneventful day even though I spent more than seven hours on my bike. As I’ve made my way across the prairies, I know I’ve mentioned the wind from time to time but today was definitely the toughest so far. Remarkably, when I checked my spreadsheet (yes, I have a spreadsheet logging my travel days) it turns out that today wasn’t my slowest day. However, it was definitely the windiest.

My grand plan for this morning actually began last night. I knew I had a windy day ahead of me so I thought I’d get an early start in an attempt to beat the full brunt of the wind’s wrath. An early bedtime of 9:30 led to me successfully waking at an early hour. A very early hour. Actually, it was a pretty stupidly early hour. Believe it or not, I was actually on the road by 5:30. That’s right. 5:30 am. And no, that’s not Pacific time.

Despite my plan, it turns out that the winds are fully capable of waking up early too. And today they did just that. So, there I was. Cycling along the Trans-Canada highway at 5:30 in the morning with a 20 km/h headwind beating down on me. This was going to be an ugly day.

My unofficial goal for the day was the small town of Walsh – just past the Alberta/Saskatchewan border and 120 km from my starting position. Given the winds, I readjusted my goal. I didn’t know how far I could go so I set my sights on each and every small town along the way. The first one was Tompkins. 25 km away. Normally that would be a little more than an hour away. Normally. It took more than 90 minutes to get there today. And to add to the pain, the Co-op convenience store in Tompkins wasn’t open yet. Ugh.

Next stop, Piapot. Another 25 km. I got there but it took another long 90 minutes to do so. The wind was making me work for every kilometre again today. When you get accustomed to being able to travel about 20 km/h, a drop to 15 km/h is more than a little demoralizing. On a bike, the difference between travelling at 15 km/h vs. 20 km/h is gargantuan. You know, I’ve always liked that word… ‘gargantuan’ … I so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence. (Movie quote alert)

The next town after Piapot is Maple Creek. Yet another 30 km stretch. By the time I made it there I was about 75 km into my ride and more than a little exhausted. The wind continued to be brutal but adding to the challenge was the temperature. It was a cold morning. Actually cold. 10 degrees cold. With 20 km/h winds. I don’t know what the windchill factor on that would be but there was definitely a factor. And it was chilling!

Fortunately, Maple Creek turned out to be a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel. Okay, there was no light nor was there a tunnel and I was still more than 40 km from my day’s destination. However, there is a restaurant along the highway at Maple Creek where I could rest, take refuge from the wind, and get some real food. I really needed something more substantial than the trail mix and apples I’d been eating all morning – although, at the time they were very good.

A leisurely lunch kept me out of the wind for a while but I was still not overly motivated to resume my ride. But I did. For about another 500 metres. That’s when I discovered a Saskatchewan Tourist Centre on the eastbound side of the highway. I’m still not sure why it was there as I was still about 40 km from the border. That said, I was glad it was there and I once again took refuge from the wind. And that refuge lasted for an hour – just enough time to charge up some of my devices.

As much as I was enjoying being out of the wind, I was well aware that I wasn’t getting any closer to Vancouver by doing so. It was time to move on. I returned to the road to find that the wind had shifted slightly and a slight crosswind was now blowing. I’m still waiting on that prairie tailwind I keep hearing about but, considering the long morning I had put in, a crosswind felt great.

The final 40 km to the Alberta border actually went surprisingly well. The wind was constant but I think taking things easy this morning really paid off at the end of the day – and the change of wind direction didn’t hurt either. I had started my ride nearly 12 hours earlier but by 5:00 pm I was officially in Alberta. And not long after that I was at the Alberta Welcome Centre (aka. home for the night).

As an added bonus, there was a gas station beside the Welcome Centre that boasted a large “Restaurant” sign. That sign turned out to be more than a little misleading when I found out that not only was the restaurant closed for the day, but it was closed forever. Sigh. As a result, supper ended up being an apple danish, a bag of Sun Chips, and a Snickers bar. Not exactly my healthiest day of travel but still a successful one.

As mentioned earlier, today wasn’t actually my slowest day of travel. That honour still belongs to my Virden to Whitewood day in Manitoba. However, that day had a several long, slow climbs which affected my speed. Today was flat. And the only thing slowing me down was the wind.

Despite all the wind – and there was a lot – today was a good day. Not necessarily pleasant during the ride but I managed to cover another 120 km which I really doubted possible when my ride began. And by getting to Alberta today, I only have a short ride to Medicine Hat tomorrow where I should be able to restock my supplies and relax. Not sure what I’ll do for breakfast but I’ll worry about that in the morning.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 122.44 km
Ride time: 7:14:01
Average speed: 16.92 km/h
Maximum speed: 31.49 km/h