Call Of The Wildish

My choice of location for wild camping was once again successful. Although, to call it “wild” camping is more than a bit of a stretch as there really wasn’t very much “wild” about it. With restaurants and a grocery store within walking distance, I should really call it what it is – illegal camping … but that doesn’t sound as enjoyable. Sometimes it’s also called stealth camping; however, there wasn’t much of a stealth element involved either. Maybe I’ll call it “free camping” from now on.

I’m not sure if I’m learning or if I just lucked out with my camping spot last night but, either way, I am happy to report that I did NOT get rained upon by the local irrigation system this morning. I didn’t actually look for sprinkler heads last night but based on my location I figured I was pretty safe. That said, based on the colour of much of the grass at the Information Centre, the sprinklers aren’t doing a very good job.

While my site was wild enough to avoid the sprinklers, the lack of “wildness” allowed to me easily access breakfast this morning. I opted for a sandwich, orange, and small jug of chocolate milk from the Buy-Low Foods grocery store. It wasn’t the best sandwich I’d ever had but, as grocery store sandwiches go, it wasn’t the worst either. Of course, the chocolate milk was the highlight. How could it not be?

Unrelated to anything, the gas station in town offers a free Skype phone for free international calls. I thought this was a really good idea. Free is good, after all. It became a “less than good” idea when I discovered it wasn’t working. I guess I’ll phone home another time.

My goal for the day was to reach Kamloops which was about 125 km away. My tentative plan for the ride was to stop for lunch at the halfway point in the town of Barrière. Consultations with Google Maps revealed a Subway location was waiting for me there. That planned changed when I arrived in Little Fort and discovered they too had a Subway (which Google apparently doesn’t know). It’s not a stand-alone store but rather it’s incorporated into the gas station. Either way, I was happy to see it.

The first half of today’s ride was very enjoyable. Nice views. Nice roads. Nice weather. And from Clearwater to Little Fort was surprising flat. The ride became more scenic after my short stop in Little Fort. There were more hills. And the road started winding around a bit more. As I said, very enjoyable.

The third quarter of the ride was less enjoyable. The scenic roads and views continued but I suddenly found myself facing another headwind and some rain. Not torrential rain but still rain. As usual, the wind was the worst part. Despite having an average speed of close to 23 km/h for the first half of the ride, my overall average speed actually dropped below 20 km/h as I pedalled into the afternoon. Finding that a bit unacceptable, I forced myself to pick up the pace a bit just to get back over that 20 km/h threshold. Silly, I know. But that’s the sort of thing you do when you’re on the road for hours at a time.

Also silly, and unrelated to anything, was a custom painted van that drove by me at one point. It was gone before I could take a picture but on the back of the van it read, “6 out of 7 dwarfs are not Happy!” Maybe it was the wind, or the rain, but I found that to be pretty amusing.

The cruelest part of the day probably came when I arrived in Kamloops. And it was the actual arrival that was the cruelest part. In particular, it was the “Welcome to Kamloops” sign that was the origin of the cruelty. Yes, I stopped to take a picture of the sign (as I frequently do); however, I was also well aware that I was still about 30 km from the end of my ride. It’s a little disheartening (especially in the wind and rain) when you “arrive” at your destination knowing that you still have about 30 km (or 90 minutes) of riding ahead of you. Cruel. Very very cruel. Fortunately, the final 30 km went without incident. Not without rain. But without incident.

I wasn’t sure where I would be spending the night but I wanted to stay on the far side of the city so that I was well positioned for the start of my ride tomorrow.

As luck would have it, there is a Wendy’s in that part of the city. The thought of a large chocolate Frosty was all the motivation I needed to get through the final 30 km of the day. Additionally, that part of the city lies right along the highway and is heavily populated with fast food restaurants and motels of various sizes. With the rain still falling and me still a bit wet (and chilled) from the ride – the chill didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying my Frosty – I decided to see if there were any reasonably priced motels in the area. There was.

After consulting various online resources, I came across a reasonably good deal at Rider’s Motor Inn. With a name like that, how could I NOT stay there? I’m not sure if the low rate was due to the large renovation project that the motel is currently under but those renovations had no impact on my room so it made little difference to me.

I think the best part of tonight’s motel experience occurred when I first entered my room. I don’t think I realized how chilled I really was until that moment. As I opened the door it was clear that the air conditioning wasn’t on which meant the room was warm. Toasty warm. Very toasty warm. It felt SO good to be engulfed in the warmth as I passed through the door. I’m not proud of the fact that this is my second motel stay in three nights but I’m not ashamed of it either. Regardless, I’m certainly enjoying my warm night.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 128.17 km
Ride time: 6:22:25
Average speed: 20.10 km/h
Maximum speed: 49.65 km/h