Finding Hope

Nature is a beautiful thing. Last night it took the form of an incredibly starry night. Remarkably, I haven’t had the opportunity to see many on this trip. Clearly, the stars have been there but having spent many nights in or near the glow of cities (or towns), the stargazing opportunities have been few and far between. That wasn’t the case tonight.

I rarely enjoy an entirely uninterrupted night of sleep and tonight was no different. Having fallen asleep relatively early, it was shortly after midnight when I first woke up. Partially because I needed to re-inflate my air mattress and partially because I needed to tend to nature’s call. I crawled out of my tent and immediately noticed a seemingly endless sky of stars. It was absolutely beautiful. Not much puts your existence into perspective like such an expansive backdrop.

By the time morning came, the stars had disappeared into the daylight as the sun was slowly starting to reveal itself from behind the mountains. Getting up before the sun is not my preferred time to start the day, then again it’s been more common on this trip than I would’ve thought.

Part of the reason for my early rise was last night’s early fall into slumber. The other reason was that I surmised an early departure would allow me to avoid any “Imperial entanglements” in terms of having to pay for last night’s overpriced and under serviced campsite. This ended up being an accurate supposition and I was left with a new hope that good things were in store for me today. It turns out, it was all downhill from there. Okay, maybe not ALL down hill but definitely mostly downhill. And in the best possible way.

Before hitting the road I first tended to a bit a bicycle maintenance. Nothing serious, but I wanted to address my newfound concern regarding the accuracy of my cycle computer. I mean, what’s the point of having such a device if it can’t be trusted to be accurate?

Cycle computers are pretty simple in concept. There’s a sensor on the bicycle frame and a magnet on the spoke. Each revolution is noted by the computer and, based on the size of your wheel, the speed and distance is recorded. Until yesterday, I had experienced no issues whatsoever. Until yesterday, I hadn’t descended a hill with a 9% grade.

As crazy as it might sound, I think I actually travelled faster than the computer could handle or, more accurately, could register. I also think I have only myself to blame. Again.

When installing my new computer for this trip, I opted not to use the magnet that came with the new computer and instead continued using the existing one. While the original magnet did an admiral job (as proven by the 5,000+ km recorded thus far), I suspect it reached a point where the pull from the magnet wasn’t strong enough to register each revolution of the wheel. Fortunately, I not only brought the new magnet with me, but I even knew where it was. No small feat considering how small the magnet is and how much stuff I’m carrying! I’m hoping the new, larger, stronger magnet will resolve yesterday’s issue. Now all I need is another 9% descent to test it. I didn’t need to wait long.

My destination for today was Hope, less than 70 km away. And, as I suggested earlier, it was a day that went downhill early and often. Yes, when I first set out this morning there was a bit of a climb to reach the Allison Pass Summit but it was nothing remotely gruelling. And the rewards that followed were well worth it. Side note, while I was yet to test the accuracy of my cycle computer in regards to speed, my arrival at the Allison Pass Summit allowed to me test it in another way. The summit sign indicated an altitude of 1,342 metres (4,403 ft). A quick glance at my computer showed an altitude of 4,415 ft. In the grand scheme of things, I considered that to be perfectly acceptable.

Manning Park certainly has its share of challenging climbs but that was yesterday. Today it had its share of exhilarating descents. As I was racing down the mountain, I couldn’t help but think, “When this baby hits 88 mph, you’re going to see some serious !@#$.” Sadly, I never reached 88 mph – although, that’s probably a good thing since I left my flux capacitor at home. That said, I did set a new personal high speed of 65.75 km/h and, not long after that, I travelled back in time to 1965. I don’t think those two events were mutually exclusive.

The time travel occurred about 18 km outside of Hope when I arrived at the site of the Hope Slide. Despite occurring 50 years ago (January 9th, 1965, to be precise), the remnants of the slide are very much present today. The Hope Slide was a massive landslide of more than 46 million cubic metres of earth, rock and snow which destroyed about 3 km of the Hope-Princeton Highway, buried a lake, and left a pretty big gap in the mountain. Due to all the debris, the current highway is actually about 55 metres higher than the original ground level.

On my first cycling tour in 2010, my route took me along the Coquihalla Highway and I didn’t have the luxury of time to take a detour. As such, the Hope Slide site was one of those “next time” attractions. It turns out the “next time” would be five years later but it was certainly worth the wait.

The remaining ride from the Hope Slide to Hope was easy and beautiful. Much like my ride into Jasper, I was quickly reminded of how much I like Hope. Apparently I have a thing for small towns surrounded by mountains. And, again like Jasper, Hope was just how I remembered it. Sure, there had been some development but it still felt the same.

I made my way through town and headed for the Visitor Centre. Not for a potential camping spot but for a photo. For those that don’t know, the 1982 movie First Blood was shot in and around Hope. In 2010, I was lucky enough to see the bridge that is featured early in the movie. I say “lucky” because it has since been decommissioned. Many of the other movie locations have also changed or disappeared; however, there is a Rambo cutout located at the Visitor Centre so I figured I would limit my Rambo tour to that.

From there my time was spent between Subway (of which Hope has TWO), Dairy Queen (of which Hope has one), and a picnic table near the Fraser river before eventually making my way over to my Warm Showers host for the evening.

With Hope being a hub for cycle tourists, Peter & Hilary’s house is a popular place to stop – and not because they’re the only hosts in town. They’re very accommodating with a big house and two unruly dogs – that’s Hilary’s word, not mine. I would call them enthusiastic. I didn’t actually meet Hilary as she was away but Peter was a great host and very generous despite having a very busy schedule.

After a great dinner with fresh corn on the cob, I confined myself to my room to get caught up on my updates. A task that was unusually successful. With Vancouver drawing near I’m really trying to get (and keep) things up to date. Much like yesterday, that can be a bit of a climb. But I’m trying. Really, I am.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 71.45 km
Ride time: 3:01:59
Average speed: 23.55 km/h
Maximum speed: 65.85 km/h (new personal high)