The Pros And Cons Of Gravity

My selection of where to call home last night turned out to be a good one. Even factoring in the mild glow from the lights of the now defunct Visitor Centre, I had a very comfortable and restful night. Despite my comfort level and preferred state of slumber, I arose early today as I needed to get some work done before hitting the road. Of course, said work required a WiFi connection so I packed up my things and relocated to the non-defunct (I know, that’s not a word) Visitor Centre.

As frequently happens, work took a bit more time than anticipated but by 9:00 I had completed enough so that I was free to turn my attention to cycling. Actually, I first turned my attention to breakfast and lunch which meant returning to Subway for my morning ritual. From there I could focus on cycling. And I would need all the focus I could muster today.

Both the warning from the woman at the Information Centre in Keremeos and the elevation chart on my phone made me pretty confident that there would be some climbs today. And there were. Big climbs. Big, long, steep, winding climbs. And with temperatures expected to soar above 35C today, I was in for my first workout in quite some time.

Following Highway 3 (aka. the Crowsnest Highway), the climbs came early and often today and, as a wise man once said (sort of), the hills to Manning Park are not to be travelled lightly. It didn’t take long for those hills to have my complete attention. There were long sections of 5-6% grades which would then give way to shorter but steeper sections of up to 8% grades. And there was little relief in between. As you might expect, gravity isn’t exactly kind to a fully loaded bike on climbs of this sort. Of course, there was also the sun making the day hotter with each passing minute. Just to be clear, I’m not complaining about the heat. Just setting the scene. I’ll still take hot over cold.

My first rest came after about 90 minutes where the road finally levelled off and even presented an official rest area. It was actually a combination Rest Area and Brake Check area for large trucks about to descend the hills which I had just climbed.

Even though it was still early in the day’s ride, I decided I had earned a sub. Or at least half of one. I don’t know how many calories I burned in those first 90 minutes but I’m guessing it was somewhere in the million range. No, that’s not a officially measurement.

While I was enjoying my sub I met an East Indian family that was travelling the area and heading to a few of the places from which I had just been. We chatted for a while before I was offered a bag of “Spicy Peanuts” for my travels. I know Indian food can be a bit spicy at the best of times so I was a bit concerned. However, after having just burned through an estimated million calories I wasn’t about to turn down an energy source. Turns out they were pretty much perfectly spicy. And more than a little delicious.

The upside to cycling over mountain passes is that at some point you get to descend them. At around 12:30 I spotted one of the happiest signs you can see after a long morning of climbing. The “summit” sign. In this case, it was “Sunday Summit”. The next sign was equally pleasant as it indicated an upcoming Brake Check area. As you would expect, they only put those right before a big descent. And what a glorious descent it was. A descent that included a beautiful 9% grade. Considering I only had to pedal up an 8% grade I figured I was winning the trade off.

With gravity working in your favour, there are a lot of things that go through your mind while hurtling down a highway with a 9% grade but mostly it’s “Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” I can say with relatively certainty that today’s descent was the fastest I’ve ever travelled on a fully loaded bicycle. Sadly, I can only say that with “relative certainty” because apparently I was travelling faster than my cycle computer could register. No, I’m not kidding. At one point during my more-than-rapid descent, I glanced at my computer only to read 0 km/h on the display. I was confident that wasn’t entirely accurate. However, stopping to assess the problem really wasn’t an option. At that speed, my brakes are pretty much useless. The only way I was stopping was to hit something. Fortunately, that was avoided.

After the gruelling climb and the glorious descent, the road somewhat levelled off as I made my way towards the entrance to Manning Park. Before I arrived at said entrance though I stopped at the lone gas station with the hopes of refilling my water bottles. Those hopes were dashed when I learned the water wasn’t entirely potable. Hope was restored when I was told that Mule Deer (Provincial Park) campground was just 6 km away and had treated water.

I was tempted to stay at Mule Deer for the night but it was still early in the day and the early climbs meant I hadn’t covered very much ground. And so I pedalled on.

I passed a few more campgrounds along the way and even stopped at both the Manning Park Information Centre and the Manning Park Resort. The former indicated the next (and last) campground was Coldspring Campground (for $23), the latter had Mr. Freezes for sale (for $0.99). I won’t lie, the Mr. Freeze really hit the spot. Not to the level of a Wendy’s Frosty but beggars can’t be choosers.

The final stop of the day was in fact Coldspring Campground – partially because it seemed like a good time to stop and partially because it was the last place to stop, officially. I think it’s safe to say that my first impression of the campground was more than a little negative. Not because of the $23 price, but rather for what one receives for $23. In this case, it’s not water.

I was more than a little annoyed to find out that the well water at the site has a “Water Boil” advisory in place. Not exactly what a cyclist likes to see – especially a cyclist without any means of boiling water. Obviously I can appreciate the need for the advisory, I just can’t figure out why I wouldn’t have been told about the advisory back at the INFORMATION Centre. Call me crazy, but that seems like pretty important information.

In addition to not being able to boil water (in case you were wondering, I’m out of fuel for my alcohol stove and there’s also a campfire ban), I also neglected to bring a jackhammer with me. As such, staking down my tent was little more than a pipe dream as the gravel campsites seemed to be resting on concrete. Since the tent stakes are REALLY only needed to protect the tent’s inhabitant from the elements, I decided to put faith in the weather forecast which showed no signs of rain for the night. Spoiler Alert: It was an accurate forecast.

I was more than a little pleased that when the park ranger was making his money collecting rounds, he opted to bypass my site. Not sure if it was because he saw my mode of transportation, or if it looked like I wasn’t around. Either way, I’m sure he’ll be back in the morning. Of course, there’s probably a good chance I’ll be long gone by the time he returns.

Today’s totals: 69.50 km
Ride time: 4:11:57
Average speed: 16.55 km/h
Maximum speed: 63.48 km/h*

* Official recorded speed. As described earlier, I believe I may have surpassed this speed.