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Bill, Dale & John …
the 3 vets starting out! |
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After a long ascent,
the celebratory photo. |
At our team meeting last night a group of decided to start earlier to get in more cool and less windy riding. If I had been on my own I would have started at 5:30 or 6 am as an 185 km day deserves an early start and you know it is going to be hot in Osoyoos and that the winds will arise. But breakfast wasn't available until 7 so we aimed for a 7:30 start. I headed out with John Fetttjes and Dale Staples, all of us vets, one in his fifties, me in between and John at 73. We soon passed the other early starters and had the road to ourselves. It was gorgeous cool and fast riding as we descend with the Similkameen through sub alpine Manning Park terrain. Excellent roads and an easy 33 pace on a one percent favourable grade. All good things must come to an end as we finally left the river to climb to Sunday Summit which is about a 275 metre climb. John and I made the summit and after obligatory photos at the summit we carried on and after traversing Saturday Creek we came to our first major descent of the day at "Mine Hill" above Princeton. It was a lovely swoop until we came upon a laden semi with lights flashing and just entering the big sweeping curve at the bottom. Thoughts of passing the truck faded as safety kicked in, particularly after yesterday's fright, and we settled in behind the truck until it picked up speed as the grade levelled off and we were back on our own. In Princeton I enticed John into stopping at the DQ as I had a need for an ice cream cone. A tourist chanced upon us and ended up donating 50 bucks.
From Princeton a group of us moved on in a pace line again in a favourable grade beside the Simikameen River, now much enlarged from the creek we had been sitting in the day before, until our rest stop at Bromley Rock, At the stop I took the opportunity to wade into the river and cool my legs. I find it really helps against cramping later on. At Bromley rock Joan Swain joined John and me and we had a 3 person pace line all the way to lunch at Keremeos. The up valley wind picked up significantly against us and it became a much harder ride even though favourable grade. Also the terrain becomes much more rolling.
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Bill & Kim prepping
for the afternoon ride. |
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near Cawston
entering wine country |
Lunch in Keremeos meant we had cycled 135 km with 50 left to go. Seemed easy enough except for a group of steep rollers, one Richter Pass and rather nasty headwinds that were bending the signs. I waited for Kim Shaw from our 65for65Roses team as it was her first time doing this and she was struggling a bit and came in last to lunch. Five of us set off from Keremeos and Kim was game but the wind and the sun was fierce and when we did finally arrive at Nighthawk Junction where we parted with the Similkameen and start climbing Kim decided a short hop on the sag wagon was in order to avoid total heat exhaustion. That left Tamaki, Jan, Paula and I to finish off the climb as the last group of the day the day as we had done a fair amount of waiting earlier. The descent into Osoyoos was anti climatic as even bent over the handlebars I could not reach 50 km/hour with the wind. Steep descent but no braking necessary! We arrived at the Poplars Hotel which is beachside at about 5:30 and the best part was parking the bike on the grass and walking straight into the lake (after first shedding the electronic bits on my body). A few beer later and I was a new man. The Kinsmen supplied a great dinner and a local Cystic Fibrosis person, Ruby Lou's grand mom helped to make this day that much more memorable. It is now 6:45 Tuesday morning, the wind is blowing and it looks like rain. Anarchist Mountain awaits us, looming as it does behind the motel but that will be tomorrow's tale.
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| The big sweep into Osoyoos |
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The local Kin group provided a BBQ dinner
at the Poplar Motel on the shores of the lake … so beautiful |
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