After an extraordinary home style breakfast at the Ward Tea House, cooked by the lovely Kerry with eggs laid by her own chickens, and home made blueberry and strawberry jams to go on the home made bread (yum!), I saddled up for the next stage from Yale to Lytton.
This was going to be a big one. 95km and some fairly serious hills in between. I was in the Fraser Canyon proper now, with rearing walls on either side and the Fraser River churning away below me. The road shoulder varied a lot, sometimes quite generous, sometimes fairly tight, and I was glad that we had the foresight to attach some serious tail lights and a rear-view mirror to alert of approaching traffic. Most of the drivers were pretty considerate and maintained a reasonable distance.
Shortly out of Yale and I experienced the first tunnel. With no traffic visible in either direction I chose to blast through it without using the 'sidewalk' on the other side of the road. Upon reflection I thought that was probably intended for my safety and determined to use the sidewalk from that point on, even if it meant crossing to the 'wrong' side of the road with little idea of whether there was traffic coming.
It turned out there were 7 of those tunnels on the way up to, and through, Hells Gate - named for a constriction on the River, rather than any reflection of the quality of the roads.
The scenery was amazing. Some stiff climbs meant that we were making good elevation and could look back down the valley.
It was another hot day though ... temperatures ranging up to about 29C. I'm not sure what happened to all of that mountain 'coldness' but we certainly aren't getting it here.
The other fascinating thing was the tunnels. The Keeper of the Roads in BC has obviously decided that it isn't safe for bicycles to travel on the road through tunnels, so they have thoughtfully built slightly elevated sidewalks through each tunnel to allow us to pass safely. There is only one small problem. At each end of every tunnel they have placed a hazard sign right in the middle of the sidewalk, meaning you have to either get off your bike and wind the handlbars around the sign, or else ride onto the road to avoid it.
It's called Civil Engineering, they tell me.
By the time I got to Boston Bar I was starting to feel a little dehydrated and had no idea where Helen and Rachel were in the car. I had been using the Strava app to track my location, and it has a handy 'beacon' function that allows you to send a tracking link to your 'emergency contacts', allowing them to spy on your every turn. Unfortunately, that only works when they have access to internet and when you are not so deeply embedded in the midst of tall mountains that no signal can get in or out. It seems that they had been waiting at the Hell's Gate Cable Car when I blasted past down the hill into Boston Bar.
I had already quaffed an ice-cream and chugged a large orange soda before they caught up with me. Cold ... Nice!
Having lunch at Boston Bar we met a fascinating young local called Mitchell James, a young First Nations guy with an interesting turn of phrase and skinful of beer who came sliding in sideways on his BMX bike. He shared lunch with us whilst telling stories about the local fishing, mushrooms, customs, and the like. He also looked at me kind of funny when I said where I was going, commenting that I would be riding over Jack Ass Mountain between there and Lytton ... and good luck with that!
Well Jack Ass Mountain was all that and more. 10% plus gradient for kilometers without letting up, it even seemed like it got worse toward the end. Perhaps that's the origin of the name. I was rapidly using up my liquid supplies - still stinking hot and lowest gear climbing is a magical combination.
The girls had blasted on through to Lytton to check out camping sites for the night, and then came back with some much needed refreshments. I was near the top they said, and the rest was a fairly cruisy ride down past Lytton to the Provincial Park campsite they had chosen.
I arrived there and spent the next hour or so lying on a plastic tarp (trying to recover) whilst the campsite magically took form around me. These girls are amazing. I'm going to miss them when they head off to Calgary tomorrow.
Checking over the bike I noticed that I had managed to break two spokes, and that before the bike was fully loaded with gear. Not a great start. Looks like we will be detouring (68km) to Merritt, to the only bike store in the area, to get that sorted.
Our Plan B for tomorrow is that Helen will drive me and the gear to Merritt to get the bike fixed, and I will ride up the 5A directly to Kamloops. It will be a late start and a long day - my first 'fully loaded' leg.
Should be interesting!
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