Just a bit about the tour -- I'm riding in the 23rd annual Tour du Canada, which is put on by a touring company, cycle Canada. There are 38 of us riding, most of us from Canada, but also a strong contingent from Australia and a few people from France, USA and the UK. Our campsites are all arranged, food is purchased and drivers carry our baggage, but the riders do the cooking and cleaning. The route is pre-planned and each day we're provided a rudimentary map and detailed instructions, and we're on our own to find our way, stopping to sight-see and puddle around as we please!
I got to Vancouver last weekend and the trip started on the best possible note - I was flying from Toronto to Vancouver and was expecting the worst since I was traveling with Air Canada in the midst of their strike or whatever. Turned out that a former roommate of mine was working at the gate I was leaving from, and I ended up getting a first-class upgrade, so I traveled to Vancouver with absolute style. Must say I felt a bit out of place, though, in my t-shirt, shorts and running shoes amongst the business-type people that filled out the cabin!
Spent a few days just chilling in Vancouver and enjoying the favorable East-to-West time change. Got my bike put back together and spent a day just riding around Vancouver... started in the UBC area, but saw a bit of the downtown and rode around Stanley Park. I was amazed with how active the city was -- it was a fairly grey day, but I saw a ton of people biking, running, swimming, just being outdoors. I was also able to catch up with my friends Ty and Ali from undergrad. Though I had proposed a chill drink or dinner, we ended up climbing Grouse Mountain. Pretty exhilarating at the top though the views were masked by low-lying clouds. Something satisfying about being able to say you climbed a mountain on your rest day!
Ty and I midway through the Grouse Grind
After the first couple days, other riders started filtering into UBC and I've done surprisingly well at remembering names. There's a good mix of ages -- the average age I would say is in the 40s, although there are very few people actually of the age. The distribution is pretty bi-modal with a lot of university age students, and a lot of retirees.
Alright - to the riding! The first couple days of riding were the "Mile 0" rides from Vancouver to Victoria and back. Weather was absolutely perfect and the scenery was great. The days were unfortunately a bit choppy riding-wise, since we needed to take a shuttle underneath the Fraser River, and then a ferry to Vancouver Island and both of those involved quite a bit of waiting. The trip was worth the wait! The islands were stunning on the ferry ride, and we also saw some orcas. Vancouver Island was beautiful, the houses were amazing (and surely very pricey) and Victoria was a nice city, somewhere I'd definitely visit again in the future. Of course, we had to go down to the beach and get the obligatory wheel-dip photo in the Pacific, as well as a photo at the Mile 0 marker. The two days of riding were a really nice warm-up - not too hilly, easy pace.
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| The tire dip |
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| The mile 0 crew |
After the Mile 0 ride was a full Orientation day which was, in a word, long. But it's over. Bought some last-minute supplies at MEC and get ready for the ride to start in full. The first day of riding was Vancouver to Mission, and despite a sunny start to the day, the weather was rainy and chilly for much of our ride. Getting out of Vancouver was tricky with the traffic, but the rest of the ride was really smooth and relatively flat -- something I'm not planning to get used to over the next couple weeks! We spent the night in a park near Mission, where the owners were kind enough to let us sleep indoors in the rec centre. The downside was that the sleep was about as restful as it could be sleeping on the floor with 30 others indoors, but at least it was dry!
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| Vancouver |
The next day we started seeing some mountains, and again the weather was rainy and chilly. Quite the change in scenery and riding from rural Southwestern Ontario! Unfortunately with the fog, we couldn't see to the tops of the mountains, although I thought the low-lying clouds/mist amongst the mountains was really cool. We rode along the Fraser River most of the day and up some decent hills, which made me very thankful that I'd actually done some training before the trip (no hills, but I think the country wind helped!). Went through the town of Hope, and had one short but very steep (apparently 19% grade at points) climb to get to our campsite. Spent the evening eating and did a quick walk to the Othello Tunnels, which were formerly tunnels for a trainline, and realized just how beautiful BC is along the way.
Finally, we left the campsite and rode to Merritt yesterday. This was our longest day of riding yet and definitely the most challenging, but we finally had a day of warm, sunny weather to enjoy along the way. Started off with a bit of flat riding, but about 20 km in we started the climb over the Coquihalla pass (1244 m elevation). We had about 20 km of riding with a fairly decent slope until we got to the peak, but the views were stunning along the way! It was really cool to be riding along and feeling warm, but still seeing snow at the same level along with the snow-capped mountains. Took a well-deserved break at the peak to take in the beautiful scenery (and some people apparently saw some bears!), and then rode along to Merritt. The rest of the ride was net downhill and mostly rolling hills, although the climbing definitely sticks out more than the descents. However I must say the highlight of the day was a 4 km descent down a fairly steep grade - it was so exhilarating to coast at about 60 km/h for a few minutes without even pedaling! The terrain changed drastically as we got closer to Merritt, with the evergreen, rocky, snow-capped mountains shifting to agricultural, rolling, more arid terrain. After a brief dog-chasing scare (with the idiot owner just standing there watching), we made it to Merritt (the country music capital of Canada, or the world, I can't remember). Chilled out at camp, had a full round of introductions and brief speeches by all of the riders, and enjoyed a couple drinks at the local bar to round off the night!
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| Starting the Climb... |
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| The summit! |
The trip goes until September 3 and I'll be trying to update more often (as internet access allows) so I'm not writing a novel each time I update. Also, I'll try for a higher pictures-to-words ratio as well!
Thanks for reading, and hope everyone is having a great summer so far!
Riding Distance - Mile 0 to Day 3: 5 days, 471 km
