We started off very early today, 7am, to beat the heat. We had 100km to ride with a quite big climb at the end of the ride. The temperature was predicted to reach 40 degrees Celcius so that worried us quite a bit. Carrying extra water, we set off. It was a gorgeous ride.
I never knew that this part of Canada was so dry and desert-y. Rolling hills spotted with herds of cattle surrounded bright, shimmering lakes. I swear, it looked like the set of a movie. I was only yelled at once for taking a Snapchat story mid-ride.
Around 20km in we stopped at Quilchena, a small ‘town’ with a general store and gas station. It was around 9am but we still decided to get food as there were no other stops along 5A, which is the highway we were taking the whole way. After leaving, we cycled for a good three more hours until we reached a huge, huge hill. It was a 10% grade for probably 4-5km (I think, I have no idea about the distance). It was hard, but we made it. The rest of the ride was totally downhill at around the same grade and we got into town around 1pm. We made pretty good time but were more happy that we beat the heat.
We saw a real live cowboy today, which, no shocker, way pretty cool. He was heading some cows on the road in front of us with his dog, and we had to get off of our bikes and wait for a few minutes. No need to go to the Stampede while we’re in Calgary, we’ve now seen it all!
After getting to the motel we showered and decided to explore the big city of Kamloops. The Go-Pro mount has already broken a little bit so I got some parts to fix it, we shall test it out tomorrow, on our rest day!! We also went to go see a movie. Getting up after the movie was so incredibly painful. I’ve never really been sore from biking, as it’s such a low impact sport, but I could really feel it today. It must be from all the days back to back.
The only real soreness I’ve felt whilst riding is, of course, my bottom, and surprisingly enough, my hand have been so incredibly painful. I think I really need to work on how I position my weight. When we’re done riding the past couple days I could barely touch them without it being so incredibly painful. We will see if we can adjust the bike in any way too.
Tomorrow’s a rest day so we’re just going to try to relax and recuperate as the next week of riding is probably going to be the hardest week of our lives. We will have to conquer the Rockies, including Roger’s Pass in 30+ degree heat. Sounds like a blast!!
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