Woke up to temps just above freezing, but the sun was shining and it warmed up quickly. Ritchie got a big lead on us and it took quite a while to catch him. Absolutely amazing scenery around every turn. Lots of WOW's!
The several Avalanche Tunnels were a concern to Ritchie as they can be narrow at times.
Here's the after effects of a few avalanches.
Ritchie stopped earlier to take a scenery shot when something stirred in the ditch. It was a bear cub! Needless to say, no picture was taken and he moved on quickly. On some of the downhill sections he was hitting 70 kph!
Caroline joined back up today and her knee held up.
There they are on the right side, down the road. Look at their view!
I could include 100 different pictures today. The Rockies, especially to an Easterner are just overwhelming!
We are camping at the Golden Municipal Camprounds tonight. Another nice spot with an outstanding view.
A short video of our site.
We were just across the street from the Golden Pool Complex. Lynn and I got in our laps. The pool was huge and water warm. A beautiful facility with outstanding views of the mountains. The deep end was 11 feet. Lynn had never been in a pool over her head before.
After our swim the four of us enjoyed a great dinner at The Wolf's Den.
We took the trail back to our campsite.
Ritchie and I watched game 7 of the Ottawa series in a very comfortable setting.
The end of another great day. We went through a time zone today and tomorrow will cross into Alberta. Thank you B.C. you have been wonderful and amazing and have left us with many great memories.
Today is a scheduled rest day for Ritchie & Caroline.
In six days Ritchie has ridden 712 kms and climbed 6400m. Caroline has ridden four days and done an impressive 346kms and 1860m. She developed a knee issue yesterday and could not ride. It is getting better with rest, icing and those Canyon Springs mineral waters and she plans to ride tomorrow.
I forgot to mention one of Ritchie's experiences yesterday.
Here it is in his words:
Yesterday on a descent out of Revelstoke, I was relishing the respite from the heat and not thinking of much, when a black bear bounded across the highway within 75m of me (and I’m closing quick), I sat up and said “Holy F…irecracker” out loud! He was close enough that I could see the shape of his paws, that he was all black, nice and fat and that he was a pro at jumping barriers which he did with ease. He was probably thinking—“holy f…ireracker, here comes a damn human on a bike!”.
Today we just chilled, had a slow morning and enjoyed a close game of scrabble. And then the creativity started........
We spent a couple of restful hours in the hot springs pool and hot tub and came out feeling very refreshed.
I'm going to miss seeing these guys (Rufous Hummingbirds). They're all over the place.
Do you suppose these trees were planted all around the old building when it was built?
The planning has worked out fantastic. We have enjoyed sunny warm days on the start of this journey. It was in the 80's yesterday, but dropped into the 30's and low 40's today. There were snow squalls warnings for the highways. We could see snow forming on the trees up on the mountain.
We are located not far from railroad tracks and actually enjoy hearing the trains climb and descend the hill. One came through faster than the others and when we looked up realized it was the Rocky Mountaineer!!
Ritchie took a turn at chef tonight (he used to own a Greek Restaurant). We were having hotdogs. It turned into a gourmet meal!
What a great day to schedule a rest day!
Temperatures are to start improving as we proceed through the week, Thank You Mother Nature!
What a fabulous day! (actually, all the days have been fabulous). We needed an early start because of the weather (heat....can you believe it). We decided to try Joe Schmuck's Roadhouse on a recommendation from others. It was excellent.
My girl got a little bit "frisky" there!
This is Bruce & Colleen, great down to earth folks. We wish we could have spent more time with them.
The downside to today was that Caroline woke up in the night with a sore knee, she was planning on riding today, but wisely took the day off).
We did the normal routine of Ritchie getting on the road while we readied the RV for departure. It's always amazing how far he gets before we head out.
One of the places I have wanted to go since I was a kid was Craigellachie, location of the Last Spike, (probably because it contained my surname). We pulled into the site and who was there to greet us?? Our caped crusader (okay, no cape)!
That's it right there!!
We drove ahead and pulled over at this scenic spot with the Chateau Three Valley Gap Hotel across the lake. We waited for Ritchie for his fuel stop . If you look closely you can see the whitecaps on the lake. Unfortunately, Ritchie was heading into this wind.
Next stop was Revelstoke for supplies. We were greeted by this big boy (and girls).
What a beautiful and scenic town (damn the stoplight! I need photoshop!)
The stretch goal today was Canyon Hot Springs. We booked a site in the RV camp there. How do you like our view?
We enjoyed a great swim in the Hot Springs Pool (84ºF) and the smaller pool (108ºF)!
Wave to the girls!
The pool did wonders for Caroline's knee. Tomorrow is a rest day which should also help. What a great place to rest and rejuvenate!
Today's Ride.
Ritchie has now ridden 712 km since starting! (almost what I ride in a year😐).
He has ascended 6400 M or over 19,000 ft.....or almost 4 miles)!
WOW!!
And.......... he is slightly ahead of schedule!
And..........we are having a GREAT time!!!
We started the day with an energy packed breakfast from with Karen and Dennis Gobin. It would have been great to stay longer, but with temperatures approaching the 80's ºF (27ºC for younger folk), it was important to get an early start. Thanks for your hospitality and your generous donation!
It has been unseasonably warm the last few days, probably helping to contribute to the flood conditions (they had snow last week!) that we've seen.
We had some amazing views of Shuswap Lake!
With Caroline taking a well deserved day off, we caught up with Ritchie in Sorrento.
The drive was magnificent! So much beautiful geography.
We made it past Salmon Arm to the stretch goal of Sicamous (135.2 km).
We booked a campsite at "Joe Schmuck's Roadhouse, Hotel and Campground" and kept our fingers crossed!😊 It turned out to be a really nice spot with only 7 RV spots and 8 camping spots. We were all set up before Ritchie arrived. His Arrival
Once we were all settled in, Lynn and I made our way downtown. Sicamous is a small Tourist town. There are lots of watersports and a lot of snowmobiling in the winter. This is the old Main St. The bridge was removed from this street and a larger bypass one built.
Shuswap Lake is the HouseBoat Capital of the World! You can see about 50 of them here in this harbour and this is just one of many!
Check out the slide at the rear of this large one. Also note the lady with the paddle board in the foreground with her Golden Retriever lying at her feet!!
It was very hot, so Lynn and I stopped at "Licks & Splits Ice Cream". This is a Tiger flavour soft ice cream, mixed with a sampling of crushed Kit Kat! Very satisfying! Not sure what Lynn is doing with "MY" cup!!
Here is a daily routine. Once Ritchie completes his ride for the day, he stretches, showers, changes and re-energizes (feeds his body - he burns ~3000 Calories each day), and then starts planning for the next day(s). He is looking at weather, distance, elevation, how he's feeling (Great so far), road conditions and also strategizing what the next few days will look like.
We have some great neighbours (Bruce and Colleen) from Alberta. They were kind enough to show us through their beautiful Winnebago Grand Tour. What a machine!!
They were also kind enough to make a significant donation to Honour House!! Thank You!
After a great dinner that Lynn made, we had our first campfire! What a beautiful night for sitting out! We've been extremely fortunate weatherize, but this weather won't last forever!
