Day 8 High River to Calgary2008-06-22 Distance: 50 km (Dave 40) | Riding Time: 2 hrs 30 min (Dave 1:53) | Elevation: +54 m We got up around 8 AM and went down for breakfast. It was a DIY affair but they had a self-serve waffle maker, complete with portions of batter in cups. I had one, of course, to reminisce about our trip to Belgium this same time last year. Gina stuck with toast and fruit. After checking out, when we went to load the BOB I noticed the trailer fork had bent a little too much to secure it properly to Gina’s bike. Gina rode with the empty trailer across the highway to the Minute Muffler/Lube shop to see if they had a pair of pliers or some other tool to straighten out the fork. Gina was wearing her Dutch orange for game day (although as previously mentioned they lost to Russia) and this seemed to have helped, as the guy at the shop sounded as if his accent was Dutch and he fixed the trailer fork without any hassle. The trailer fixed, we packed up and headed over to Extra Foods to get some water and more energy bars for the road. While Gina went in, I stretched and then watched as a couple with a parrot pulled into parking lot, set the bird on the ground to do its business, then put it back in its cage and drove off.
We climbed the overpass and headed north on Highway 2 to get home. The condition of the shoulder on the northbound side was nowhere as good as the southbound shoulder had been leaving the city. This made many of the downhills very bumpy and a bit treacherous. After the Okotoks exit, I was climbing a small rise in front of Gina when my rear tire blew out with a very loud “bang”. So close to home before our first flat! We pulled over into a gravel drive and started to replace the tube. I noticed that besides the hole in the tube, there was a about a 5 cm tear in the tire itself. It wasn’t right through to the inside lining but to be safe we put a swatch of duct tape on the inside before putting in the new tube. One car pulled up to see if we needed any assistance but we were mostly finished so we thanked the driver and sent him on his way. The repair lasted about 45 minutes. We put in the second of the spare tubes and decided to switch the trailer to my bike as well, since we were past halfway home and Gina had towed it all morning. Twenty minutes later I was flying down a steep hill and came upon piles of loose pea gravel in the shoulder. I managed to slalom around the first few piles but then there was a large pile that spanned the shoulder. Since my only other option was to go over the rumble strip and out into the highway, I fish-tailed through it all and managed to make it out safely. I stopped and tried to signal to Gina to do the same before the loose gravel, as I was worried her skinny racing tires might cause her to wipe out, but I was too late and she had already made it through safely. After another 10 minutes or so my back tire was flat again but we had no more tubes. Since we were only about 18 km from home, we decided it would be easiest to leave me at the side of the road with all of the gear and let Gina ride the rest of the way to get the truck. Based on the distance, I figured I’d be there for about an hour. I didn’t want to look like I needed a rescue so I pulled out my journal and wrote about the previous day.
Forty-five minutes later, the first cyclist I had seen all day passed by. She said hello but she didn’t stop. A little while later, another lone cyclist stopped and she asked me if I needed anything. After thanking her and assuring her I was about to be rescued, she continued on. Then a motorcycle passed slowly by in the shoulder, followed soon after by another that sounded about to run out of gas. Both motorcycles stopped about 10 m past me and I watched in my helmet’s tiny rear-view mirror as the man and woman fiddled with the woman’s bike. I got up and the man and I approached each other. He asked if I was okay and after I told him my story of flats and imminent rescue, he asked if I had some kind of hose or container that he could use to transfer gasoline from his bike to his wife’s. I opened the BOB container and gave him one of our metal camping cups. He drained some of his gas into it and then poured it into her tank. It worked nicely. Gina pulled up on a side road across the ditch and began to load the BOB and my bike into our truck. The man thanked me and introduced himself as Darwin and then his wife, Stephanie. I said my name and Gina’s and we all shook hands and went our separate ways. Afterword: Gina said that in the interest of time, she took the C-Train from the Somerset-Bridlewood station to Southland and rode home from there. In the end, Gina cycled 502.2 km, while I did 492. Our total riding time was 26 hours, 3 minutes, with an average speed of 19.2 kph. If you have GoogleEarth, you can view the entire trip route by downloading this. Posted by: dave |
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Day 7 Vulcan to High River2008-06-21 Distance: 71.2 km | Riding Time: 4 hrs 22 min | Elevation: -20 m We got up at 7 AM and went back to Silverado’s. My French toast was passable but Gina left her egg and toast mostly unfinished. We started out early and although the Weather Network said winds SW 5 to S 5, they were actually more like NW20 so it looked to be another day of tough going. Luckily, the wind soon died down. There were no stops planned for this day until High River because there is really nothing on the way. Before we left Vulcan, we stopped at a gas station and bought water, Propel, Vector bars and more bug goo. The closer we got to home, the more mosquitoes there seemed to be in the ditches along the highway. The first leg north was mostly uphill. As we approached the turn, I spotted a service station but once we got up close we could see that it had been long closed. The second, longer leg, west was mostly downhill so we made some good time even though it was into a light west wind. Still, the huge ride of the previous day (longest ever for both of us) made our legs begin to burn. My calves were very tight and so I drank twice as much water as usual (I had been taking two sips every 5 km and at the top of big hills, adding another sip every 2.5 kms if it was very hot). Then my right quad got very sore. At stops Gina and I rubbed them, which helped a lot. We made it to High River by about 1:15 PM and decided on Joey’s Only for lunch. Melissa, our talkative server, was very pleasant and asked about our ride. Then she told us a story about her bike, which was stolen by a homeless person, whom she thought was just taking her bottles and cans for recycling. During lunch, my quad got very sore even though I had stretched it upon stopping. Gina looked very tired, so I suggested we stay in High River and not try to make it the rest of the way to Black Diamond. Gina agreed. Both the Ramada and a Super 8 were right across the street and both advertised hot tubs. We rode to the Super 8 first and peeked into the pool area window – closed for maintenance! We then tried the Ramada but couldn’t see inside the pool area, so I had to go inside. I asked about their hot tub/pool/waterslide and they said it was closed awaiting water testing (apparently the hotel had just opened). I asked if they had a place for our bikes and they did have a locked utility room adjacent to the front entrance. I went to tell Gina and when I returned to the front desk, another customer had phoned and was asking all the questions I would have. When I heard the price, I went back out to Gina and we decided to go back to the Super 8. Luckily enough, we got the last room (some cowboy/rodeo convention was in town) and they said we could just take our bikes right up to our room on the elevator. Gina had a nap while I went down to do some laundry so I had clothes in which to ride home the next day. I tried to get in a nap after the laundry but strangely failed. Gina called Laurie to tell her our change of plans, which it turned out was likely a good idea. Laurie said she had driven the Tongue Creek Road (connecting High River and Black Diamond) and said it was very hilly, narrow and with very little shoulder. We biked out to find a place to eat supper. Along the way, we found a nice bike path, which led us across the train tracks to the Beef & Brew. They easily recognized us as out-of-towners and gave us both the back corner table and a server on her first day of work. Going with the restaurant’s theme, we both ordered steak and beer. The steaks were past medium rare but still fairly good after another long day of riding. We rode back to the hotel and watched NUMB3RS before falling asleep. I had phoned the front desk to ask for an extra pillow, to which they had responded “they would see what they could do” but they never came by and never called back, so I blew up one of the inflatable pillows we had brought with us. I didn’t sleep too well but it was okay. Note, there are no pics or video today, which goes to show either our determination to get to Black Diamond or just how knackered we were. Posted by: dave |
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Day 6 Picture Butte to Vulcan via Carmangay2008-06-20 Distance: 91.3 km | Riding Time: 5 hrs 32 min | Elevation: +155 m This was going to be one of our longest days. The idea now was to get to Black Diamond in time for Dinner at the Bistro on Friday with Gina’s sister Laurie and brother-in-law John. This means we would have to do another 90+ kms tomorrow but first we would have to see if we could get through today.
The first leg was about 20 km into a brisk west wind. I had the trailer, so it was very slow going and we were averaging only about 12 kph! After the turn north, it got a bit easier. Gina also switched with me to have the trailer. The highway was in good shape and the scenery was beautiful. We stopped for lunch in Carmangay and the only restaurant we could find was at the Grange Hotel – and of course it turned out to be Chinese-Western. We had cheeseburgers and fries and Gina was scolded for putting her helmet on the table. After lunch, we bought some bottled water and a chocolate bar, then cycled across to some public land with a few trees. We set up the hammock and took 15 minutes each. There were a lot of mosquitoes in the grass so we had to spray each other with bug goo. After the nap, it was back onto the highway to continue north.
We reached Vulcan and quickly spotted the hotel Gina had found in the accommodation guide – the Wheatland. It’s close to the Trek Museum and the miniature (yet still large) replica of the Star Ship Enterprise, but we actually chose it because it’s easier to get the bikes into a motel room. We showered and rested, then walked across the highway to Silverado’s Family Restaurant. They were very pleasant but the food was not so: I had the meatloaf special and Gina had spaghetti. However, since it was so close to the motel, we figured we would get tomorrow’s breakfast there rather than look for something else. How badly could they screw up toast? After dinner and a walk back to the room, we quickly fell asleep listening to 1434. I think I might have caught 15 minutes or so. Posted by: dave |
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Day 5 Fort Macleod to Picture Butte via Coalhurst2008-06-19 Distance: 64.5 km | Riding Time: 3 hrs 9 min | Elevation: -45 m We slept in until 9 AM, made some more oatmeal and coffee and then packed up to go. The ride to Coalhurst, our lunch stop, was quite good. All we could get about the wind from the Weather Network for nearby Lethbridge was “calm”, which luckily it was. There was one killer hill about halfway to Lethbridge. Downhill into the valley, Gina hit 54 kph (with the trailer, I only hit 45) but the road levels out at the bottom long enough for one to lose all momentum before the ascent on the other side. This climb was the biggest so far; the rest has been mostly flat. We stopped at a pub in Coalhurst but they recommended we go across the street to – wait for it – the Chinese-Western place, as all they had at the pub was microwave crap much like the saloon in Granum. After a chicken club and Caesar salad, we went to leave. The woman at the restaurant asked where we were headed on our bikes. When we told her Picture Butte, she said that two houses there had burned down just the day before and a seven year old boy had been crushed to death by a Quonset hut door. I suggested to Gina that we phone the hotel to make sure we could get a room, since they might be full up if the families from the burned out homes were staying there. It was a good call, as we got the last room. As we pulled out of Coalhurst, the BOB's fender detached from the frame and began to rub against the tire. We couldn’t find the screw so we had to remove the fender and hope to find a new screw and washers in Picture Butte. When we arrived, I went to check in. It turned out the last room had no bathroom. There was a toilet across the hall and a shower just down the hall from that. There was also nowhere to put the bikes, so we locked them up to a light standard down the block. When we got up to the room, we found that it did at least have a sink. The television was the kind with only buttons to get to 13 channels and the picture was harshly angled inside the tube. Clearly, it had been dropped a few times.
After settling in at the hotel, we set off in search of a screw and washers to fix the BOB and to visit the local bakery, which purchases from Gina’s workplace. At the bakery, we had a treat and Gina introduced herself to the owner, with whom she had spoken to on the phone for years. When it was time to go, Gina mentioned we were off to find a screw and washers and the baker suggested we go across to the UAP Napa store. He was right: the guy there found us the perfect fit screw and washers and didn’t even charge us for them. After a good nap, we walked down to Cactus Pizza and Grill to get some dinner. Posted by: dave |
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Day 4 - Rest Day: Fort Macleod2008-06-18 Distance: 2 km | Riding Time: 0 hrs 5 min | Elevation: 0m This was our “rest day”. We stayed in Fort Macleod. While Gina slept in, I watched this really bad Lifetime movie 12 Hours to Live, which was shot in Langley, BC. Why, you ask? Because Ione Skye is in it. We made breakfast (Oatmeal and Coffee) in our room, watched the last half of Hear and Now – an interesting documentary – and then biked down to the Laundromat to clean our clothes. While we waited, I walked down to the historic Empress Theatre to see what was playing. Indy 4! Since we hadn’t seen it yet, Gina agreed that it would be okay to see it that night (it was also Cheap Tuesday). After taking the clean clothes back to our room, we cycled over to Macleod's Chicken & Pizza – the sports bar recommended by the server at Luigi's the night before – to watch the France/Italy group stage game in Euro 2008. We had nachos and onion rings for lunch, along with a few beers. Italy won 2-0, so France was eliminated but our #2 team, the Netherlands, are likely to go the distance and win so that’s okay. (Update: Russia beat the Netherlands in a stunner a few days later) Our server, Darcie, saw us looking at the map and asked us about our trip. We were trying to decide where to go next. Our next stop was supposed to be Cardston but Darcie told us that it was a dry town. We’re not alcoholics or anything but the thought of not being able to have a cold beer after riding 60 km made it easy for us to change our plans and head for Picture Butte. We had to go to the Fort Macleod library to make sure that Picture Butte had a place to stay. They let us use the Internet free, so we also checked our email. Picture Butte did indeed have a motel, which proves that not all places are listed in the AMA accommodation guide.
Afterwards, we went to the old Fort museum. It turned out to be a good day to take a break from riding, since the fort flag was flapping hard in a very strong wind. The museum was interesting and we got a few good shots, stills and video both. The video below shows the fort flag but also contains Gina’s handlebar mount camera test. After a rest back at the hotel, we walked to the Silver City restaurant (surprise! another Chinese-Western place – there is at least one even in the smallest Alberta towns) and had a huge dinner. Another person could have helped us to eat it – there was so much left over – but we didn’t have any way to take it to go. We crossed the street to the Empress to see the movie. I checked out the wall of photos of musicians who had played there (the Theatre also hosts live acts): Sarah McLachlan, Sarah Harmer and Natalie McMaster, to name a few. It’s a beautiful theatre in excellent condition. The movie started off okay but definitely went more than a bit overboard with silliness, even for Indiana Jones. (**SPOILER ALERT**) The scene with the monkeys and Indy Jr. swinging in the trees – what was that?! Too bad the ice cream shop down the street from the theatre was closed by the time the movie was over. Back at the motel, we listened to 1434 some more and then fell asleep. Posted by: dave |
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Day 3 – Granum to Fort Macleod via Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump2008-06-17 Distance: 63.4 km | Riding Time: 3 hrs 26 min | Elevation: -50 m The mattress last night was a little soft so I didn’t have the best sleep. Since we had to wait for the gas station to open at 8 AM to get some kind of breakfast, I listened to music on the ipod while Gina slept in. After getting our bikes out of the shed, we rode to the gas station where Gina managed to find a banana and some apple juice. Not the best breakfast before a 40 km ride (to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump) but it would have to do – at least the morning was beautiful with not too much wind.
The last few kilometers to Head-Smashed-In were quite a climb and the very last bit quite a slog – especially with the trailer – but we made it. We locked the bikes up in the lower parking lot and took the shuttle bus up to the interpretive centre.
As a building, the Centre is impressive – well-planned to fit into the landscape – but after all we had heard about HSI, we both felt it wasn’t as good as it could have been. However, the problem is the fact that the subject matter is a bit gruesome and I could see people complaining if they were to have too much of that on display. Still, it was very interesting and worth the visit.
Gina gave me heck after spending her last few coins on an ice cream treat, since she forgot she had been saving them for the shuttle bus driver. There was a sign in the bus that said it ran on donations. Another thing that made us not totally love the place was that it had no sense of being “green”, especially considering the ecological nature of the subject matter. I think that World Heritage Sites should have to be “green” certified. The downhill start back to the highway was very nice. I hit 50 kph at one point but Gina had the trailer and said she felt a bit wobbly. The topography and the slight tail wind got us in to Fort Macleod earlier than expected. Gina had found an accommodation guide at Head-Smashed-In, so we looked up Fort Macleod and found the only place with a hot tub – the Red Coat Inn, where it appears that some of the crew from Brokeback Mountain stayed. We found it easily and booked ourselves in for two nights (tomorrow would be a rest day). We unloaded the trailer into the room and then pedaled over to the store to get some cheap swimsuits for the hot tub and a few snacks. At Extra Foods, Gina asked the cashier where she might find a store with a bathing suit and the girl said that any suit Gina might find in town would be ugly. She repeated this a few times before telling us the name of a place after we assured her we didn’t care what they looked like. After a shower and a change of clothes, we headed out to dinner, stopping by the hot tub to check it out. Closed! There was a sign that said the heater was broken and that they were waiting for a contractor to fix it. Too bad. Dinner at Luigi’s was excellent – a great Caesar salad and Chef’s Special pizza. Posted by: dave |
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Day 2 – Nanton to Granum via Claresholm2008-06-16 Distance: 63.5 km | Riding Time: 3 hrs 3 min | Elevation: -30 m A good night’s rest, then a repack and we were off to find something to eat for breakfast. We cycled over to the Humpty’s on the south side of town. I ordered French toast, coffee and a big glass of O.J. while Gina had eggs and toast, which she didn’t eat very much of. We’re too spoiled at home with the organic eggs that actually have deep-orange yolks unlike these, which were barely yellow. Also, Gina said her toast was soggy as if it had been dunked in butter.
After breakfast, we headed for our planned lunch stop in Claresholm. However, by the time we reached Stavely, Gina needed a bathroom stop. I tried to put on the ipod for the first time in the trip (the plan was whoever has the trailer gets the ipod) but it was just flashing me the apple. I tried to reset it but it was acting very strangely. We figured the jarring ride in Gina’s shell atop the BOB container might have made it angry, so we put it away in the hopes that trying a reboot later while it was plugged in would bring it back to life. It was a fantastic day – blue sky and not too hot, with a good tail wind as well. We made it to Claresholm and found a great place for lunch: Roys. Gina’s grilled cheese was made with real cheese – not processed – and my egg-salad sandwich was excellent. The salads they came with were really good as well.
After lunch, we went across to a rest area Gina had spotted a sign for and set up the hammock. I initially thought it was crazy to pack the hammock (which was a gift to Gina from her sisters Cathie and Laurie from their trip to Cartagena) but it turned out to be a great way to get naps along the way.
Gina had a nap first while I took some video, a few pictures and wrote about Day One. After my 15 minutes, we packed up and headed for Granum. The town of Granum is quite small. We knew it had a hotel but – as Gina said – they put the dog in "one-dog town". We got a room and the people were kind enough to let us park the bikes in their shed and give us some hot water to make one of our "astronaut" dinners, since there is no place to eat in Granum. The bar attached to the hotel only had 7-11 style microwave burgers, etc. The bartender/server, who appeared to be studying for her Social 30 exam, stared at us blankly when we asked her if they had any Big Rock beer, then blinked like Homer Simpson when I asked if they had any dark beer. After she rattled off the usual list of less-than-ideal lagers, I settled on Corona and Gina asked if they had Keith's – which it turned out they did. Before bed we watched Four Weddings and Funeral and then listened to the beginning of 1434 by Gavin Menzies on the ipod, which we managed to resuscitate after plugging it in and letting it charge (although Gina assures me it was charged when we left the house). Posted by: dave |
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Cycling Southern Alberta – Vacation June 14 to 21, 20082008-06-15 Introduction Our initial plan was to head south from Calgary to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, stopping along the way to either camp or motel it, depending on what was available. The loop there and back would be about 960 km and we figured the entire trip including rest days would take about 13 days. We purchased a BOB (a bike trailer), extra tubes for both bikes and some emergency items, including reflective sashes for us and a small one for the BOB, as well as a few of those freeze-dried meals some people refer to as “astronaut food”. In case either one of us couldn’t make it, we also had a back-up plan to be rescued by Gina’s sister Anne. I had no doubts Gina would be fine but I wasn’t sure if my hip-replacement and/or my Ankylosing Spondilitis would prevent me from going the distance. That and I smoked for 20 years and although I quit some 10 years ago, I don’t exactly have what you would call fresh lungs. At home, we had Adrian to attend to the fish and the cat and my mom to visit Sonnet so she didn’t go crazy. Last year when we went to Europe for three weeks, Sonnet missed us terribly and acted strangely for weeks after our return. The fish didn’t appear to have noticed our absence. Day 1 – Calgary to Nanton via High River While Gina had done a lot of planning beforehand, including mapping out the loop using GoogleEarth and finding us campgrounds, etc., she had not actually tried hooking the trailer up to her new bike. I had, but not with all of the weight we hoped to carry. The night before our departure, Gina weighed everything that was supposed to go on the BOB and it came out at almost exactly 70lbs, which is the maximum payload suggested by the manufacturer. Further, the load was about 2 inches taller than the maximum suggested height, which affects centre of gravity and therefore handling. Once we put this load on the BOB and hooked up the trailer, however, Gina’s small, light bike (a 2007 Jamis Quest) was nearly impossible for her to steer. I got her first few meters on tape but missed her tipping over after she disappeared behind the hedge (but the audio is still there). I tried the fully-loaded trailer on my bike (a 2007 Jamis Commuter) and while I could control it fairly easily, we decided the trip would not be fun if I had to tow it the whole time. So we jettisoned much of the gear – mainly the heavy tent and air mattress – and decided to continue with much the same plan except we would be staying in motels each night.
By the time all this to-do was over (Gina’s sister Cathie, who was visiting, helped Gina re-pack the smaller container that rode aboard the BOB), it was noon. We left anyway, knowing it should only take until about suppertime to get to our first planned destination, Nanton. I had the feeling Cathie seemed sure we would likely be back in our own warm beds that same evening. After climbing several small hills to get out of the city, we made it to High River for lunch around 3 PM. Gina had a clubhouse sandwich and I had a chicken breast burger at the friendly (our server offered to refill our water bottles) Pioneer Family Restaurant. From High River we phoned 411 for Nanton and asked for a hotel – any hotel. There were listings for four, so I chose the Ranchlands Inn. I told the guy on the phone that we would likely be there after 6 PM; however, we made it there by ten minutes to six. While riding around Nanton looking for the hotel, we found the Auditorium – the first hotel the 411 Operator had mentioned – which actually looked quite nice. Further up the road we found the Ranchlands and it turned out to the be the same motel I had stayed in during my time at SAIT when we were shooting a documentary about the Nanton Air Museum. The place hadn’t changed at all! We brought the bikes right into our room. After a shower and a short nap, we walked across the highway to Ken’s – the same Chinese restaurant we had eaten at while shooting the doc all those years before. Excellent Ginger Beef!
After dinner we walked to the grain elevators to shoot a video blog. Posted by: dave |
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The Expedition2008-06-14 Here we go. Dave and I are taking our first fully human powered trip. We're starting off small - riding down to Writing on Stone and back - camping along the way. Total trip will be around 900 kms. I hope the weather co-operates. Posted by: gina |
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The upside of global warming??2008-01-13 Off for another ride - second weekend in a row at the beginning of January. Today we did the WID which was about 60% clear with some challenging snowy sections - we each had a few close calls but nobody bailed. There were quite a few dog walkers out - and fecal evidence of several more. Note to dog owners - just because it's winter doesn't mean you don't have to pick up after the little bastards. Also you may think your dog is smart but it's not. One little Maltese had a couple of near death experiences first with me, then Al. Tough to stop on snow but we both managed to. Total ride was just under 38 kms we started at the Glenmore Inn and made a brief excursion into the wasteland that is Chestermere in the vain hope of a Starbucks or something with a loo. Weather was fantastic - I think it was the calmest I've ever experienced out there. A fun time had by all.
Posted by: gina |
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