Pierre the Dream Walker

Regina, Saskatchewan

The prairies are deep.  The winters are like a deep freeze and the summers like a deep fryer.  But, having said that, they do have a beauty of their own.   Today I rode past immense canola fields that stretched as far as the eye could see.  Perfect oil for deep-frying.

Perhaps I am not getting enough carbs…

As I rode today I kept thinking over and over again just how large Canada is.   That was probably a function of being able to see to the horizon in all four directions.  It truly was awe-inspiring.

And fatiguing.

You ride and ride and you could swear that that stalk of wheat is the same one you have been seeing all day. The horizon is no closer and it appears not to have changed.  On the other hand, I could see Regina on the horizon when I was fifteen kilometers away.

Today I saw a cyclist ahead of me who appeared to be heavily loaded.  As I caught up to him I realized that he was walking and pushing a baby stroller.    His name was Pierre from Quebec and he was walking across the county starting from Tofino. In the baby stroller were his possessions. He had already walked from Vancouver to Acapulco, Mexico and from there to Quito, Ecuador.  This was his fourth time across Canada.   We chatted for quite a while and I asked him if he was doing it for charity but he said no, that he had gotten his pension and this is what he liked to do.   He did not want to go into Regina because there were too many people.  That got me to thinking that he would have to be very comfortable with his own company to walk those distances alone.  He seemed eager to chat and he told me he was writing book called “The Dream Walker” and he wanted to know my name.  As I left, I told him I hoped to see him in St.John’s. He smiled and agreed.   I kind of think of him as mobile hermit with a hint of Forrest Gump.

After all the cyclists I had seen riding across the country and Pierre the walker it made me wonder what it was about Canada that made so many people want to do this pilgrimage.

Once we got to Regina I took Telen on a little tour of my old stomping grounds.   We went by the house I lived in back in the 60’s and my old high school.  The house had changed considerably but the school almost not at all.   Weird.  Mind you, that was the 60’s, so according to the old saw that “if you remember the 60’s, you weren’t there…” perhaps my memory may be faulty.

Telen spent part of day checking out Moose Jaw and decided that she could have enjoyed herself more watching the Canola grow.  She passed me on the road and pulled over to give me an ice-cold Coca Cola.  Sinful, but soooooo wonderful!  That woman is a mistress of temptation...  

Let Pierre walk by himself, I’ll take the sins and temptations!

Canola fields as far as you can see

Re-evaluation

Swift Current, Saskatchewan

We are currently sitting in a B&B in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.   I have had to re-evaluate my whole idea of this ride across Canada.   I am going to have to ride parts of Canada.  It has taken me a while to get here.   I rationalized having to drive through BC to Calgary by saying that I had already ridden that bit.  From Calgary on, though, I would have to ride EFC.   For those of you who are not familiar with the term EFC is mean Every F Centimeter.  You can supply your own word for the F part. 

My ride down the Crowchild trail at 80 kph being chased by rabid Albertans did give me pause at riding in cities that are not bicycle-friendly.   Calgary is more bicycle-hostile.  So I will probably not ride through any cities of any size.  I did ride to Drumheller and I also rode to Brooks Alberta.   Both of which were very pleasant rides in spite of the winds but I found that my sojourn from riding did a number on my fitness.   I could do the distance but it cost.

Change of plan!   Time to think with my head not my pride.   My pride is currently huddling broken and weeping under a stone somewhere.  My disappointment is sitting in my heart and systematically leaching poison into my system.  My brain is going to have to take up the slack.   That is a lot to expect for an under-performing lump of fat.

Time to enjoy myself with my lovely and patient wife seeing the sights that Canada has to offer.   Ride when I can for a distance that I can manage without bonking (for those of you who do not know bicycle jargon- bonking does not mean trying to have sex while riding the bicycle).  Enjoy seeing the country from a bicycle and a car.  Share my joys at seeing the country with Telen and not be so selfish and miserable because I could not ride.  

I think I am there.   Seeing other cyclists on the road still stirs a little evil feeling of jealousy and inadequacy but I am getting over it.  Tomorrow we drive to Moose Jaw and I will ride to Regina.  

I can handle that. 

  lunch break on the prairies!

Drumheller

Drumheller, Alberta

After spending a week enjoying the most gracious hospitality at my sister Holly and her husband Jim’s place in Calgary I felt I had recovered enough to get back on the bike and head off into uncharted territory.   Up to now all the area was known to us and it was really a matter of remembering rather than discovering.  Now I was going to ride in an area of Canada I did not know.   To discover strange new worlds and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before!  

How geeky is that!

I started off in mild drizzle and cool temperatures dressed in all my winter riding gear.   I thought this was July!  However, since this was the prairies I could see clear skies coming.  That is the nice thing about prairies – you don’t need weather forecasts- you can see the whole next week’s worth of weather as it approaches.  

After about 50k or so I started riding eastward and the sky cleared and the wind turned up and started blowing from the southeast.   This is the prairies and you can expect wind.  Not like this you can’t!  It kept increasing exponentially until I was down to 18 kph and struggling to keep it there.  Being as the wind was coming from the southeast it also wanted me to turn into the traffic.  Wobble, wobble, curse, curse.  Then to make matters worse as I was coming down the long winding road into Drumheller the wind got funneled by the hills into a furious crosswind that nearly dumped me.   So I got off the bike and walked until I was out of the wind tunnel.  Now that was embarrassing!   Now, I apologized to Mother Nature many times for my earlier slights and, if necessary, I will apologize further.   But really, enough is enough! 

Up until now the worst pests have been a few mosquitoes, a bear or two and possibly some Albertans with their hats on backwards.  In Drumheller they have dinosaurs.   And they don’t look well fed, either.  I expect to leave here tomorrow with an Albertasaurus or some other large carnivore doing the Jurassic Park thingy behind me.   I keep a glass of water on the table at all times and watch it regularly for unexplained ripples.

Telen has been trying to fill me up with all kinds of great meals.   I am hoping that I will not gain weight rather than losing it on this trip.   Nothing like finishing a grueling day of riding to a wonderfully prepared meal.   I feel like a professional cyclist!   Except for the 18 kph ride, of course.

Telen writes:

The prairies certainly have a beauty of its own.  The mornings tend to be calm, the wind then picks up by noon.  We had a 1 hour tour on the Seven Wonders of the Badlands today at the Royal Tyrell Museum.  The wind was really gusty.  Sand kept being blown into my eyes.  I then appreciated the struggle that Rand had with the wind yesterday riding the last 40 km into Drumheller.  The sunny weather now means pleasant camping and lots of great outdoors cooking.  Rand is still not 100% and I have been putting on the team doctor’s hat to ensure that he does not over doing things.  The Royal Tyrell museum certainly is worth the trip though.  Highly recommended!

Back on the bike

Calgary

I am back on the bike!

 I rode yesterday in the rain and wind and survived.  There is a very long hill coming up out of Cochrane Alberta just before getting to Calgary and I made it with no ill effects.   My lungs did not betray me.  I have to admit that felt good.

The problem was that the Bow Valley Trail (or highway 1A) that goes from Banff to Calgary turns into the Crowchild trail when it gets into Calgary.   Now, I don’t know who this Crowchild is but my guess is that he is a juvenile delinquent.  One should not ride down this road in a car, much less a bicycle.   The road has myriad on-ramps and off-ramps and the shoulder disappears without notice and now you are in the middle of the road with large Albertan SUV’s on either side of you.

This is where my heart rate peaked.

These large Albertan SUV’s are aimed (notice I said aimed, not driven) by large Albertan drivers who have yet to figure out which way the brim of their ball-caps should point much less how to make a 2 tonne chunk of metal go where it is supposed to go.  Their attitude to cyclists is similar to the wolf’s attitude towards rabbits.   Not so good if you are the rabbit or the cyclist. 

I survived.

 But only by getting off my bike and running with it up an on-ramp to the safety of a sidewalk.   I had to have a little lay-down after that.   When I recovered and started riding my bike again I realized that I had no idea where I was.   Nothing unusual there.  I got out phone and pulled up the handy-dandy GPS App to find my way to my sister’s place.   The deranged GPS wanted me to go back on the Crowchild trail.   HAH!  Not in this lifetime!

Telen to the rescue!  She was at my sister’s place already and she told me to stop my silly crying, find a place to sit down and she would come and get me.  So I sat outside a Starbucks with a coffee and waited.   Such a sight I must have been.  Dripping wet with a bike helmet on and a coffee in my hand huddled under a tiny square of green umbrella outside a Starbucks in the pouring rain.   I think, that day, I single-handedly discouraged hundreds people from taking up cycling.  Telen found me with the help of my brother-in-law and brought me out of the wind and rain.  I swear the woman has wings and a halo!

In spite of my protestations I really did enjoy the ride yesterday.  It felt so good to be back on the bike and seeing the scenery from a cyclist’s point of view.   The weather could have been better, but this is Canada, and weather is something we have in abundance.

Telen at Lake Louise

The Bow River at Banff - nice place to sit and enjoy the fine weather

Lake Louise Alberta

Still not on the bicycle.  Telen has given me strict instructions to keep off the bicycle.  She said my epiglottal spasm was “incompatible with life”.  That sounds ominous to me. What this means is that we had the option to change our course of direction and see something interesting.   So we went north through the Yellowhead pass instead of over the troubled Rogers Pass and Kicking Horse pass.   This way we got to see Mt. Robson and some moose and spent the night camping in Jasper.   Today we drove down the Icefields Parkway.   In spite of the wet and miserable weather it is still a beautiful drive.  However, we did see a number of cyclists riding the parkway and Telen cheered them on and I thought to myself…”I could take them!”

 The level of the rivers is a bit alarming, however.  There were a few places where the water was up to the road bed and actually running over it.   With the amount of water coming from the sky and the water already on the ground I thought we had actually taken a wrong turn and were driving down the Saskatchewan River.   We did see some wildlife – a few trout, and couple of lost-looking salmon and a Russian submarine.

Because of the heavy rain and the heavy chest we have only camped twice.   Once in Merritt and once in Jasper.  The rest of the time has been in guesthouses, cheap motels and hostels.  We found that having a river running through the tent was “incompatible with sleeping”.

All this means is that we will be arriving in Calgary quite a bit earlier than anticipated.  Apparently the car will travel faster than my bicycle.  I am hoping all the people we are hoping to see in Calgary will still be available for a visit.  It also means that we can spend more time there and, perhaps, head out for points East when the weather “is more compatible with riding”.  Telen will be so happy that I am on my bicycle again and not in the car with her since I am the worst backseat driver in existence.

Valemount B.C.

Telen writes:

After 2 days in Kamloops, we have now arrived in Valemount, just less than 2 hours driveB south of Jasper.  I am pleased to report that Rand is feeling better though not 100% yet.  The coughs are still loud and startling to the public.  His appetite and his sense of humor have returned.  

The weather has improved considerably.  The temperature reached a high of 26 degrees today.  Oh, and the sunshine!  Unfortunately the weatherman said that this will not last too long.  The water level in the Thompson River is really high.  In fact, we witnessed significant flooding in the park downtown Kamloops.

Rand has resigned to the fact that it is more important to get better before cycling again.  Our travel plans have since changed.  Over the next 4 days, we will spend time visiting Jasper, Lake Louise and Banff.  I feel that now we have more time to travel, we can do the scenic route.  Initially Rand was hoping to cycle via no. 1 highway through Salmon Arm, Revelstoke, Kicking Horse pass etc.

The beauty and the huge expanse of wilderness along the way impress me.  I feel very fortunate to live in Canada.  We had 2 sightings of black bears on the road.  One ran right in front of our car.

Tonight, we are staying in a cabin full of variations of moose i.e. paintings of moose and moose figurines in various costumes.  Life feels wonderful tonight after a meal of rotisserie chicken, stir-fried broccoli and roasted potatoes.  The owner operates a hobby farm with miniature horses (2 of them), chickens, ducks, kittens and 2 large dogs that always seem to want food from you.  And, yes, we are now in mosquito country. 

Rand writes:

Telen tells me that I have to say that, yes, I am starting to feel better and that, yes, she is right…

Kamloops June 19,2012

How do I say this without coming across as a complete wimp?

Things have not gone well for the last 2 days of this trip.  My cough is to the point where I am unable to ride.  Every time I try to take a deep breath I end up trying to cough up my liver.  It has been very disappointing and frustrating.   This morning I was prepared to ride from Merritt to Kamloops along the old Princeton-Kamloops highway.  This is a very scenic ride and not too difficult except for a long hill at the end.  Telen was looking at me over breakfast (which I could not eat) as I was trying to explain my plan to her interrupted by long coughing jags that left me gasping.   My cough has gone from a poor seal imitation to an authentic-sounding walrus imitation.  She did not say anything at first – just looked at me in that quiet, puzzled way that she has and shaking her head as if I was suggesting driving the car to Mars.  Then she quietly suggested that perhaps I was having a psychotic episode and that riding under these conditions was a symptom of schizophrenia and she was going to have me committed.

Without my bike.

So, we drove.

Tomorrow is scheduled as a rest day here.   By this time I thought I would have needed it.   Rest from what?  I feel like such a failure.  However, we will stick to the plan and perhaps by two days from now I will be in better shape to tackle the ride to Salmon Arm.  Telen prescribed some antibiotics for me and told me not to be so hard on myself.   I will take the antibiotics but I cannot guarantee the latter.

She does have common sense.  Something I think I got short-changed on.   I do have the Rogers Pass and the Kicking Horse pass to deal with in a few days and I will need my lungs to be in shape for it. 

It still feels as if I am wimping out.

Telen writes:

I am very proud of Rand’s strong commitment to cycle but one needs to have strong lungs and normal digestion to cycle up all these hills and passes.  He is darn stubborn and would not listen to my advice until I mildly threaten divorce.  His coughs are so loud and incessant that people nearby seem startled, avoiding us.  I have a cold too but not as bad as his.  We will have a good time, just in a different…and this is what I keep telling Rand.  Tonight, we are meeting my niece Tiffany for dinner.