Bikely map

I woke up somewhat stiff/sore from Sunday, but mainly lonely about not having been able to call home (this is a state of being that I rather suspect I will get somewhat accustomed to before making it out of BC, given how much mountainous terrain and poor cellular coverage there seems to be in this province). I checked my map before heading out, and figured, based on eyeballing it, that Allison Pass would be somewhere around km 40 of the highway. I had a little more nice coasting, flat terrain, and even gentle rolls for the first 8km or so, and then came upon a steep ascent around a corner with a road crew doing the sign turning thing (this at km 22). I asked them how much I’d have to climb before getting to the second sign and freeing the roadway back up for other users (because I didn’t want to be too much of a jerk about stopping in the middle and causing a problem), and they said it was a couple of turns of climbing, so I snacked up and watered up a little, and went at the ascent.

As it turns out, there was only one relatively short curve to clear before getting to the second sign-turner, so I didn’t have to stop at all. The catch was that the couple of turns they told me about were how many turns of steep climbing I’d see before getting back to a (short) patch of gentler climbing. After it got steep again, and then leveled off a bit (but not all the way) again, It occurred to me that I was now on the ascent to Allison Pass. Because my map suggested that I only had about 18km of climbing to contend with, I buckled down, and looked forward to hitting the pass at km 40. 40 came and went with no sign of a pass, and still more climbing. Then 42. I started to wonder if the sign marking the pass had gone missing. As I was beginning to lose any inherent sense of incline (and just think that I was getting tired out), I tried coasting on some of the gentler portions of the climb only to slow down far more quickly than my bike ought to without some sort of braking force acting upon it. At one point, I even picked up the wheels and spun them to make sure that nothing was catching or dragging against them. They spun just fine. km 44 came and went, then 46, and I started to question the accuracy of my map, putting Allison Pass where it had. Finally, just past km 48, I was greeted by the following sight (for which I broke out the camera even though I had become concerned that its battery was running low):

From here I was able to pretty much coast for around 16km until I hit Manning Park Resort, where I pulled in, tried to call home, found out that there was still no cell signal, and swallowed some expense and used a payphone instead. I also called ahead to the warmshowers contact, and checked that I could visit there for the following night (and a rest day too). Then I bought some postcards for people who’d requested them when I was still at home, topped up my water, relubed my chain, used the washroom, ate my sandwich, and got going again.

A short while later, I passed the solitary gas station between Hope and Princeton, and tried to use the pressure gauge on their air pump to get my tires up to a good pressure. Unfortunately, the gauge only went as high as 90, the compressor didn’t seem to fill past around 100, and my tires go up to 110. Either way, the ~100psi was still better than the low 80s I’d been at before the top-up. (I should get myself a tire gauge so that I can top up the tires with my portable pump, and not worry about overinflation).

Having been warned of another substantial climb before Princeton, I got back on the road, and enjoyed the last of my coasting for the day, spotting my first deer of the season along the way:

There was also some nice scenery on the descent as the highway passed close to a river:

And then around km 80, things started to switch to steep rolls, the last of which, right by km 84, descended into a tight hairpin turn into right into a 9% ascent that didn’t ease up for 1-2km, and then only eased up to a gentler ascent that continued right to Sunday Summit. Feeling less concerned about the durability of the camera’s battery than about the durability of my legs and cardiovascular system, I took a few more shots along the ascent (which was along a ridge with some really impressive views anyhow):

Finally, nearing the top, I felt compelled to properly document that this particular monstrosity of roadbuilding was in fact a summit, rather than a pass, by capturing the views of the tiny little tips of summits all around me:

And finally take my obligatory shot of the sign at the summit itself (at around km 90, so there were only 6km to this particular climb):

Once the summit was cleared, figuring that I’d have a nice easy day coasting the rest of the way to Princeton the next day, I started looking for a decent place to camp at the side of the road, and found one around km 93:

I packed it in feeling better about having called home, and also expecting that only Anarchist Summit in about a week’s time would provide a comparably difficult day.

As an added bonus, I had to pee in the middle of the night, and crawled out of my tent to a beautiful, clear, mountaintop night sky. The brightness of the stars was actually pretty alarming when I first saw them. I’ll have to take more glimpses of the night sky at altitude, particularly on the lee side of mountains (sorry, but I just don’t think I can do it justice with a photograph).