Adventure
Tour Divide – The Beginning
I never got a chance to test the bear spray as mentioned in my earlier post…Possibly not the best thing to use on the boys around here!
Time has just disappeared. My frantic buying for more last minute necessities like water carriers continued right up to the start.
The start itself was a bit strange…very strange. Crazy Larry (Canadian cycling legend) was being just Crazy which made it all stranger than it already was. “If anyone sees a bear, let him know” we were all told, strange!
And off we all went. Fewer this year have entered according to many, as there has been more snow this year and still some left on some passes. Those going to break a record will be disadvantaged so many have sadly decided not to even enter. Only 161 of us started this year!
Something which is catching me out as I ride is how many broken trees and stumps look like bears! Haven’t seen a real bear yet but lots of imaginary ones made from the shapes in the woods.
My thoughts of bears were lost on the second day with a niggly knee pain. A new pain! So I tweaked my shoe cleats and lowered my saddle…we’ll see how this goes.
After Spray Lakes, I realised my bars and front roll bag makes a great table to eat on the move.
Day two wasn’t the beautiful sunny day which I’d been fortunate to have since I arrived in Canada and today was a hard push climbing Koko Claims Pass which took over 4 hours. I felt a bit wretched as I’ve gained a very snotty cold now which isn’t helping! But tonight I arrived in Fernie so it’s time to buy some remedies. My speed is slower than I expected with all this greasy mud.
