Gordon Lightfoot - The Railroad Trilogy

And when the young man's fancy was turning to the spring
The railroad men grew restless for to hear the hammers ring
Their minds were overflowing with the visions of their day
And many a fortune lost and won and many a debt to pay

For they looked in the future and what did they see
They saw an iron road running from the sea to the sea
Bringing the goods to a young growing land
All up from the seaports and into their hands

- Gordon Lightfoot - The Railroad Trilogy


Mara – Canyon Hot Springs / Albert Canyon- 128 kilometers / 79 miles

We decided to aim to be ‘on the road’ by about 7:15am that morning to beat the heat as well as some of the holiday traffic as there was a long day ahead and I was on Galley Duty meaning that my team was responsible for cooking so I had to get into camp as early as possible to help with the set up and preparation of the meal. Cooking for about 40 people certainly does take some organization.

Galley Duty explained

Galley Duty means that the group (about 7 people per group) is responsible for cooking and cleaning for the rest of the group. The workload for this is shared and it’s important to establish from the outset who is responsible for cooking (eg. figure out who can make more than Kraft Dinner) and then also establishing who is the Crew Chief (who is good at delegating work). Everyone else is responsible for chopping, setting up the tables, serving the food, bleaching the wash bins, cleaning up the camp, putting away the bikes, locking up the truck and making the site ‘bear proof’. It sounds easy but it is a huge responsibility as hungry bikers are grumpy bikers and because of the quantity it does take some coordination.

On the road again

The cycle around Mara Lake was beautiful – as it was still early it was nice and cool and the views over the lake were stunning. The water was as smooth as glass and a few boats bobbed along the docks. Mara is quite a touristy area and as it was the start of the long weekend most campgrounds and resorts were fully booked and people were just heading out to make the most of the long weekend and gorgeous weather.

We veered off of the main route by popping into Sicamous to check out the town and see if we could find a Tim Hortons. It’s a nice small town with a ‘lazy’ feel and is located along the north end of Mara Lake. A Tim Hortons was in order and I indulged in a vanilla coffee and two cruller donuts. So good – it’s amazing how much I can eat these days and am always, always ready for a Timmy’s..!

The Last Spike

We decided that the next stop would be at Craigellachie where the last spike was nailed in the trans-continental railroad. The ‘nebulous dream’ to build the trans-Canadian railway became a reality on November 7th, 1885 when the last spike on 3000 miles of steel linked the lofty mountain passes, to the prairies, and over a thousand rivers. It welded the East to the West. A small info booth and plaque marked the spot. The area was also a mosquito breeding ground (I am pretty sure that they knew it was a tourist-hot spot and therefore an appropriate lunch spot!) so we looked around as quickly as possible b and then headed on our way..!

Three Valley Gap

I met up with Jane and biked with her for the rest of the afternoon which was long but exciting day as we decided to go on a helicopter tour at Three Valley Gap. It was a bit of a spontaneous decision but well worth it..! We had a 30 minute helicopter ride over Three Valley Gap and over the glaciers, near Revelstoke and around Mount English. There were huge glaciers covering the area as the weather (up until this weekend!) had been relatively cold so the snow melt was lower than normal. I’ve never been in a helicopter before so that was an awesome experience – the feeling of ‘hovering’ above the earth was great. There was a light breeze which would catch the helicopter every once in a while and it would ‘bounce’ along through the air. It was nice to also see the mountains so close up and from above rather than from the side or from within. The pine trees looked like fine green slivers cut into the earth. It was also interesting to see how much clear cutting does go on but is ‘hidden’ away from the main traffic areas as until I saw the view from above, I didn’t really know how extensive it was..!

Jane and I had a great time but were a bit nervous after because we still had about 40 kms of uphill left to go in the blazing heat before camp --- and it was already 2pm..! Yikes! Unfortunately that didn’t stop us from hitting McDonalds along the way to indulge in a milkshake (where we met up with Dennis!). I must admit however, although the milkshake stop (eg. postponing the inevitable) seemed like a good idea at the time, the last 30 kms into camp were sooo long and soooo hot. I could feel my energy levels dropping as we continued on Highway 1 (still the TransCanada). Every once in a while we’d pass a clearing along the Illeclilewaet River and then ‘feel’ the cold glacier stream before we actually saw it. So refreshing..! The traffic wasn’t too bad either which made the last 2 hours of uphill a bit more bearable. It was tempting not to jump into the stream just to have a break from the soaring heat which seemed to radiate off of the asphalt. I actually began to look forward to the trucks flying by us as they would come so close in certain sections that they’d actually provide a much needed breeze.

It was like a mirage to see the Canyon Hot Springs sign. I was immediately handed a cold beer and handed a recipe book to make Italian dressing for the salad as the rest of our Galley Crew was already hard a work making a fantastic Oriental noodle dish with marinated chicken. Dave was our cook and I am sure that he is the next Jamie Oliver as he did a fantastic job and the meal was devoured by 40 hungry bikers. Ross did a great job grating the cheese (I laughed about that joke for about 20 minutes..!)

After dinner we cleaned up, set up for the breakfast and bear-proofed the area. I was absolutely 120% exhausted after the action packed, long and hot day! I fell asleep instantly knowing I’d have to be up early to help prepare the breakfast (scrambled eggs!) at 6am for the last part of our Galley Crew responsibilities and the long, hot climb over Rogers Pass.