Lovin' Spoonful - "Summer in the City"

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

- Lovin' Spoonful - "Summer in the City"


Albert Canyon – Golden - 115 kms / 71 miles

I am pretty sure that I came relatively close to seeing my life flash before my eyes today… Brendan summed up the day in a way that only Brendan can:

“Disney World doesn’t even have rides which compare to today”.

I think that is the quote of the trip so far.

*****

Breakfast was served at about 7am but a lot of the riders had already left as the forecast was HOT HOT HOT. Expected high was 38 degrees for our expected high of 1330m at the summit of Rogers Pass.

The climb over Rogers Pass and the subsequent Kicking Horse hills were rumored to be tough ones and quite a slog in the heat. As our Galley Crew was on duty we had quite a lot of work to do that morning and didn’t leave camp until about 9am. In a way I didn’t mind it too much because it was nice not to have the feeling that you had to rush to get out and that the camp had to be cleaned up first.

Andrew waited for me which was super nice because I must admit, I was worried about being the sweep (the person who is the last one into camp and has to help other riders along). We headed out up the pass, stopping to take pictures and to eat our peanut butter sandwiches along the way. Andrew also has a double chain ring rather than a triple so when I am cranking in my granny-gear I am not disheartened by watching his pedals spin along in front of me like the triple-chainers would be doing.

I was totally dreading the climb over Rogers Pass as it was one of the tough climbing days but it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be…! I was about to average about 13 km/hour up to the Pass. Whenever it got a bit tough I’d repeat over and over, “What goes up, must come down” and I knew from the discussions in camp the previous evening that the Rogers Pass downhill is pretty sweet..!!

The main thing I worried about were the tunnels. There are several tunnels on either side of the Pass which were built to protect the road from the avalanches and snowfall. The tunnels are sometimes filled with debris coming off of the trucks and can be poorly lit. The tunnels that are well lit do have a tendency to create ‘optical illusions’ and make a biker feel disoriented by the light coming in on the right hand side. Plus, the traffic through the tunnels is single lane and the average speed for the huge transports is about 90kms / hour and often the last thing they expect to see in the tunnel is a biker… To make a long story short, the advice is to get through the tunnels as fast as humanly possible.

Whilst I was incredibly nervous the first few tunnels went ok – there were 4 of them on an uphill section and before Rogers Pass. I took off my sunglasses to avoid the optical illusions created by the sun and so I could better see the debris along the side of shoulder in the tunnels. After the last tunnel on the uphill I got a bit cocky and was actually able to speed through them quite confidently and comfortably. Fortunately the only traffic coming through the tunnel at the time were small cars and trucks so I didn’t have to worry about being pushed into the side.

Well, we had a short ‘chill out’ at the top of Rogers Pass where I devoured a huge bag of chips and drank 2 bottles of orange juice and also called home from a pay phone. Dave, Andrew and I then continued on chatting happily and excitedly along the way about the incredible 8% downhill which lay ahead… the reward from the long, hard slog uphill. I was praying for a nice smooth shoulder so I could break my speed record on the descent.

There it was – the first tunnel off in the distance and I was soaring along at about 50kms / hour. I thought back to the previous tunnels on the uphill and realized that I could comfortably have worn my sunglasses through the tunnels. I decided to risk it and leave my dark tinted Oakleys firmly on my face.

BOOM. TOTAL DARKNESS.

It is amazing how incredibly long 4 seconds of absolute, white knuckle, terror can feel. My body froze. Where were the lights? I was going through a tunnel completely blind as this tunnel was 120% different from the other tunnels. I kept peddling trying not to panic, trying not to run into the side of the tunnel and also trying not to think about what might happen. I wondered if Andrew who was behind me was having the same issues. I started swearing frantically under my breath… “shit, shit, shit, shit…” I was going too fast to take off my sunglasses, too fast to brake and at that stage even plyers would not dislodge my hands from my brake hoods. Suddenly, from behind, my worst fear materialized into reality….

Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….

As a huge, huge transport passed by me in the tunnel. My instant reaction was to hug the shoulder even more but I wasn’t sure how much shoulder I had left between me and the side of the tunnel..! I am pretty sure that the transport didn’t realize that the tunnel was pitch dark either as it didn’t have its lights on so I am sure that it didn’t even realize that it was sharing the lane with me.

I have never been so happy to see the cold light of day. As soon as I got out of the tunnel I breathed a huge sigh of relief and looked behind me to see Andrew emerge white as ghost as well. I whipped off my sunglasses just in time to fly through the second tunnel, totally prepared for the worst…

WHOOOOOOSSSSH…………………

A giant waterfall from glacial melt soaking through the roof of the tunnel poured over the lanes. It was a total freezing cold shower which quickly snapped me back to my senses. I wondered what was going to happen next. I was absolutely soaked with sweat and freezing cold water but still peddling trying desperately to get out of the tunnel alive. I recalled one of the ‘Hard Cores’ words of advice:

“Just follow the light”

So I did – I just hoped that it was the light at the end of the tunnel and not the light at the end of the stairway to heaven.

I was so incredibly happy to have that tunnel over with when suddenly around the next bend came yet another tunnel. Here I decided to stop tempting fate and slammed on my brakes to take a HUGE drink of water, say about 1000 Hail Marys’ and take a few deep breaths. We were all a bit shaken up but had to laugh at the entire incident. It is amazing how quickly adrenaline and ‘survival mode’ kick in.

The last tunnel was a walk in the park – plenty of light, no transport trucks, no cold showers… it was actually fun. Having said that, I would not do any of the tunnels over again..!

This goes back to the opening line of this entry and compliments to Brendan who can tell the story much better than I. Disney World does not have a ride which even comes close to the tunnels at Rogers Pass. (BC, 29/06/2008)

The downhill off of the Pass was good but the highway shoulders were in rough shape on account of the freeze / thaw temperature ranges in the mountains which destroy the asphalt. It would have been easy to reach speeds which break the sound barrier off of the downhill but unfortunately because of heavy traffic we were restricted to the bumpy shoulders and had to take it slow. I averaged about 60kms /hr going down which was a nice break from the long, hot ascent.

Unfortunately as soon as we got to the bottom of the Pass we started the long, hot climb into Golden which turned out to be longer and steeper than the ascent of Rogers Pass. We’d been warned to leave enough time in the afternoon for the ascent into Golden but as we’d had a late start because of our Galley duties it was already about 2pm and we still had about 50kms of climbing to do before getting into Golden. It was incredibly hot, we were running low on water, everyone seemed to be complaining about their ‘tender bottoms’ and we knew that we had to push on. I am pretty sure that it was the longest 50kms of my life..! Every time I felt like we’d done at least 10kms I would look down at my odometer and realize that we’d only done about 4. I was in my granny gear most of the way and kept cranking my way up. We would stop every 10kms or so to give each other pep talks, ‘take photos’ (code for taking a break), ‘have a drink’ (code for taking a break), check tire pressure (code for taking a break) etc. etc. In short, we took A LOT of breaks but it was a necessity as I was really, really struggling to keep a steady pace. I am sure that the climb would have been easier if it had been about 20 degrees cooler. When we arrived in Golden later that afternoon we found out that it had been 38 degrees…!!

Short history of Golden

Golden is a lovely ski-resort sort of town which offers plenty of mountain biking, white water rafting, hang gliding, snowmobiling, heli-skiing, dogsledding, ice climbing, ice fishing excursions. It has a laid-back feel to it. Someone commented that it had 5 liquor stores, 6 bars, a post office and a church (info not verified but I can attest that the bar is quite good!). It is set in the Columbia valley and was initially established in the late 1800s with the Canadian Pacific Railway brought a lot of tourism into the area because of the mountaineering opportunities – there were no shortage of peaks to climb..! In 1883 Golden was originally known as ‘The Cache’ when it was a base camp and a supply area for Major A.B. Rogers and his survey crew during the building of the CPR railway. When ‘Carlins’ Camp’ (east of Cache) dubbed themselves ‘Silver City’ after falsely planted silver ore was discovered, the people of Cache dubbed themselves ‘Golden City’ as not to be outdone. Four years later it was shortened to ‘Golden.

In 1858 Sir James Hector was commissioned by CP Rail to locate a pass to connect the newly established west coast with the rest of Canada. After a long, tiring day, an upset pack horse bolted out of the campsite. Hector retrieved the horse an in the process of securing it, was kicked squarely in the abdomen, rendering him unconscious. Thought to be dead, he was dragged to a valley for burial. Just as he was about to be thrown into the ground he awoke… and then aptly renamed the pass ‘Kicking Horse Pass’. (source: Golden, Visitors Info guide book).

I felt a bit like I’d been kicked in the abdomen and left for dead by the time we’d reached Golden. There was a Tim Hortons off of the highway and it took about .001 seconds for the decision to be made to stop and take a break. I had a freezing cold wonderfully refreshing ‘ice cap’ iced coffee EXTRA large. By this stage it was 6pm and we were starving..! We hightailed it into camp where we were handed cold beers and our tent pegs. We were also given instructions to be at the “Kicking Horse” bar by 7pm for an evening of festivities to bring in the next days’ rest day.

A lot of tunnel-related horror stories were exchanged that hot summer evening over many, many pitchers of beer, burgers, onion rings, pool and fooze-ball.