Day Five, 9-21-05
After the “rescue, recovery and deceptive profile” of yesterday, I can’t get any takers to join me for today’s ride. Yes, the map and profile say it should be “all downhill” after a climb out of Elkford, but yesterday was supposed to be the same thing, and it was anything but down hill to level. In addition to yesterday’s mechanical problems, Nate’s studying has not gone as well as planned, and he is now stressing out over his upcoming tests, making him feel the need to study not ride. No worries though, the weather looks to be the best of the trip so far – warmer, few clouds in the sky, and the sun shining brightly.
I see that the steepest climb of the trip will start this day – a “steep climb” out of Elkford is how it is described on the map. What they really should have said is “a monster climb, lasting 3 miles and with no warm up possible before you start gaining elevation, making you wish you were back in bed!” Yikes!! It takes me the first 1.5 miles to really warm up. This is not unlike the “canyon climb” of the Telluride to Moab trip of last year, with the advantage however, that this is no pavement, and it appears to be possible to do this without stopping, if one has the will to do so. However, for those who don’t “enjoy the climbing arts”, I would highly recommend getting a ride up to the top of the hill. As the day would pan out, this would be the only bad climb of the day, and actually, the worst of the entire trip.
As I crest the hill, there is a short flat section before the descent, and I see two elk on the edge of the woods to my left. They are big, but no racks. I’m pretty “stoked” that I made it and kept a decent cadence the entire climb. Now comes my reward, a long down hill section. Before I leave though, I check my map for the next turn. I’m on Fording River Rd, and the next turn is a right on Fording Rd. It sounds like they are just saying that the road turns, I don’t immediately see that these are two different names. In about two miles, I blow by the right turn as I’ve got a tail wind, the momentum of a long descent, and a “roadie’s” mentality kicking in. I’m on pavement, just had a pathetic 5mph average up that long hill, and I want to try and pull my average up to at least 10 mph before the next turn. While pushing the pedals, I look at the map and it says the next turn isn’t till the 16 mile mark, so I decide to push hard till then, and take a break at that turn.
At the 16 mile mark, there is not turn, I’m ready for a break, but badly confused as I saw no other right turns. After I re-read the map, I realize I missed the turn 11.5 miles ago. ARGH!!! That will give me 23 “bonus miles” on the first 55 mile day. I am not up to the task of riding 78 miles today, not after three days of healthy “climbing”, and one snafu after another. Fortunately, we have already set a plan for the “vehicle guys” to meet me in Sparrow to make sure I’m OK, etc. So… I spend the next hour or so beating myself up for not reading the map carefully, and ignoring my GPS compass which said I was heading north for 10 miles when I knew most of my traveling should be south. How stupid can I be. To add insult to injury, my tail wind now becomes a vengeful headwind, and I suffer to get back to my intended turn at Fording Road. Worst of all, when I get there, I see it is after a big bridge, and one of the few places I stopped to take a picture on my “happy to have pavement” obsessed ride.
I’ve now gone 26.5 miles, and I have quite a few to go to get to Sparrow. I decide this is the best time and place for my lunch and short break. By now, I’ve chastised myself enough, and I decide I’m going to really enjoy the remainder of the ride. The weather continues to be the best so far, the terrain is very forgiving, with very few climbs of any consequence, and the scenery continues to be as beautiful as ever.
I am now checking my map quite often, and keeping a good eye on my GPS mileage to not miss any turns. However, I still manage to get “lost”, where I am back tracking and taking roads that don’t seem to match up with the map. I finally see a local old timer in a truck, just “enjoying what is left of the summer”, and he confirms where I am in relation to my riding map. I somehow missed an entire section, but ended up back at a specific point on the map again, headed into Sparrow. It’s at that point that I realize what has contributed to my difficulties in reading the map for the last several days, and matching up the odometer with the land marks of the map. I do not have an actual “cyclometer”; an odometer that is based off the rotation of my bike wheel. This is how this map was created, and would represent the most accurate mileage of the ride. Instead, I’m getting my mileage from the GPS, and it can not account for the uphill and downhill distances. While it will accurately reflect any “flat or level” distances, the vertical variations will be off by a varying degree. YIKES!! I will have to now follow the map by the descriptions much more than the mileage. I feel a little less stupid… but not much. J
Anyway, the remainder of the trip was a breeze. When I got within a few miles of Sparrow, I was able to hear Mike on the radio, but all he could hear was static from me. I meant to change the batteries in my radio before I left, but I forgot. I kept it off all day, but it was still weak. Nevertheless, they found me as I headed into town on the main highway, and I told them that the 57 miles I already rode today was enough for me. I therefore “took the shuttle” to Fernie and was happy that it ended up being a great day after all.
The Condo in Fernie was fantastic. It was huge, and pretty new as well. This would easily house three to four couples, and had a well stocked kitchen. While it was strange that the bedrooms were on the 4th floor, it did make a good use of the space. The condos are situated with the forest behind us, and the mountains in front us, so the setting was really nice as well. Fernie is a really nice little resort town, with all sorts of little shops and restaurants. At least for this area, it was a good size destination. The only problem I had was that the train would come by about every 1.5 to 2 hrs per night, and blow its whistle many times. For me it sounded like it was coming through the front door, but nobody else had any trouble with it. Next time I’ll know to use earplugs at that location.
Stats & Lessons Learned: Miles: 57, Ave: 13.3 mph moving average, 5:29 trip time, climbing = ????????
Make sure to have at least one properly calibrated cyclometer, and have at least two people to ride together. Solo rides are much more risky for all sorts of reasons; even a simple thing like directions can be avoided by two people reading the map and making “interpretations” together. Two heads should always be better than one when it comes to bike trips.