Day 49: Smithers to Kitwanga Lake

The church we stayed at in Smithers was actually a little bit out of town so after we packed up and headed out (almost 11 AM) we went into town to look for various personal items. There were a few of us who were specifically looking for the “Risk” board game and some “Magic: The Gathering” playing cards so we could relive our youth.

Well Stephen, Brett, Chris, Nick Weaver and I searched all over town visting so many, many shops, but we didn’t really find what we were looking for. The only Magic cards around were two “starter” decks so that wasn’t enough. And we found Risk, but it was $40 so we decided to keep looking around to find it cheaper, but then we ran out of time and we were never able to go back and pick it up.

On the other hand, I was able to get some more ice cream at the local Dairy Queen, as well as a sub at the Subway. After I ate both of these I met up with the team where Channing had scored some free pizzas, so I ate a couple slices of that as well. Feeling quite full I got on the bike shortly thereafter and headed out onto the road with Sam.

Sam and I pace-lined through some gorgeous green mountains and we were soon joined by Mario. The three of us raced along in front and soon enough it turned into a little race to the first rest stop, 20 miles up the road. Well I didn’t know we were racing until suddenly Mario sprinted past us and then Sam came from my back wheel and chased. Since I had been pulling them at the time I simply didn’t have enough acceleration in me to catch up with the sprinters who had been drafting off of me.

But fortunately, Chris and Brett were hot on our heels and after a little bit I was able to catch on to their back tires. They were pace lining fairly quickly, but I was intending to catch up with Sam and Mario, so when it was my turn in front I would drop the pedals hard and start reeling them in. At one point I caught Mario, but then he sat on our back tires resting and soon accelerated past us since we were the ones working hard.

At the very end, as we saw the van it turned into a full sprint. In the end I was able to take Mario and I almost took Chris, but I had pulled people up the previous hill so I was feeling pretty wiped out.

The rest stop was at a river where the local tribes still caught the Salmon with the traditional spear and/or hook approach. The five of us scampered down to the river and sat nearby as we watched a man lower a 30 foot pole into the churning river and wait. When a large salmon brushed the pole it would vibrate and the man would yank up hard. More often than not he would miss, but when he did catch one it was huge. They were all over three feet and one of them could have easily fed our entire team, maybe for two meals.

He let us know that there was free salmon from the “first salmon” ceremony up the hill so we soon left the river and headed up. Unfortunately for us, they had just ran out of fish, but we were able to check out the local museum and see how the traditional fish traps were made and such. I headed back down the gravel road and joined up with the team, specifically Sam and Stephen as we worked together to reach the next stop.

Once again we passed some very large green mountains and the valleys were quite lush. We caught up to Nick Weaver and invited him to join us, which he did. We worked together for about 15 miles and then Nick got in front. He pulled until he got to the base of a steep hill and I thought he would peel off so I could lead for a little bit (which is what I wanted), but instead he kep going. The road kept going up and up and he was going at a pretty good clip. I was getting pretty tired and was wondering how much longer he was going to keep it up when he quickly pulled off and let us go by.

He had expended all of his energy pulling in front instead of letting others help and sadly he pretty much dropped like a rock and couldn’t keep up. But now I was in front and already dying. I couldn’t help but laugh as Nick had left me in a bad spot to pull and I ribbed him about it as he dropped off my left shoulder. But I couldn’t keep going so only a half mile in, after we had finished the hill I had to wave Sam and Stephen through.

Rotating so quickly wasn’t really fair since the others were pulling for a couple miles, but I wasn’t going to be able to keep leading at a good pace so all I could do was move to the back. At which point Stephen and Sam ribbed me about it. Ah, good times.

I refused to let go of their back wheel, though, and soon enough I got my legs under me again and was feeling pretty good as we approached the next rest stop. At this point, though, we were told by a passing van that one of our female riders had wiped out and that she was sitting on the side of the road. We had passed up everyone so there was no telling who it was. We kept going to get to the rest stop to tell somebody when we saw a car go by with Natalie’s bike in the back, so now we knew who it was, but we didn’t know what had happened.

We picked up the pace and as we got ever closer to the final rest stop I was in the back with Sam in front of me and then Stephen. Stephen knew Sam would go on the next downhill for the sprint, but from the back I could see Sam starting to flex his hands and get his legs ready for the sprint. With this vantage point I was able to tell exactly when Sam was going to go and as he stood up on his pedals to accelerate past Stephen I immediately jumped on Sam’s back wheel.

Normally on a downhill I’m not so great since I don’t have as much mass on me as Sam or Stephen, but it was a fairly steep decent and I had Sam setting up a large draft for me so I was able to keep close. It took my largest gear, though, as Sam was trying his best to put a large gap between him and us. I yelled at Stephen “There he goes!” as we went by him and laughed and the race was on.

We were easily doing more than 30 mph and probably were closer to the upper 40’s as we went the last mile or so down the hill. Stephen has turned into a pretty powerful cyclist over the last couple of weeks and it showed as he started to pass us without the aid of a draft. I jumped over to Stephen’s back wheel and for the brief moment that I was in the full draft I was hit by some pretty stiff wind, so I knew how much I was being helped by the people in front.

In the end, the rest stop was on part of the downhill so in order to not miss the turnoff we had to brake hard and that messed up the final results, but I think Sam would have won, followed by Stephen, and then myself.

At the rest stop, we found that Natalie had been taken to the local hospital, but that she was going to be OK. BJ got directions and Channing took off in the van to check up on her. We all ate quickly and got on the bikes to find the hospital as well, which we were told was just a couple blocks down, on the left.

Well, the sign pointing to the hospital was a couple blocks down, on the right. The actual hospital was a couple miles down a side road, and while it was beautiful and included a large bridge over a gorge it was a downhill trek so we knew we were going to have to work to get back. But it was for a teamate so we didn’t really think too much about it then.

After some searching we finally found the hospital and after some searching in the hospital we found Natalie. Turns out she had gone down one of the hills and lost control on a patch of gravel. She wiped out and hit her head, smashing her helmet up and ripping up her forehead. She was OK and all she needed was some stitches and she was good to go. The doctor told her she could ride the next day and she’d be fine so we knew that everything was all right.

After the whole team showed up we filled up on water and headed back for the road. One of the locals said we could take a gravel road to Kitwanga instead of going back to the highway, which would save about 5 miles, but I didn’t feel like taking on gravel and dirt since the sky was getting ready to unleash some heavy rain. Some of the team did go the back way, though, and I later heard that at some points they were pretty nervous. I also saw them and they were absolutley caked in mud.

I went along, back up the road, but now I was by myself with no one to draft off of. I had about 30 miles to go so I put my head down and went. I passed BJ up, but he wasn’t in a mood to go too quickly so I went alone, fighting a head wind and getting rained on.

After being pelted with the rain and some hail I found the van and pulled in. About 5 minutes later BJ came in, but I wasn’t really wanting to leave as quickly as he did since it was lightning and thundering and I didn’t want to be out in the open while this was going on. While I waited, Brian and Mercedes came up in the car, which was being serviced back in Smithers. They left as well and so the van needed to go to take care of things, leaving me back out in the open. Arggh.

Up here in Canada, it gets pretty cold when you just sit around and that was the case as I got back on the bike in the rain. I worked at a regular pace and went up and down hills, along the rivers and around the mountains until after 24 miles I found the turnoff to Highway 37, the road we would be on for the next week or so. I stopped off in the gas station for some beef jerky and a candy bar, since I was under the impression tha the next five hundred miles would be pretty desolate.

I headed up the new road and just a mile from the end of the 65 mile day Channing drove up and said there had been a change in plans. The campsite we were going to stay at was pretty run down and they were going to charge us a fortune for not only the sites, but for anything we wanted to do such as take showers. The new plan was to go to Kitcool (or something close to that) about 15 miles up. D'oh!

Oh well, as was the case earlier I just thought about how cancer throws in such twists and I put my head down and started going. But I wasn’t necessarily happy. After doing this for a long time and thinking I must finally be at the end of the day, Channing drove up again and said that they had found a campsite, but that it was an extra 8 miles up the road to the turnoff. D'oh! And then he said it was another two miles from there. D'oh! Suddenly the easy 65 mile day had turned into 90. Well, OK, again cancer is like that in some small way so here I go again.

Not too much longer, I was surprised to see a rider in front of me. I had thought everyone else would be in, but I had forgotten about BJ. He was a little tired of biking by himself so I pulled up next to him and we rode the last ten miles together.

The last two miles were all on dirt roads, but it was a pretty road with close trees and bushes in the setting sun. We cruised along avoiding pot holes and climbing the hills until we finally came up on the site. And it was gorgeous.

It was right on the lake and with the setting sun over the mountains it was quite memorable. Unfortunately, so were the vast number of mosquitoes. They were everywhere! The first thing I did was put on my thick and baggy clothes to somewhat protect myself, but even that had some tiny holes that, with the sheer number of bugs, was not bug proof. Poor JJ, who was cooking was getting the worst of it, even with he super strength bug spray.

After quickly wolfing down some food near the fire I dove into the first available tent, quite happy to be finished after a long day and now (mostly) safe from the hordes of bugs which were swarming around the tent.