Day 43: McBride to Purden Lake

Since we had slept in a church, nobody wanted to leave, so we ended up staying until almost 11:00 AM before we got going. But they had fed us really well in the morning so I was content to sit around and digest.

On our way out, one of the locals told me that the next stretch of road had one of the highest populations of bears so we needed to be careful. Fair enough warning I suppose, but of bigger concern was the headwind and the nasty looking clouds.

We went out and soon we had formed a pace line. Nick Weaver had driven the day before so was feeling pretty good and was going along and we all started lining up behind him. When he finally peeled off to let people by, he thought there were only a couple of us, but there were about ten! The astonished look on his face was pretty funny.

We pace lined for a good eighteen miles and then we hit a large hill and feeling pretty good at the moment I sprinted from the back of the line and ahead of the team to the top. Right there at the top was the rest stop so I sprinted to the car and jumped off my bike. I heard a lot of yelling behind me so I figured they were upset that I had inadvertantly taken a race, but instead they were saying that there were bears in the bushes next to me. I looked and sure enough there were two little black bears jogging up the embankment towards the trees. I watched them scurry up a tree and thought about walking over and taking a picture, but then saw mama bear walking around the tree as well so I watched from the car instead.

We all took off again in a little bit, but this time we split up as some of the other riders wanted to push the pace. I took my time and rode along, looking out for wildlife and such. My relaxed pace was somewhat rewarded when I saw no less than seven bears over the course of the day, bringing my total up to ten. Some of them I saw as they ran into the bushes to get away from me, some of them watched from behind a bush or a tree as I passed, and some of them merely crossed the road in front of me, paying no attention as I sped closer. One particularly cute bear cub popped out of a field of white flowers some 50 feet away and was just about the cutest thing you could imagine. He was a ball of wild black fluff and his eyes were so inquisitive as he watched me pass by through the stems of the flowers. I really wanted to snap a picture, but you’ve got to believe that mama bear had to be around somewhere nearby.

Stephen had a memorable rest stop, of which I have pictures, but I won’t share it. But it really gave the team a chance to get to know Stephen better and I feel like I know more about Stephen than I thought I would.

Bouyed from the rest stop, I went along at a pretty good clip. After a while, though, I didn’t see the van pass me by and I began to wonder. I was feeling really good, though, so I kept going. After a goodwhile, I came up on JJ and Sam and found that I’d gone about 23 miles, about 8 more than the rest stop was supposed to be. We talked about it for a while and while we were talking we collected more riders. We decided to go on anyway by ourselves and it was about ten miles before Stephen finally caught up to us.

He had gotten the van stuck in the middle of nowhere down a dirt road and only through the amazing coincedence of finding a random man to help him was he able to get the van out and back on the road, albeit a little late in the day. After he told the hilarious story, we got back on the bike and headed out for the camp.

Unfortunately, we had missed the “campsite” we had planned for which would have made the day about 60 miles. However, the "campsite" was really a rest stop so we passed it up thinking that surely that’s not where we were supposed to pitch a tent. The new site, Purden Lake, was an extra 30 miles, making the day 90 miles all together.

For a second, I was a little bit miffed since it’s a big leap from 60 to 90 miles. But then I thought about what cancer must be like. You think you’ve got it licked, but it comes back. And with that in mind I put the bike in a harder gear and pedaled with everything I had.

I was feeling really good and felt like I was tearing up the roads. After a good while of this, I found the turnoff for the lake and travelled the extra 2 miles from the turnoff to the campsite. In camp, I hopped off the bike in good spirits and helped setup the tents. Dinner was whipped up from chicken and pork that had been donated by the store in McBride and slowly the riders came trickling in. Having eaten and done everything necessary I dove into the sleeping bag before everyone else came in and promptly feel asleep, glad to know that the next day’s ride would be a little bit easier since we had done the 30 miles extra.