Day 10 – Glacier to Golden (T.D.: 87.41km; S.T.: 4h11min)

Woke to raindrops splashing on our tent fly –we were discouraged by this, but relieved that we had made it through the night with no further bear encounters. We were thankful for a brief window of sunshine around 10am, during which we hurriedly dismantled our campsite, packed up the bikes, and hit the road. If you’ll recall, we still had 2km to reach the summit, and by the time we had left the campground, the rain had resumed its attack with renewed vigour. To facilitate our hasty departure, we had decided to skip breakfast and fuel up at the Roger’s Pass cafeteria at the summit. Pleased to have an excuse to get out of the rain, which at this point had churned itself up into a full-fledged thundershower, we enjoyed a hearty meal, and waited for the storm to blow itself out a bit.

The descent from the summit was a thrilling thing – thrilling in the “I could die at any moment from any number of factors that all appear bent on my immediate destruction” sense. In sharp contrast to our experience during the Kelowna heatwave, we were now chilled to the bone by rain and wind, donning extra layers to keep our teeth from chattering as we coasted through dark tunnels and tried to avoid the ever-present onslaught of transport trucks and RVs (Mom will love reading this bit...).

We were almost grateful for the incline by the time we reached the ascent out of Beaver Valley – it gave us a chance to warm up, at least. Around this time, we had our second sighting of a mountain predator – this time a coyote, who was trotting along the shoulder until a Jeep scared him/her off the road and back into the forest.

The next 50kms or so into Golden were a lovely, mostly downhill ride along the Columbia River. The sun even came out around midday! We were feeling pretty good about life until a McDonald’s milkshake was hurled at Caroline by some engaged young citizens in a passing car. It seemed unlikely that this was a benevolent gesture aimed to keep us hydrated, and the incident did not bode well for our appreciation of this small town on the edge of the Rockies.

Happily, our perspective was changed for the better upon arriving at what was to be our accommodations for the night – the home of Judith, who had generously left us the keys to her house while she was away on vacation; this from someone we’ve never even met! If that wasn’t enough, Judith’s next door neighbour, Nathalie, invited us over to join her and her family for dinner when she saw us pull up on our bikes around suppertime. As it turns out, Nathalie (who is originally from France) had recently acquired an authentic French crepe-maker, and was busy getting ready for her first appearance at the Golden Farmer’s Market later this week. Eagerly performing what we perceived to be our civic duty, we served as test customers as she and her family perfected their recipes for both sweet and savoury crepes (the former of which included fresh honey from the family’s beehive!). We spent the evening visiting and watching the kids put on a “magic show” on their trampoline (looked more like a UFC cage match to me) before retiring to Judith’s house for the night, where we did laundry and got mentally prepared for the Rocky Mountains. (We had hoped to do a full rest day here, but our change of schedule during the heatwave forced us to nix that plan. It’s okay though, our relaxed pace has meant that our muscles are not too sore, and the scenery has been good motivation to get up and moving every morning.)

Stats:

Av. Spd: 21km/h

Mx. Spd: 57km/h

Altitude reached: 1330m (Roger’s Pass)

Time zones boundaries crossed: 1

Worst aim: Dude with the milkshake (he missed by about 10 feet).

Closest call: Almost stopped at the Legendz 50’s Diner for supper, which would have meant NO CREPES. Besides, I’m of the opinion that anything that substitutes a “z” for an “s” is usually best avoided. Unless it’s me doing the substituting, of course, because when I do it, IT RULEZ.