Day 3: Hope to Merritt (T.D.: 111km; S.T.: 6h40m)

The Coquihalla! From the moment we started planning this trip, I would hear people talk about this highway like it was some mythical beast to be slain before venturing outside of the Lower Mainland. People uttered its name in hushed, fearful tones: “Better to go around,” they would say, “Stay on Highway 1 and take a few extra days…”; or “The Coquihalla? You’ll never make it!”. Some just laughed. A cyclist in Hope went so far as to remark that he would be checking for us in the hospital in Merritt (he was going to Merritt too, via Highway 1, and would take four days to get there while we took just one). Needless to say, we were somewhat daunted by what lay ahead when we woke up on Day 3.

We set our alarms for an early hour this day, in order to give ourselves ample time for water breaks and rest stops along the way, and were on the road by 7:30am. The ride out of Othello from Graham’s house was cool and damp, and things only got cooler and damper as the morning wore on. This was a good thing, probably, as the ascent started a mere 15km in. Our progress was slow, but with a constant reward of breathtaking views of Coquihalla Canyon to our immediate right, we weren’t in any particular hurry. What is, for the most, part, a mild-but-relentless incline turns ugly right before the Great Bear Snowshed, which is a tunnel built to keep the avalanches at bay. Here’s where the transport trucks travel at about 15km/h, and cyclists aren’t too far behind at about 6 or 7km/h. It only lasts for about 6km, but you don’t need a mathematician to tell you that an hour of slogging it uphill at that pace (after you’ve already been slogging it uphill for an hour or more) is a bit of a slog.
Reaching the summit was a good feeling, made all the more cinematic by the sun, which broke through the clouds right on cue.

After much high-fiving, back-patting, and “I’m the King of the World”-ing, we decided to continue on when we realized that we had only completed one third of the day’s distance. Things got considerably less steep at this point, being on top of a mountain and all, and we made good progress until stopping for lunch in Coldwater Provincial Park. Here, I had my first bear scare. Luckily, the bear turned out to be a cow. All is well.
We said goodbye to the Coquihalla about 30km before Merritt, and enjoyed a trip through the ranchlands on Coldwater Road. This part of the country is real American heartland stuff – it didn’t feel like Canada at all, all dusty canyons, sagebrush, and cowskulls nailed to entrance gates. Merritt itself was a strange town too, the type of place where tumbleweeds blow down the road and murals of Canadian country-western stars are painted on the sides of every building. We camped out next to, you guessed it, Coldwater River, and enjoyed a cloudless sky all night in this desert valley.

Stats:
Avg. Sp.: 16.24 km/h
Max. Sp.: 54.8km/h
Mountains climbed: 1
Altitude reached: 1244m
Bears that turned out to be cows: 1
Bugs in Mouth: 2 (1 for me, 1 for Caroline)