Day 9 - Revelstoke to Glacier National Park (T.D.: 69km; S.T.: 4h37min)

Today started with another flat. Again, it was Caroline’s front wheel. We’re going to replace her tires first chance we get, as they appear to be old and feeble, and this tour is about YOUTH and STRENGTH. Caroline’s getting lots of practice fixing flats though. I usually stand over her shoulder and tell her the right way to do it – a small act of kindness that I’m sure she appreciates greatly.

Our route today on the TransCanada through the Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks would find us navigating a hefty climb up Roger’s Pass. Having visited the historic site in Craigellachie where the last spike was hammered in to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway, and then having perused Pierre Berton’s non-fiction classic, “The Last Spike,” in Ryan and Ann Marie’s bathroom the day before, we felt steeped (ha!) in railway history and lore as we prepared for a big climb today. While this particular pass through the Selkirk and Monashee Mountain ranges was one of the biggest challenges for Major A.B. Rogers and the C.P.R. company in building the railroad, we didn’t find it too difficult to bike up – particularly in comparison to the significantly more arduous climb through the Cascades en route to Kelowna last week. It is said that “blasphemy sprang to [Roger’s] lips like prayer to a priest’s” (Berton, 294) while he was surveying and completing this section of the line, but nary a foul word was uttered by Caroline or myself as we muscled our way up to the summit.

Actually, we didn’t quite make it to the summit today, but camped out along the Illecillewaet river, about 2km from the top. We had planned for another short day today, in part due to the elevation gain, and partly because it would have been a ridiculously long day to Golden otherwise, with no camping options that we knew of in between.

The scenery continued its spectacular bent, and the weather was very forgiving (until we reached our campsite, at which point the skies opened up and unleashed quite a fury – luckily, tarp and tent had been set up by that point). I would be remiss not to mention our first real bear sighting. Actually, Caroline zoomed by without noticing, but just off the highway to our right, on a steep, tree-covered embankment, I managed to spot a black bear cub making its way through the foliage. I stopped and blew my whistle (we wear whistles around our necks to get each other’s attention while on the road) to let Caroline know, and ended up startling the little guy – and, as it turns out, his mother and little sibling as well, both of whom came into view at that point. They hightailed it up the hill, and I was relieved to find that my little whistle works quite well as a bear repellent. In any case, I was pleased that they started running in the right direction, i.e., away from me. Caroline, meanwhile, hadn’t heard my whistle at all, and was waiting for me down the road, wondering what the hold-up was. A few kilometres down the road, she got another flat tire.

Stats:

Av. Spd: 15.0km/h

Mx. Spd: 46.3km/h

Elevation gained: 880m

Real bears spotted: 3

Lighting storms endured at the top of a mountain: 1

Knots taught to us by Alex Hall in order to more easily set up tarp shelters: 2

Knots taught to us by Alex Hall that were promptly forgotten: 2

Sporks broken: 1

Trees that looked like animals: 1