11/04/2012 - Cycling from kelowna to Vancouver. Day 10 - 16/04/2012

Yay! Now finished cycling 4500km across Canada.
I arrived at Rose's place where I state at for 5 nights, wow, I had no idea it was that long. Im writing this now on the 17th making my way towards Victoria to go visit some friends.
Anyway, it has been an interesting last couple of days of drinking, partying and dressing up. THe dress up party I attended was villain themed where I dressed as on of the ghost twins from the matrix. I went all out and made an almost perfect costume - pics should be below.
It was a great night out ending up at some random womans place with her friends when walking home alone. Having been offered more beers and staying there to the wee hours of the morning just chatting away and I was drunk to the point where I started hitting on the 45 year old. That night could have ended weirdly. Still a great night out.
I got a message this morning from the Swiss girl I met in Peru, I thought I had something with her but as it turns out, she can't join me on my next bike trip nor does she want anything more than just being 'friends', sigh. As I have said before this girl was my dream girl, so right now I'm a little disappointed. Obviously what I need to do is sever that thread of hope Im holding onto to get back with her when I cycle through Switzerland when I finish work here in Canada and go on travelling.

Made it to Van!

10/04/2012 - Cycling from kelowna to Vancouver. Day 09

Normally after a nights rest my knee would be ok to do about 20 km of cycling but this morning I was in pain from the time I woke up.
This meant that my injury is getting progressively worse. I found out that there was a walk-in clinic in Mission where I could go see a doctor but that was 40km away from where I camped.
It was an agonizing distance to cover where the last 10 km I had to peddle using only one leg - not an easy task.
I had given up just on the outskirts of town where I asked a guy with a trailer to give me a ride to the clinic. He saw how much I was struggling and thankfully helped me out.
Arriving at the clinic I paid $50 for the doctors consultation as I dont have a health care card and waited for a good hour before I was sat in the room waiting for the doctor to finish his lunch (I presume). When he finally did arrive he spent only 10 minutes with me and diagnosed my bad knee as Patello femoral syndrome, he prescribed me some anti-inflammatories and I was on my way, I wanted to ask more questions to get my money's worth but he just dissapeared, I suppose to get back to his lunch.
Anyway, I went to the pharmacy and picked up my prescription and went to maccy d's to eat some shitty food with the pills and hop on the free wifi.
I was looking for somewhere close I could stay using the warm showers list but no one was available I the area. Instead I had to cycle 25km down the highway to Maple ridge where I would be staying with Alex, Barb and their 3 kids.
Have a few hours break from cycling helped out my knee a lot and the anti-inflammatories seemed to work too.
At this point I was really enjoying the cycling and looking forward to making it to Vancouver tomorrow. It would be about 4500km I would have cycled across Canada in total. Not a bad effort. :)
My hosts for the evening were great, barb was on a liquid diet as she was about to go for an operation in a couple of days time and Alex seemed to be passionate (well, I would say obsessed) with bicycles as he owned 9 of them all hanging from the ceiling in the garage. On top of that the three young kids had at least 2 of their own so the garage was chock-o-block of bikes.
The kids were very picky with what they ate for dinner and as Barb was on this strict diet I only cooked for myself and Alex.
It was nothing special, just a quick stir fry by after dinner I had bought some Tim Tams for the kids to try a Tim Tam Slammer. If you don't know what a Tim Tam Slammer is, I'll explain it: a Tim tam is a biscuit thats from Australia, it's 2 biscuits with a soft fudge in the center surrounded with dairy milk chocolate, to make it a slammer you have to nibble off the two opposing corners and use it like a straw and suck a hot chocolate, coffee or tea; as the milk chocolate melts from the inside you have to throw it into your mouth before it falls apart between your fingers the explosion of sweetness is like no other its delicious and almost too sickly sweet but amazing no less.
It seemed like it was too weird for this family to try this fantastic new thing and the kids didnt even want to try it, if i was young and saw this i would not hesitate. Whatever, I ate 3 and savoured each one.

09/04/2012 - Cycling from kelowna to Vancouver. Day 8

111km
Max 67.6
5:28 riding time
Average 20.2
Chris after only meeting him for such a short amount of time when I first arrived became such a generous and wicked bloke. He and his girlfriend Ally really helped me out in the small village and ski resort, not only by introducing me to all there buddies but sorting me out with lift passes, gear and alcohol.
What a couple! Just fantastic kind hearted people - exactly the type of people anybody and everybody should have a ball with.
Anyways, after saying my goodbyes I was on the road by 9am starting at an altitude of 1300meters to descend very close to sea level - this cycle downhill is something I have been looking forward to since arriving at Manning Park; and boy was it epic! Managing to get my bike up to 70km/h and trying to keep up with the traffic, not that there was really any and as such giving me the width of the lane to avoid the pot holes and bumps on this road that had been built during world war 2 era.
I was hoping the 2 days of boarding and countless hours sitting in the hot tub and steam room would have tended fairly to my knee that I have been having trouble with but only when cycling long distances but unfortunately similar to previous days I had the same issue of it progressively locking up to a point where it is unbearable and I have to stop for several hours. Painkillers did nothing and at one point today I almost gave up cycling just after midday after passing out (because of the pain) beside a river for 2 hours, I was completely immobilized.
I pushed on though and covered somewhat decent amount of distance on the flats towards Vancouver up until a 11% grade for 2 km but at this point it was getting into the late afternoon and I just pitched up my tent beside a bridge at the base so tomorrow I can push myself up it with a semi-healed knee.
Vancouver is a little over 100 km away, and if all goes well I should make it there tomorrow.

 

09/04/2012 - Cycling from kelowna to Vancouver. Day 8

111km
Max 67.6
5:28 riding time
Average 20.2
Chris after only meeting him for such a short amount of time when I first arrived became such a generous and wicked bloke. He and his girlfriend Ally really helped me out in the small village and ski resort, not only by introducing me to all there buddies but sorting me out with lift passes, gear and alcohol.
What a couple! Just fantastic kind hearted people - exactly the type of people anybody and everybody should have a ball with.
Anyways, after saying my goodbyes I was on the road by 9am starting at an altitude of 1300meters to descend very close to sea level - this cycle downhill is something I have been looking forward to since arriving at Manning Park; and boy was it epic! Managing to get my bike up to 70km/h and trying to keep up with the traffic, not that there was really any and as such giving me the width of the lane to avoid the pot holes and bumps on this road that had been built during world war 2 era.
I was hoping the 2 days of boarding and countless hours sitting in the hot tub and steam room would have tended fairly to my knee that I have been having trouble with but only when cycling long distances but unfortunately similar to previous days I had the same issue of it progressively locking up to a point where it is unbearable and I have to stop for several hours. Painkillers did nothing and at one point today I almost gave up cycling just after midday after passing out (because of the pain) beside a river for 2 hours, I was completely immobilized.
I pushed on though and covered somewhat decent amount of distance on the flats towards Vancouver up until a 11% grade for 2 km but at this point it was getting into the late afternoon and I just pitched up my tent beside a bridge at the base so tomorrow I can push myself up it with a semi-healed knee.
Vancouver is a little over 100 km away, and if all goes well I should make it there tomorrow.

 

07/04/2012 + 08/04/2012 - 2 days of free snowboarding and thats the best snowboarding

Day 6+7 thanks to the seasonaires of Manning Park. I had such a great time, also when bringing my GPS out with me I got to hit a maximum of 82km/h :)

06/04/2012 - Cycling from kelowna to Vancouver. Day 5

I managed to pack my things, say goodbye to Jen and Jason and chow down on some breakfast by 9 this morning and start the hill climb from Princeton to Hope on the other side of the pass. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to make it to Hope (ironically named) but I certainly was going to try.
Going from 700meters in altitude to 1300 wasn't a big issue as it was only recently I hiked up Huanya Potosi in Bolivia that pushed out of the surface of the earth to a height of 6088 meters (not to sound too big headed). Anywho, I didn't really struggle getting up on this pass and I knew if I stopped my knee would be worse off, so with this in mind I didn't stop for 2 hours only to have a 5 minute snack break and then another 1.5 hours before the wear on my knee was so excruciating I had to stop, thankfully when I started feeling the pain I was at a trucks stop where I got myself a hot chocolate and rested up for a bit. Here I was told that at Manning Park there was a hostel that could accommodate me for the evening and it was only 15 km down the road. This sounded like a fair plan as I certainly did not want to set up my tent in the snow at 1200m in altitude.
I struggled these 15 km have to stop every 2 km or so for a break until it started bucketing snow. This was the first time I encountered snow whilst cycling and obviously it's not a pleasant experience.
Eventually when I made it to the small village of manning park where I checked into the hostel where I was told there was a hot tub and steam-room for all to use. I didn't hesitate and hobbled my way there with a bag of ice to nurse my knee.
I had the place to myself until some family's with screaming kids started rolling in and ruined the tranquility for me.
But soon later I met this dude named Chris who had worked at the resort all season and was willing to show me about town first off inviting me to a party with all the seasonaires for the resort and even offered me a place to stay if I wanted to stick around. I wasn't too sure yet but later in the evening when he said I should check out the mountain with a lift pass he and his friends would offer me with free rentals I couldn't pass up the offer.
After a hell of a long time in the hot tub and getting a drink at the bar meeting some more seasonaires I made my way to where the party was at, where at first it was a little lame but after giving it some time it started kicking off and I bounced off the walls chatting to all these new people and even to some Chileans whom I got to practice my Spanish with.
I dont know at what time I made it back to the hostel but it was late.

05/04/2012 - Cycling from kelowna to Vancouver. Day 4

The past two nights camping at the rest stop in the freezing cold was uncomfortable to say the least. I layered on most if not all my clothes to combat the cold but it as it seemed it certainly wasn't adequate and was more apparent when I woke to be surrounded with a good 2 cm of snow.
Regardless I needed to get back on the road, I packed my tent and my things and set off in the brisk weather towards Princeton only 20km away with the hopes my knee could put up with steady cycling. Unfortunately my knee did not and I could feel the onset of he pain I felt two days ago, worrying about it was something i disresgarded quickly as the surrounding snow capped mountains and the luscious dark green of the pine forests blanketed by the spring snow left me in awe. It was simply as astonishing.
I cycled the 20 km to Princeton where I got some information on terrain that was to come - a steep incline to 1400m. I arrived at midday and thinking that if I were to cycle to the summit before the end of the day wouldnt be very smart because if I didn't make it up and over I'd be screwed having to camp at high altitude obviously having issues keeping warm.
I stuck around town for the day and hit that mountain hard in the morning.
I would have camped at the base but thankfully I met a server in a coffee shop who was willing to host me for the evening.
Jen didn't finish work till 8pm so I had some time to kill. I sat around a park, stocked up on food and spent several hours just using the Internet at Dairy Queen where I kind of pissed of management downloading porn err... I mean important stuff. Nah, I actually spent a hell of a lot of time uploading my pics from my previous cycling experience across the country.
At 8 I met wih Jen who took me back to her place answers I cooked a lovely meal for her and her boyfriend Jason.
They were very hospitable and Jason and I had a lot in common with music and travelling experiences.
Doing the same as I always do I showed off my pics and told stories of the places I have travelled to for entertainment purposes before getting an early nights rest for a epic (hoping my knee holds out) day of conquering the mountain pass tomorrow.