Ashcroft to Merritt

Stats - Day Four

These are UNBELIEVEABLE

I don't think there are words that can describe today. It was the most grueling cycle ride I have ever done.

The day started with a climb that lasted 18k. Yes 18 grueling k with grades as high as 13 percent. Honestly there were times when I was certain that I was not going to make it. I geared down and slogged it out.

When we arrived in camp - there were war stories from everyone. A couple of people got a ride up the hill, some people had spiritual moments (laying down in the ditch!!!!) and others slogged it up. I did stop a couple of times, but it was BRUTAL. Everyone in the group is going to remember THE ASHCROFT HILL. It took me about 2 1/4 hours to make it up.

Here is the start of THE ASHCROFT hill. See it winding around the mountain in the distance. Right from camp we started to climb.

Half way up I saw this sign and knew it was going to be a LONG SLOG

Here is a picture that Lynn took of me. You can grasp an idea of the grade of the hill. Again pictures DO NOT do justice to the real thing!!!!!

Here is a close up of me. Oh yes - did I mention that it was CANADA DAY and I dressed for the part!!!!!  I carried that flag all the way and wore the lei. That lei was for Judy.

 It was also a cold day so I had my big coat on!!!  Of course - it happened to be red and with my white bike  - I was very patrotic!!!!

The MOST WELCOME sign on the entire trip!!!!!!  I could NOT believe I had made the hill without collapsing.

 All I can say is that I dug DEEP both physically and mentally for that challenge. It was grueling, it was hard, it was demanding - well you get the picture, but I DID NOT give up!!!!!!!

Anna and Ev got a ride part way up and when I got to top, Anna was there. It was perfect timing actually.  So Anna and I rode pretty much the rest of the way by ourselves. It was also very cold by this point and I now had on FOUR layers of clothing. Look at the final (or close to it elevation)

Yes - that says 4,139 FEET and we started somewhere around 1,000 feet!!!!!

The last part of the steep climb was made even worse by a STRONG head wind. The "nice" thing about the headwind is that it remained with us for the entire day. 85k of slogging into a very gusty strong wind. You could not even enjoy the downhills because the wind was so strong.

Yes - this is my little flag flying and it was NOT because of my speed that it was flying so proudly. That headwind damn near killed us.

A self portrait!!!!   I have NO idea why I was smiling - there was NOTHING to smile about on this day.

 We decided to stop in Logan Lake for lunch. Not because we wanted to climb up the HILL that lead into town, but all of us were mentally and physically exhausted by this time and needed a break. Anna and I split a shepherd's pie. That lunch break was the best thing we could have done.

We still had 50 K to go at this point and none of us were looking forward to facing that headwind AGAIN!!!!

Anna, Prisca, Dave and Steve

Prisca - adding some newspaper to her layers to help stay warm!!!!  You would think we were in the Tour de France!!!!!

Anna and I soon lost the others who are much stronger cyclists (but we were very happy to hear that they were hurting just as much as we were!!!!)  We ended up setting goals for ourselves - 10 K at a time. We would ride for 10 K and have a mini break. Then another 10K and so on until we arrived in camp. I was NEVER so happy to see camp!!!!!

Now most of us have some sore of clip in pedals. These are mine.

Mike is a pretty decent cyclist, having done the Tour Pacific SIX times. Look at his fancy pedals!!!!   Why they are just like regular pedals you say!!!!   Well yes they are - a Canadian Tire special. Apparently he had put new pedals on his bike just two days ago and they were falling apart on the hill. He had so choice but to buy these in Merritt - it was his only option until he could get to a bike store!!!!   We sure had a good laugh over this.

At the campground!!!!!

We arrived in camp around 5. We were not the last ones in.


Anna is our pilates. Instructor and we must stretch now.

Everyone was in bed EARLY!!!!!!   I wonder why!!!! 

And in case you are wondering where the hell we are going - we took this little detour in order to get the total mileage for the trip. In future, I would say to hell with the extra mileage. That big zig zag - well we paid the price dearly for those extra 100 K!!!!!!

Have a good day.

Ciao