Day Three - Mission to Hope

We made it through another day of cycling. The day started off nice - well nice means NO RAIN, although the sky was not clear. And there is the question of what to wear. While it did get warm, I always wore my cycling vest. My jacket becomes a vest when you pull off the sleeves and so far, I have worn that jacket every day. It is just cool enough to warrant wearing it. OH - that is because we are going so fast. I'm KIDDING!!!!!

After all my work in prepping my tent and laundry bags and shower bags and whatnot, getting ready this morning was a breeze and I was ready in no time. But I waited for a couple of others to leave so we could ride together. That way if I got lost, I would have others to blame as well.

The breakfast crew cleaning up!

There was a big pond right by our campsite and the trout were jumping all night and the crows (or whatever bird they were) was squawking VERY early this morning. But as we were getting ready this morning, a big blue heron came in and sat at the edge of the pond. After he realized that he wasn't going to get anything from the pond - he flew up into a tree. Pretty cool.

The heron is about dead center in the picture

I have to tell you about my cot. I LOVE IT!!!!!   It is very comfortable and just like sleeping in a bed. I am glad that I got the wider one (you know what happens when us women have children!!!)

My cot and it fits perfectly in my tent!!!!!

This morning, we started off with Megan, Clark, Becky and myself. We were the first out, but after a bit, it was clear that Megan and Clark were a bit more advanced than us and they went ahead. But Becky and I had a good chat along the way and it was a pleasant day.

The shoulders were wide, the traffic was considerate (for the most part) and so nice to be riding out of the city.

We did stop in Agassiz for lunch. There was a beautiful park there where we ate our lunch and just before we left, a number of other riders caught up with us. We forged on. I think we had only one major hill to climb today and it wasn't long. The rest were very doable.

Lunch

No issues with the maps today. And we took a slight detour to get to our camp and we went to see the Orthello Tunnels. OH MY GOODNESS - I have never seen them before and they are spectacular. We had to go through a LONG rough mountain bike type trail before getting to them. But it was so worth it. Now we could have come the other direction, but that would have meant cycling up a couple of BIG hills. I am glad we went the way we did.

The trail which led to the Orthello Tunnels - we went in the back way

Looking off the train tressel

Entrance to one of the tunnels

Now the big issue - is how to keep eating enough. That is pretty bad when you  can't eat enough every day. Well - I mean we have LOTS of food so that isn't the issue, but I am craving APPLES and I have already eaten THREE!!!!!  (this afternoon)


I did manage to buy bug spray so hopefully I will be set tonight in the event that we have mosquitoes. I hope we don't - let's hope for a little breeze - that would be perfect.

Group dynamics are great. We really do have a diverse group and everyone is pulling together so that helps a whole lot.

I am going to go and edit some pictures so I can add them to the blog.

I am happy (and the sun is out right now!!!) and so thankful that I am able to do this trip. Of course - I might not be saying that in a couple of weeks!!!!!  No idea how we are going to get through Alberta yet - but that is not on the agenda for tomorrow.


Have a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Sorry - no pictures today.  It is a very convoluted process to get them loaded and I have got them edited and ready to load and the internet is slow????   Anyway - I will post them when I can.