Life with Dennis: Bicycling, Teaching, & more: Day 8, Tuesday, July 24, 2012, Day 8, Kootenay Lodge to Radium Hot Springs, Gateway Lodge

Day 8, Tuesday, July 24, 2012, Kootenay Lodge to Radium Hot Springs, Gateway Lodge

Rained all night and when we woke up it was overcast, looking very threatening, and it wasn't raining. We had a complimentary continental breakfast. Me? I had a bowl of raisin bran and two pieces of cinnamon raisin bread slathered with peanut butter and strawberry jam. Canadians like their peanut butter in the morning.

It was cold, low 40's would be my guess. I started out with my Showers Pass rain jacket as my primary protection against the cold otherwise I was dressed normally for cool mornings. About a mile down the rode I pulled over and pulled out my marino wool long finger gloves and head gaiter, Christmas gifts from Dameon and Michelle. This would be the first time I used the head gaiter. It worked great! Bundled up and miles behind the group I set out to catch up.

The road was mostly down. The sky was overcast with two layers of clouds. The lower level obscured all the peaks on either side of the valley (and the upper layer of clouds, for that matter).

Unknown peak peeking through the clouds.

I caught up with the group when they stopped to unbundle. The stop was near the top of our first climb of the day, a minor hill. I took off the rain jacket and the long fingered gloves, but left the head gaiter on. I caught and passed the group. Spied a deer buck and possibly a doe, but could not see the second beast clearly as they were back in the trees grazing. About a 100 meters down the road a doe was standing at an entrance to a side road, looking very anxious. I imagined she might be wondering where am I? What should I do now? What are these fast, loud, things (cars not bikes, of course)? No picture as I have seen plenty of deer in my life time. Moose or a Caribou? Now, I would stop and take a picture. The young lady deer did have a fine looking coat though. Very reddish with a touch of gold.

A little later Jay and I were riding along when we came upon a white pickup parked down in the large, wide, parallel, drainage ditch. Fifty meters on at the edge of the woods was a man on one knee with a tool in his right hand chopping and digging something in the dirt at the bottom of a tree. He looked up as we passed and impressed us both as being a bit nervous or anxious. He acknowledged me with a wave and went back to chopping ad digging. We wondered out loud what he was doing? Jay wondered if he might be burying a body? I added there was an empty tarp in the back of his truck. Then continued on with he had to be desperate or stupid as he parked his vehicle where everyone and his dog could see it. Jay said he should have gone back farther in the woods if he really wanted to get away with it.

I saw two more deer, a buck and a doe, grazing about 50 meters off the road.

The long climb for the day was over Sinclair Pass at 4875 feet. Mike was stopped at the bottom of the climb eating something. Geno and Bob stopped at a road entrance to eat. I kept going. I met a couple descending as I went up. I began to overheat and started looking for a place to pull over. I needed to pull the head gaiter off and replace it with a cap. I had been climbing in my middle chain ring and was feeling like the granny gear was calling me strongly. I shifted up in the rear and down to the granny and brought the Rex to a stop. Off came the gaiter, on went the cap, and off I powered to go up and around a few more curves when I realized I needed to stop and remove the vest or at least unzip it and my jersey and pull the arm warmers down. Now as I remember I may have done the unzipping and pulling before I switched out the head gaiter. Anyway with air being able to cool me I continued up to the summit. There was a scenic overlook and a parking areas on both sides of the road. I decided to pull over and take a look. As I disembarked from the bike I looked at the road going forward and thought to myself it looks like it is going down. I may be at the summit! The altimeter indicated I was about 400 feet short though. I ate a pb&j sandwich, drank a little water, and snapped some pictures. And stood around waiting for the others to arrive. After about 15 minutes i was getting chilled so I decided to roll on.

Kooteney Valley looking northward.

Kooteney Valley looking southward.

Sinclair Mountain, really, it's there!

I rolled out of the parking area starting to coast. After about 50 meters of coasting I found myself having to pedal then I realized I needed to shift down to the granny gear again. I had zipped up the jersey and vest and pulled the arm warmers up so I was sweating pretty good. I actually reached the summit and my altimeter indicated I had ascended the appropriate amount of feet and there was a sign warning trucks an 8% descent was ahead and they should stop and check their brakes. A chip truck who had passed me on the ascent pulled out at the far end of the brake check area just as I began to descend. I let her roll. Very quickly I caught up to the chip truck. Decision time; do I pass the truck or brake to control my speed and let the chip truck roll away when it could. I chose to do the latter. On the descent there were three signs informing truckers of 8% gradients ahead. By the time I reached the third 8% sign I had lost 500 feet of elevation. In time it was less than five minutes.

It wasn't long before I reached the sign saying 'Welcome to Radium Hot Springs.' Through the tunnel and ba-boom there is the sign saying this way to the hot springs pool. I looked up and there was the Radium Hot Springs Lodge. "I believe that is where we are staying," I thinks to myself. I pull into the parking lot and spy the road up to the lodge. It looks steep so I drop it into the granny. Half a dozen pedal strokes and I realize it is too steep so I stop the bike but can't get my right leg over the top tube. Also as I am stopping the bike I hear a feminine voice saying, "Hey we're right here. Stop, we're right here." I turn to see if she is really talking to me. She was, but I'm not who she thought I was. I get off the bike by swinging my left leg over the whole bike, then walk around to the left side to push the bike up the hill. The road to the lodge flattens to make a turn to the right and has a cable across it with a sign saying 'no vehicle access.' I spy a way around the cable gate and keep on pushing the bike. When I reach the lodge rooms I notice there are no cars around, but of course not, the cars are all down in the parking lot. I ride the bike toward the office and notice a large plate glass window to the left of the office doors is broken out. "Oh, oh, and look the glass in the office doors is broken too. This place is abandoned." I retrace my steps, roll the bike around the cable gate ride it down through the parking lot and on to the highway headed for the village of Radium Hot Springs. On the way down is another sign for truckers to be aware of an 11% gradient. "No way am I going to ride back up an 11% grade just to soak in a hot springs!" There is no shoulder on my side so I take the lane confident I can stay ahead of the traffic on an 11% descent. Around the corner we roll and bazinga!! Here is the village of Radium Hot Springs and all I see are motel/hotel choices. I do not know which one we are booked to stay in tonight. There is a small grassy park right there and I park the bike in plain view so the gang will see it as soon as they come around the corner. They did and I joined them to search for the Gateway Motel. What this town needs is more motels. : > )

We had a very nice dinner at a German/Austrian restaurant just across and down the street a bit. Directly across the street from the restaurant is a wood carver's home. Our waitress told us a bit about "Rolf."