Not Rain, nor sleet, nor cold……

 

Well, the rain and cold continue. But the weather has not been able to keep me completely out of the saddle – just shortened the day’s and kilometers traveled, that’s all. Today saw me covering a mere 450kms. And it was cold. Well, all except for the final 80 kms, which I did after booking into the Ramada in Creston, BC., because the sun had finally come out and I needed to ride in the sunlight to shake off the chill of the rain.

My day started at 0600. I awoke to the sound of rain on my tent, and upon zipping out of my sleeping bag, I discovered that it was also really cold. I checked the temperature on my Grundig portable radio – 5 degrees.

Welcome to Chain Lakes Provincial Park.

Located on the Cowboy Trail on the way out of Calgary and towards BC, the park is not much more than a hilly area of scrub pine, Jacobs ladder, willow shrub and tall grass. Primarily set up for RV use, I pitched my tent in an out of the way corner and snuggled in for the night at about 09:30

This was, believe it or not, my first night in my tent. It set up really quickly and was also simple to take down and pack-up. Thank goodness that it did not rain really hard last night, because I had amateurishly pitched my tent on a small slope. too tired to move it, I crawled into my sleeping bag and spent the night sliding off of my mat, waking up, repositioning and falling back to sleep. Lessons learned, right?

Taken on the Cowboy Trail. Fitting.

 

Vagabond style.

 

Oh. I guess I should back up a bit and tell you about yesterday’s events.

I was picked up at the hotel by the assistant to the Chief of Police and we chatted about my travels so far. I was given a grand tour of the CPS facilities – what a police station! As I mentioned in an earlier post the buildings used to be a Nortel complex, and the gymnasiums, basketball court, weight rooms, dance studio and theatre all remain in place as they were established by Nortel for their employees. The Calgary police officers all enjoy coming into headquarters, I can assure you.

I was introduced to the audience of about 150 people by Chief Hanson, and then proceeded to speak for about an hour. This was followed by another 45 minutes of Q & A, which was really pleasing. The quantity and variety of questions confirmed that I had managed to hold the room. I one day hope to make this sort of thing my main-stay. Like all things though, it is a process and takes time.

After being returned to the hotel i immediately brought my bike to a local service / repair shop known as GW Cycle. Recommended to me by a couple of members from the Calgary 022 CMC, I can say without a doubt that these guys set a new standard for service.

I walked in and explained my problem to an older, British-accent speaking mechanic – describing the strange ‘clanking’ sound and the vibration in my pegs – and he immediately said “sounds like your chain to me lad. Have you been ridin’ in the rain?"

He told me to go see Steve at service. Steve was busy booking appointments for the first week of July. Not June. July.

These guys were swamped. But after 2 minutes of explaining my situation and my trip, Steve had my bike in the back – cleaned and lube’d my chain – shook my hand and said ‘good luck – enjoy your trip’.

No charge.

I sure do like it out here.

I left the shop, went right to GPSCity.com and picked up my new Garmin Zumo 550, bolted on my new mount – and hit the trail. At 4:00pm in the afternoon. Which is why I only made it from Calgary to Chain Lakes Provincial Park. Well, that and the fact that I took an hour and a half detour up through Kananaskis Country from the Cowboy Trail. Unfortunately, highway 40, the Kananaskis Trail, does not open until June 15th. Maybe on the way home I will get back to it.

 

Crowsnest Pass

BTW – I have created a sub-album on my Photobucket page for yesterday and todays travels. I think it keeps things simpler.

sub-album

So, tonight I am sleeping in luxury once again. My cameras are all charged, as is my cell phone, so I can sleep wherever I find myself wanting to camp tomorrow night. I have a great run planned for the day. From Creston up to Nelson BC to do the Kootenay Lakes loop through Kaslo and New Denver, then back down to Castelgar. About 350kms, and 5.5 hours. For a side trip before getting back on my way to Vancouver.

The weather network is calling for rain all day.

Put your raingear on my fellow travelers – cause we are gonna ride!