The day started off a little cooler and we enjoyed wonderful views of Nicola Lake.
Our stop in Merritt coincided with the Mountainfest but we didn’t have an event because it would involve booking an expensive booth on this high profile weekend. By now it was noon and we started the climb out of town. We were on Hwy 5A which had mercifully little traffic and much less climb than going on the Coquihalla. 
For at least an hour the quiet of thie backroad was disturbed by what appeared to tourist helicopter flights along the valley which came along every 10 minutes or so. Wonder how much fuel that burns up compared to the great views from a bicycle? Grrr! Blame any crankiness on the heat. Maybe it sounds whiny to keep harping on about the heat but it really makes riding a lot harder. Today the air was no longer so dry so the sweat did not evaporate as easily and we felt a little slimier. Blech! Picking saskatoon berries only gave a brief respite. 
It’s much easier doing a big climb in the morning than in the afternoon sun like today. Eventually most of us dragged into the Warawa family’s ranch for our camping spot. They were so kind to allow a group strangers to stay since their yard is not really a campsite. Foreshadowed by yesterday’s unplanned detour Steve managed to get himself lost again by following an arrow painted on the road toward a ski area waaay up a hill (we use chalk sometimes to mark turns). Our support vehicle driver Robin eventually found him after many worried minutes fearing the worst. All’s well that ends well as we sat around a firepit eating s’mores in the evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment