After my second good night rest in the wild I woke up to some light drizzle, which later turned into more heavy showers. Listening to the drops knocking onto the tent walls I turned around and had very slow rise. Lucky as I am it was perfect, as the morning progressed the showers lessened and even stopped for a while. The break in the weather I used to take my breakfast, some yoghurt with cereals and get my things packed up again.
The last thing to do was than to take all my belongings carry them up the stairs and attach them to the bike.
This done I was ready for the road again. As was riding back towards the main road, I heard some whistling behind and was soon overtaken by Tim the fisherman – as I will call this nice happy guy. Tim has a place close to Strawberry Point where he spent the night and was heading back to town, his fishing rod on the bike and the backpack on his back.
We had a nice little chat, talking about the fish, the lake and the goodies of live, which can’t be found in the city or could be bought with all the money of the world. It’s the freedom to roam, to live and to go fishing on a refreshingly grey Friday morning. Tim was out for some big salmon. As we made our way towards we both were passing each other a few times, both of us stopping from time to time to take in the breathtaking scenery, and me to take a picture or two.
Back at the main road I took a longer break, ate some good bread, with salami, cheese, some snap peas and carrots; finished the meal off with some nuts and good German chocolate. Ready or not for the big climb called the Duffey.
The first couple of switch backs ascend at about 15% than leveling off at around 10% with some smaller spurts back-up to 15%.
Tough going and what I told myself over and over again - I can make it, I will make it, I can make it – repeating these words in my head over and over again I put in the lowest gear and pushed myself up at about 6 km/h, further and further up and pushing, pushing and pushing and replenishing my fuel reservoirs with some OHHH so yummy Cliff bars, snickers, two bananas, some almonds and cashew nuts. With little traffic the street was mostly mine and I used it. On the steepest parts > 15% I did switch backs from one side of the road to the other, back and forth, and back and forth until the slope was conquered. Somehow I made it all the way to the top, slow but steady and with one short food break. My big lunch break I did at the Lower Joffre Lake on the side of large snow piles. A couple of cars were parked in the lot and I met a couple of people who just came back from a snow shoe trip.
Having thought that the parking lot was close to the top I was in big error. The road went further up and up – another switch back and another hill, which lead to another hill and another. Passing the sand storage building it finally was going down. Gaining speed it become pretty chilly in the snowy environment. Though well dressed it was bearable and it was going down fast again. Passing Duffey Lake the road become again a mixture of short stretches of uphill and longer section of downhill.
Its funny that you labor and labor on the uphill and most of the distance you make however in very little time, racing down the hill at 40 to 60 km/h.
As it was such a beautiful day, I also got my first flat tire. A piece of Jade liked my tire so much that it hugged it tightly. A little bit too tight for my taste as it penetrated and punctured the tube.
A Well – just what I needed, taking off the bags, taking out the Flickzeug and off I went repairing my first. Will likely not be the last.
Now it slowly got darker and I still had to do another climb. First up the hill, than down to the river, crossing it and up on the other side. The landscape misteriosly fog rising, clouds forming, wrapping the mountains into their coat.
I did another short break just before top of the last uphill, and than it went down. This time I had to watch out for deer as it was beginning to get dark. Overall I stopped twice for some deer and a total of 9 crossed my path. After dark I finally rolled into Lillooet, the final hill to the embankment the city was build on and I rolled through town, checking into a hotel to celebrate the end of the day and rewarding me for a tough hard ride. Happily I ordered a Pizza and fell asleep pretty soon thereafter.
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