Rolling it along (Day 8, Sicamous, BC)
Hey you guys, just thought i'd fill you in a bit on what is going on with my ride across Canada. Today is Day 8 of a total of 66 days. Words cannot express how good this is, but anyways, here goes...
Email access is bloody bloody tough at the moment, as we seem to stay in the quieter areas, sometimes without any facilities whatsoever. Have just had a rest day in Sicamous, and this morning we ride out to Albert Canyon, on the other side of Revelstoke, and half way up Rogers Pass (will be around 112km, so a short day really). Nice to break the Pass climb up over two riding days I guess. The local cafe here in Sicamous has internet access for free if you buy some food or coffee, but yesterday no one was sharing much, so I have come in early this morning (7am) to get some time in before I ride, which will make for a late(r) start.
Been getting up around 5:30am most mornings - people are moving about by this time, and there is no point sleeping anyways. Have adjusted well to this, and also to the concept of having breakfast too. Insulin dosage for the mornings is between 3 and 5, sometimes nothing (this from a normal dosage in the range of 16, about two months ago). Just depends, but usually would like something in the system. Its so weird giving such a small shot, you wonder if anything at all went in...
Night time dosage is usually around high 20s to my highest dose this trip of 32, which I took last night, as I had been eating like a madman all day yesterday. The organisers estimate calorie burning during this trip of around 6,000 per day. Food consumption becomes critical, and to counter this, I need to drop the insulin, or I'd be eating non-stop (not necessarily a bad thing). In the orientation day, I was encouraged to let everyone know about my 'special condition' - great way to introduce yourself, but especially after the recent shower incident, I didn't want to take chances. There is one other type 1 diabetic on board, who is riding with his wife all the time.
They have a glucagon kit in the camp fridge, so I didn't bother with getting one myself. Most people by now have forgotten that I am an official invalid, which is a relief after a bad start in that respect. A couple were concerned that I could perhaps not have any alcohol, but I quickly put that fear to rest. Alcohol consumption across the board is surprisingly high - the logistics manager (ie, the guy who drives the truck with all our camping and cooking equipment) always brings a couple of cases each day, and they usually go between the 28 of us.
Rest day yesterday I organised a bit of a house boat for a bunch of us to cruise around the Shuswap Lake on. 16 of us went, and it was bloody awesome, people being very impressed with the whole afternoon. I seem to be a bit of an activities coordinator, mainly due to my desire to get to know the local communities we visit, rather than hanging out at the campsite all the time. But the riding group is a pretty good bunch, actually. The other day in Merritt I organised another bunch of us to attend the local Bingo night, which turned out to be absolutely priceless. Two of us ended up winning money, and later when we left, they made an announcement and the whole hall clapped us. I took a photo of a woman, cigarette in one hand, lucky charm and dabber in the other, who swore we only won at Bingo because we were using HER spare lucky 'dabber' (Bingo marker).
It is an interesting bunch of people on this ride: of the 28 riders, 5 are from the US, 3 from Australia, 1 from the UK and 1 from NZ. Around 18 are males. There are about 7 of us who are under the age of 30. There are quite a few who have just recently retired, and who have been looking forward to doing something like this for a long time. Lots of teachers (who have their summers off), and accountants (bean counters) in the bunch. Lots who don't know what to do with themselves, and are using the trip to sort out where they want to take themselves next.
Most are educated, and most are achievers of some description. Some have been riding for years, and one Australian guy bought his bike 14 days ago - his first ever bike! The pace of the bunch is extremely varied. The day before the rest day, which I considered to be taking it extraordinarily slow, ended up with me arriving in town around 1:30pm, after a 6:30am start (and lots of taking it easy and breaks for food and beer). Two riders came in at 9:00pm that same night. They had left around the same time in the morning. They don't worry about it, they just take it easy, probably averaging somewhere in the 15-18km/h range. I usually average around 26.5km/h or so. The hardest day so far I ended up with my best average to date: 27.5km/h for 145km and with more hill climbing than any other day we'll have on the trip. But there is no point in pushing it all the time, you do have to stop and pull the camera out every now and then. Although I do love pushing it.
This morning as I put on my gloves and helmet, I had this overwhelming sensation of excitement and happiness for the upcoming riding. It is really fucking great. I hope this feeling stays, and the summer goes by very slowly, because I never knew this was going to be so damn good. Seriously! even yesterday when I was feeling a bit low and wanting time alone, I still couldn't knock anything.
Didn't mean to gush so much, but I never expected it to be like this.
Hope everyone is well, and roll on summer, roll on.
cheers
Monique
PS: world news, Canadian news, local news, anything seems to escape us at the moment. We're in our own little world. But I just discovered the Kernot/Evans thing, and Schwartz's retirement. Oh, and some plane crash in Germany.
Next Parts:
Part 7 - Day 62, Lower Barney's River, Nova Scotia
