High and Low

Day 11: Prince George - Purden Lake Provincial Park 62km

A beautiful sunny day! We got up, dropped off our permanent and daily bag, and met with all the riders in the breakfast room at 7am. We received a quick update about the route and the campsite and then the others had breakfast in the hotel while dad and I left to have breakfast in a restaurant. I think my dad has written expressively about the quality of the hotel's breakfast on his blog. I must admit that I wasn't that shocked by the paper plates and hard boiled eggs but the idea to have breakfast someplace else was actually mine. It was an ideal way to kill some time as we needed to wait until 9am, when Atmosphere, an outdoor shop where dad wanted to buy an insulated jacket, would open. After breakfast we also ran another errand (a fitbit band for dad's fitbit) and then we waited until Athmosphere opened. We were done in 10min, probably a record sell for them on a Tuesday morning. Then we left for our easy sunny morning ride; only 61.5km to a lake near Prince George. We stopped only once to take a picture of the first sight of the Canadian Rockies. The picture doesn't really do it justice but I'm sure there will soon follow more pictures of mountains.

We arrived around 11:30am, on time for the lunch that for this unusually short day, would be held on the campsite. The provincial park is absolutely beautiful, as was the scenery of the entire ride today. Hills full of trees with some grass and beautiful purple flowers in the side of the ride. The only thing that would have been made this picture more complete was a bear or a moose. The lake was positioned in the middle of all this nice scenery. The campsite is fairly basic, good toilets but no showers. But the lake was just warm enough to jump in to wash off the sweat. I went swimming in the lake with three other female riders and we hiked along the shore of the lake for a while until we arrived at the beach area. There, a speedboat came towards us and Maureen waved at the captain. Another rider, Chris, had earlier on asked him if he could take us for a ride. Chris had gone back to her tent, but he was fine taking us instead. So we went aboard, and drove all the way around the lake, enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery.
The rest of the afternoon I spent relaxing and reading in my tent, to hide for the mosquitoes. Dinner was great, with good conversations. Overall, this day was fantastic, felt more like vacation than any of the other days so far, and I had in general a good time with everyone.

Day 12: Purden Lake - McBride 155km

Whereas yesterday was the best day so far, today was the worst day of the trip so far. We started fine; there was some sunshine and a few clouds coming in. The mosquitoes at the campsite were so relentless that we left as fast as we could. Beautiful green hills the first 35km and then it started to rain. And then it started pouring rain. After 67km there wasn't a shred of my clothes that was still dry. Canada has, unfortunately and surprisingly, no ZOAP like the Dutch highways (very open asphalt that absorbs water) and the water just sits on the road, making feet and legs soaking wet even when you are wearing supposedly waterproof shoe covers.
A no brainer; I would not bike a kilometer farther than absolutely necessary. I was dreading the long wait at the lunch truck though because the lunch truck can only leave when the last rider has passed. Such a relief therefore, when I saw both TDA trucks still at the lunch spot. Usually, the dinner truck drives straight from departure to destination. This time, they probably expected a lot of cold and wet bikers and they had waited for us. Dad, Mike, and I who were all a little ahead of the rest of the group, made a sandwich for on the road and got in the van. Sitting in a van sounds nice, and I had been looking forward to it, but it was actually worse than biking. Wearing still all my wet clothes we drove for another 90km and I got pretty close to being hypothermic.
After a rather inefficient decision process whether or not to get a hotel, we ended up at the campsite where it, miraculously, stopped raining the minute the crew finished unloading all bags.
I took a long hot shower and changed into dry clothes and felt much better. It's interesting how soon you forget how miserable you felt a few minutes before once you're warm and dry again.
After setting up camp and washing and drying our clothes, Mike, dad, and I biked to the little village McBride. We found a very charming train station, the only place where they sold coffee, and relaxed on the nice sofas with coffee and homemade peach pie.
Tomorrow it's supposed to be dryer but I'll make sure to dress a little warmer. Better to be too warm than too cold in Canada.