It was already pretty warm by the time we were ready to
leave the parking lot of the Plaza hotel in Kamloops this morning and it was
headed for 28 C. So no leg warmers, arm warmers or anything else. Just shorts
and a sleeveless jersey this morning.
We pulled out of the parking lot and headed up Columbia
towards the highway and there were stretches along this grind out of town which
hit 13.5% grade. The average over the 6.5 kms to the highway was 5% and so we
had gained 335 m in elevation. This was
just the beginning of what would prove to be a day of big climbs and big descents. I believe one of the riders said we climbed
1150 m today in the 85 km ride. We
stayed along the residential routes as long as we could in Kamloops and finally
took the last exit on to the #1 west. Fortunately there was only a couple of
kms to the Coachella turn off and then we had the road almost to ourselves.
There was one of the huge climbs at the 35 km mark up to
this view point at the end of the Kamloops Lake. The view down the valley to Kamloops was stunning.
Although much less stunning was the blue haze which was hanging over Kamloops. So After a few photos we pushed off towards
lunch, which was at the 48 km mark. Lunch was at the Steelhead Provincial
campground just 48 km west of Kamloops. It is right on a point where the
Thompson river flows out of Kamloops Lake.
We could not have had a more beautiful lunch site on the grass looking
out over the lake. It was so hard to get moving the entire crew just hung there
for well over an hour, snacking on lunch. There were three killer climbs after lunch and
even though we had a good rest were now a struggle in the heat.
Ed and I arrived close to first and we took one look at each
other and rolled on down the last km into town for a DQ Blizzard. When we
finished we rolled on into camp and were immediately set upon. Apparently our
bikes had been spotted in the DQ parking lot.
What a great ride it was today.
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