Kimberly Training Tour

Rest Day

May 18, 2022

After having a number of riding days everyone was happy enough to have a rest day today.  This worked well as the forecast was for rain most of the day, with highs of 10C. 

We were up at the usual time and still had a late breakfast but instead of heading off on the bikes we sat and watched the rain on the windows. 

Barry and I got our cameras out and went for a walk down to the river.  We got down to the far end of the trail and what had been a light drizzle turned into a steady rain.  This resulted in a mile walk back to camp in the rain which being in the mountains was downright cold.  It wasn’t helped by the fact that the wind had picked up considerably and was quite bitter. 

Back at camp we had roast beef sandwiches for lunch and made plans to head off to the Marysville pub for supper.  While having lunch I got to review Barry’s photos and even though we were on the same walk I was amazed at how different the pictures taken were.  Mine tended to be close up photos of plants and textures seen along the path.  Barry’s pictures were broad landscapes. 

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks pretty dismal as well so we may pack up and head home. The forecast high is only for 10 C with light rain starting at around noon.  The plan is to get one last ride in so I am hoping for the best. 

Terry  

 

Kimberly Training Tour

Airport to Wycliffe Loop

May 17, 2022

In the past we have always done the Wycliffe to Airport loop in a counter clock wise direction. This gave you a short steep climb to the top of the Wycliffe Road with a long decent into Cranbrook. On the return leg to Kimberly a long steep decent into St Eugene and a long climb back to Kimberly.  On Barry’s suggestion, today we did the loop in a clockwise direction.  The long steep climb out of St Eugene to Cranbrook was into a vicious cold head wind.  Even though I was sweating by time we rolled in to Cranbrook I was shivering.  The turkey, bacon club in Timmies helped a lot. 

On the return trip the long climb up Wycliffe road was helped by the wind.  When we got to the top of Wycliffe Road, Ken and I elected to take a detour down a secondary back road which added about 7 kms to the route.  Barry headed down the steep downhill to the bike trail and home.  The secondary was quiet and a very nice road with no traffic.  We got on the bike trail much further down and headed home.  We could see ominous rain clouds hanging all around us and we were afraid that we were going to get it.  Luckily we made it back to the campground without a single drop.  Being caught in a cold rain with that wind would not have been any fun.  As it was I was shivering from the cold wind. 

We were scheduled to head home on Friday but the weather forecast looks rather threatening for the next few days so we may be cutting the tour short.  Including today’s 70.3 kms and 600 meters of climb we have managed to log 436 kms.   This is certainly a good addition to the training for this summer’s coast to coast ride.

Terry   

 

Kimberly Training Tour

Cranbrook to Kimberly

May 16, 2022

It was raining quite heavily this morning when so there wasn’t any hurray getting out on the day’s ride.  After yesterday’s big ride we had decided that it would be a slightly easier day down the bike trail to Cranbrook and then back to Kimberly and then returning to the campground in St Mary’s.  This would give us a 62 kms ride and we would be in before the afternoon rain. 

We got on the trail just after 10:00 am so by then it was already around 12 C.  I stopped in St Mary’s to take a photo of a local street sculpture which depicts the returning spawning salmon. The sign indicates that they had not been returning to the St Mary’s river but improvements to the water course have allowed them back into the river.  Certainly a happy story even though the sculpture makes the salmon look kind of prehistoric. 

The ride down to Cranbrook is a really pleasant ride down the rails to trail.  A couple of turns in Cranbrook and you are at the local A&W where I had the teen burger, fries and a large root beer. 

The return ride is all up hill and a very pleasant ride, although it was marred by an uncouth couple on fat tired e-bikes.  Not the pedal assist kind but the throttle kind.  They came flying by without calling out to warn us of their approach.  The woman who was the second bike came within inches of me.  It is this type of bad road manners which put cyclists off these motorized e-bikes.

I noticed today that there are quite a few of the tiny houses along the trail and in Kimberly. 

Once we were in Kimberly we headed over to the new Save-On-Foods where we got one liter chocolate milks to celebrate our conquering to this ride.  Garmin shows a total ride of 62.5 kms and a climb of 472m.

My rear disc brakes have been dragging a little bit so Ken and I got out his bike stand and within a couple minutes we had remedied this problem.  I was pretty happy as I don’t have much experience with disc bakes.

Terry 

 

Kimberly Training Tour

Lunch at Wasa Pub

May 15, 2022

It was cold and clammy this morning at 6C and what was probably close to 100% humidity it was just bone chilling.  Sitting having coffee in the nice warmth of Barry’s motorhome it was really tough to get motivated to get out and hit the road.  The route we had chosen for the day was an out and back to Wasa Pub.  It was an 84 km return route.  The ride out to Wasa Pub had about 150 meters of climb and the remaining 730 meters was the return ride. The Pub opened at noon so the trick was to time it to get there as the pub opened so that you could make it back to camp before the afternoon rain shower showed up. 

The ride out to Wasa was great fun even though it was gray and cold.  Sailing along downhill is always good. Ken was having fun telling us what a great downhill rider he is, claiming he could out coast anyone. Truth was he was crouching down in the drops and pedaling like crazy when no one was looking. 

Right after lunch we got passed by a young woman on a tri-bike.  She was just flying along.  It was pretty flat all the way from Wasa to the corner of hwy 95A (about 5 kms) and by then she was about a km infront of us.  After we turned south on 95A there was an 8-10 km grade of about 6%.  I got within about 50 feet before we crested the hill and then she was gone.   

By time we got back to Kimberly  I was about 10 minutes in front of Ken, so I waited there. When Ken and Barry showed up we went in to the local market and got some chocolate milk.  It was so refreshing.

The last 10 kms into camps was down hill and we just flew down and into camp as the first drops of rain came down.  The Garmin recorded 82.9 kms and a climb of 882.

Terry

 

Kimberly Training Tour

May 14, 2022

Another cold morning at 4C.  Once again we delayed heading out until almost 9:45.  We had decided that we would do the Wycliffe Road to Cranbrook with the return trip via the airport.  There are several good climbs on the route and very little traffic along the way.  The downhill out of Wycliffe into Cranbrook is exceptionally nice.  The pavement is absolutely perfect and I think we only got passed by one car in the 20 kms.  The stretch along the industrial area of Cranbrook was nice and quiet today, although it was into a strong southwesterly wind. 

We went into Timmie’s for lunch where I had the toasted turkey bacon club.  It was excellent. 

On the way back we stopped to look at the Kootenay Indian School composed of the St Eugene’s and St Mary’s mission school located at St Eugene which is just NE of Cranbrook.  This residential school operated from 1890 to 1970 when it was closed.  It is quite an impressive structure and must have really been quite a sight in 1890 when it opened.  Out front is a statue of a young girl and her brother just arriving at the school.  Next door is a huge Indian casino.

We stopped at the Lickety Split IceCream parlour in St Mary’s on the way home.  I found a great root beer float at the end of the rainbow.   

Ken decided his fun-O-meter was not fully charged so he rode on up to St Mary’s lake and return which is a 28 kms return trip.  Barry and I decided not to do this.  I wanted to get my blog done and was quite happy with my 70 kms and  633 meters of climb.

Terry   

 

Kimberly Training Tour – Rest Day

May 13, 2022

We really didn’t need a rest day after having ridden only two days, however it was snowing this morning and there wasn’t any motivation to get dressed and get on the bikes at 3 C.  We had a late breakfast and just poked around.  At about 11:30 we decided that we would head into Kimberly and have the large meal of the day for lunch and then have a sandwich for supper. 

We hit Sullivan’s Pub in Kimberly which turned out to be pretty good.  Good menu selection and lots of local beers on tap.  We headed back to the campsite and poked around.  The clouds had blown away and there was a bright blue sky but the wind was really biting and cold.  Although a person hates to miss a day it would have been really cold on the bikes.

Ken and I went for a little walk around the campground which was quite interesting.  There is a row of large cabins off one side of the campground.  They sure looked nice.  The campground goes all the way down to the river.  Near the river we spotted a herd of nine deer munching the dandelions. They are all losing their winter coats so they look kind of ratty.  They weren’t afraid of us as we walked up to take some pictures.

Tomorrow and the weekend look much better weather wise so hopefully we can get a few more rides in.

Terry 

 

Kimberly Training Tour

May 12, 2022

 

Another cold morning at 4.0 C this morning so we decided to have a leisurely breakfast and by time we were rolling it was close to 10:00 AM.  We had decided to try out a couple of roads which Ken and I had not ridden before on any of our previous trips down to Cranbrook.  The wind was forecast to be up to be increasing steadily throughout the day to 40 kms/hr by lunch time out of the south so heading south in the morning was the plan.  

The day started out down the bike trail to Wycliff where we left the bike trail and took the Wycliff road.  There was about 10 kms of steady and steep climb followed by 20 kms of perfectly smooth traffic free downhill all the way into Cranbrook.  Definitely a great road and a must do again route.  We took a wandering route through Cranbrook until we came to a Timmies where we went in for lunch.  My toasted bacon turkey club sub was great.  After lunch we took the “old” road out to the airport as we it was now on the way back north and the wind was starting to come up.  Turned out to be really steep.  I was quite impressed at what a nice terminal it was.  So I took a picture of the first class lounge at YXC, just so I could say I was in the first class lounge. 

On the way home we rode through St. Mary’s and found the local ice cream parlour.  I had a root beer float which was so goooood.  Ken and Barry both had cones and seemed to be enjoying them. 

It turned out to be an excellent day with a total mileage of 75.3 kms and with a climb of 600 meters.

Terry 

 

Kimberly May 11 2022    

Barry and I drove out to Kimberly from Kelowna yesterday.  It turned out to be a 550 kms drive which took a lot longer than I had thought but then we were in Barry’s motorhome so we were not the speediest vehicle on the road.  I was also surprised at how much snow was still piled up along the road on the passes.  Okanagan pass was particularly bad where the snow banks were well over 8 feet.  When we arrived at our campground Ken Coburn was already there and met us at the office as he was using the wifi. 

It was really cold last night and even this morning it was only 3.0C.  Kind of chilly to be heading out so we had a leisurely breakfast and rolled out of camp at around 9:30.  By then the sun was well up had some power to keep you warm.   As today was the first ride day we had elected to ride down to Cranbrook following the bike trail and have lunch in the A&W there.  From there we headed back up the bike trail to Kimberly.  In Kimberly we hit the A&W there for a large root beer.  The campsite where we are staying is called the Kimberly Riverside Campground however it is really just outside of St Mary.  This is about 10 kms south of the actual Kimberly town site.  Fortunately it is all downhill to the campsite so we had an easy return home.  It was a really good first day as we made a total of 68 kms and had a total climb of 508 meters. 

Although it was quite cold this morning when we left it did warm up to around 12 C. We were quite lucky and only caught a few little sprinkles of rain.  The sky had a lot of really black threatening clouds and we could see rain all around us. 

The campsite is very nice with great camping spots and good wifi.  The showers are free but the water temperature is fixed and is a little on the cool side for my taste.  I guess this is to keep the showers short.  As a side note Kimberly won the title of “best small town in BC”  this year.  Not surprising as it is a very cool place. 

Terry 

 

Off to Kimberly BC

May 8 2022

Tomorrow morning I am off with my neighbor to meet Ken at the Kimberly Riverside Campground.  The plan is to spend ten days riding as part of the training for this summer’s coast to coast (C2C) bicycle ride. This will be my sixth C2C ride.  My first C2C was in 2007 with Crossroads and was from Los Angeles to Boston following Route 66 for a good portion of the way.  I then completed my first northern tier from Seattle to Boston C2C in 2010 with Cycle America.  I then did a southern tier in 2012 with Bubba’s Pampered Peddlers, going from San Diego CA to St Augustine FL.   The northern tier is the best and Cycle America really knows how to do it so I completed C2C rides with them in 2014 and 2018.  I was prepared for 2020 but Covid got in the way and the ride was cancelled. 

This year I am in probably the best bike shape I have ever been before a C2C ride.  Mostly thanks to my friends in Phoenix and Mike in particular who whipped me for close to 3000 miles.  In 2018 I wasn’t in bad shape but then we did a three week China tour and standing in the buffet line for three weeks killed it.  Mike and I completed three century rides one of which averaged 17.7 mph.  My fastest century ever.

I also have a new bike.  It is a Look 765.  The Look 765 is Look’s endurance bike so it is a little more upright than a race bike and the frame is designed to absorb some of the road vibration.   It is certainly one of the lightest bikes I have ever ridden. It has the new fat tires, disc brakes, and most importantly the gearing is much lower than my Giant which I have ridden on 4 of my previous C2C rides.  The front is a 50x34 compact and the rear derailleur is an 11x34.  So the lowest gear is a 1:1.  The Giant’s lowest gear was 1:1.26. It won’t be the flashiest bike there, but it will be a strong reliable ride.

The campground we will be staying at is about half way between Cranbrook and Kimberly and is on the 35 kms paved rails to trails route between Kimberly and Cranbrook.  Because it is a rails to trails route the grade never gets above 3% but over the course of 35 kms it averages 2.5%.  It is a great ride and as it goes through the woods you always see some wild life.  Deer are really common but you often see eagles fishing in the river.  I have laid out a number of courses which total over 900 kms.  The weather is going to be the big challenge as the forecast ranges from lows of -1C to highs of 22C. 

This year the C2C ride starts June 18 and arrives in Boston on August 20.  It is a long ride and I am planning on putting a blog post up everyday.  I hope you follow along.

Terry