The 2012 Rocky Mountain 1200 - day 2 - Jasper to Golden
I
didn’t
sleep well in Jasper, which was really annoying. The sleeping facilities were
in the basement of a house, covered with sleeping pads. Mine was rather thin so
it was pretty difficult to find a good sleeping position. I would doze off for
20-40 minutes, then wake up for 5, then fall asleep again. However, I wasn’t seriously tired when the
controller woke me up at 1.30 Tuesday morning and all in all didn’t feel too bad. After the
shower the night before I had changed to new bike clothes and slept in them, so
I was up and ready for breakfast in 5 minutes. Just had to get my contacts in.
In the rush I managed to forget my contact lens case when I left, but I had
spare contact lenses in my drop bags further down the road. Then I walked out
of the sleeping facility and over to the main control where breakfast was
served.
The
dining room had changed a lot since I had seen it last about 4 hours ago! There
were wet clothes EVERYHWERE. Every chair and piece of furniture that wasn’t absolutely necessary for
serving dinner or breakfast for the riders had been taken in use as drying
racks. Strings were strung between the walls as cobwebs to dry out rain gear,
gloves, shoe covers, balaclavas
(apparently it got a lot colder after sunset!), helmets, leg warmers,
knee warmers, arm warmers etc. etc. There was a moist smell to the entire room,
the water from all the wet clothes mixing with the cooking smell from the
kitchen in the other end of the room. Then there were the riders who had
arrived after me.
About
10 riders were sitting on chairs spread out around and amongst the dining
tables. The really didn’t look too good. They were all wrapped up in the microfiber
blankets that were also handed out for sleeping and all of them had the
1000-yard stare like the solider in Thomas Lea’s WWII painting. One of the
controllers was talking to one of the riders ‘Would you like something to
eat or drink?’. The
rider looked at her but didn’t answer. She repeated the question. No answer. Then a
third time. No reply. Then just ‘Eat?’ Still no answer. I started to think that it really had to
have been pretty cold for the riders coming in after 20 or so when the sun had
set. I got a bit worried about my own clothing and put on a woolen undershirt,
then 2 short sleeve wool cycling jerseys, then my arm and knee warmers, then my
rain legs. I had a quick breakfast of coffee and 4 butter/raspberry sandwiches,
put on my rain jacket, helmet, glove and reflective west and walked out the
door. I was wearing every single piece of clothing that I had.
Outside
it had almost stopped raining and it was somewhat chilly but it was cloudy so
it probably wouldn't get a lot colder even if there were still a few hours to
sunrise. I was thinking that it was not getting a bit old to ride 1200’s in bad weather. I rode
PAris-Brest-Paris in 2007 in rainy and cold conditions, and
London-Edinburgh-London 2009 in much more rain and colder conditions than PBP
2007. Regardless, I got my bike and around 2.30 I rolled out of Jasper, onto
the Icefields Parkway (http://www.icefieldsparkway.ca/index.html) in direction
of Lake Louise, 2 major mountain passes and some 230 km down (or up!) the road.
As
soon as I was outside of Jasper it was the end of the street lights and it got
very, very dark. That didn’t bother me. The Edelux gave an amazing light and I really
enjoyed rolling along on the totally car-free road - not many tourists in
campervans and SUV’s at 2.30 in the morning! That was quite a contrast to the
day before where there had been some semi traffic on the # 5 highway. I saw a
red light up ahead - the first indication that I wasn’t alone on the road. I slowly
reeled in the rider and passed him. A few minutes later I saw another light and
slowly reeled that one in too. I passed time until dawn slowly catching up to
riders ahead of me. Then I started to be able to see a bit of the landscape
around me. The parkway is supposed to be the most spectacular journey in the
world, with glaciers, rivers, wildlife, flora and mountains all around you,
changing with every turn of the road. Sadly, it was very cloudy with low
hanging clouds and fog banks as I rode along, so I only got a few glimpses here
and there of what truly seemed to be a most spectacular landscape. Another
disadvantage of riding in the rain ;-)
The
bike seemed to go slower and felt harder to pedal. I was also very wet, but not
particularly cold - the wool took care of that. A couple of hours after leaving
Jasper I passed a motel in the early morning light and for a brief moment my
brain toyed with the idea of calling it quits here, check in to a room, sleep
in a soft, warm bed, then ride back to Jasper and take the train back to
Kamloops in the evening. A few hundred meter further on I pulled over, sat down
on the gravel and consulted the elevation profile. I was only 15-20 km from the
next control, and the reason why the bike was hard to pedal was that I had
gained almost 500 m elevation in the short time since leaving Jasper. It had
been impossible to see the road in the dark, and it can be very difficult to
ascertain whether you’re climbing or going on a flat piece of road. That had
played a trick on me. The fact that I only had a a few km to the next control,
combined with the realization that I had made a huge downpayment of the first
pass of the day, Sunwapta Pass at 2000+ m was a huge morale booster. I got back
on the bike and half an hour later I found myself at Beauty Creek, ready for a
second breakfast. 533 km down and 671 km to go - almost halfway and it was 7.10
in the morning.
Beauty
Creek was a cozy little control. It was in a hostel, which had been completely
taken over by the RM 1200 event. Inside the tiny dining room the controllers
worked miracles with the frying pans, griddles and coffee makers to produce an
awesome breakfast of Canadian Ham, eggs, home made hash browns and blueberry
pancakes. I sat down for about half an hour there and enjoyed myself. John
Pearch from SIR was just leaving just as I came in. A couple of riders from BC
came in a few minutes later. Two Germans, 84-hour riders, were there as well.
They had gone the entire way from Kamloops to Beauty Creek Monday and had slept
at Beauty Creek. One of them said that Monday had been the worst day he had
ever had on a bike. I thought back to LEL 2009 and still didn’t think that the first day of
RM 1200 had been as bad as LEL weather-wise.
As
I was leaving the control the controllers urged me to take some boiled potatoes
in my pockets for the climb up to Sunwapta and later Bow Summit. I had never
heard about that before, but seeing the big bowl of delicately packed potatoes,
2 to a bag, together with rows of bananas and bags of almonds made me grab some
of it all. On the route profile the climb did look rather steep and I didn’t want to run out of gas.
Also, it was almost 150 km to the next control at Lake Louise and the next
meal.
The
first couple of km after Beauty Creek were flat-ish, and then the road made a
slight turn and it felt like I had hit a wall. The cue sheet indicated that the
climb from here to the top would be 15 km or so, but after 500 m I was out of
breath and climbing in my lowest gear with the greatest difficulty. 6 km/hr on
the odometer - 2.5 hours to the top if this kept going on... The road continued
for half an hour or so, perhaps 45 minutes, and I was climbing very slowly up
the mountain. Then it suddenly leveled out and dropped steeply for a few km’s. I was thrilled about the
descent but worried that I were giving up all the altitude that I had gained in
pain, sweat and almost tears over the last half hour.
After
the steep descent the road leveled out and then started a slight incline. I
passed a sign saying the Icefields interpretive center was 1 km up the road. I
checked with the cue sheet - only 5 km to the top after the Icefields visitor
center! That put a smile on my face. In front of the visitor center I stopped
and took a few pictures. It was the first time I had my camera out, and I was
more than 500 km into the ride - just goes to show how lousy the weather had
been on the first day. I got a few good shots of the Athabasca glacier, just to
the right of the road, and had some of the potatoes the controllers on Beauty
Creek had recommended.
Then I continued onwards to the top of Sunwapta. The
road felt almost level the rest of the way, and I reached the top in good
spirits 20 minutes or so later. I felt pre good about having climbed 1000 m or
so since breakfast and looked forward to the descent. It didn't disappoint. A
couple of km after the top of the pass it started for real and gravity hurled
me down the road at 60+ km/hr for km after km. At the bottom there was a big
cloverleaf like turn, the road leveled out for a bit and then there was another
descent down along the valley towards the start of the climb to Bow Summit. It
lasted for 15-20 km or so, and it felt great to make progress without too much
effort. As I descended down valley I could see a bit more of the mountains and
glaciers along the parkway and it truly seems to be a magnificent place. Now
and then I passed another rando, exchanged a few words and then both of us
would proceed at our own paces.
At
the bottom I crossed a river and the climb up Bow Summit was ahead. It was
around 11 o'clock and I still had a few of the potatoes and almonds from Beauty
Creek in my jersey pockets. I turned off on to a quiet forest road and sat down
on the gravel. It felt good to get off the bike for a bit, and I had a
leisurely lunch consisting of potatoes, almonds and a few power gels, washed
down with my Gatorade. It was better than it sounds :-) During my lunch I had
seems maybe a handful of other cyclists go by on the road; they all looked like
randos. Probably some of the ones I had passed on the way down from sunwapta
pass. It was rather sunny now, and only a couple of minutes after I got back on
the bike I had to pull over again in order to take of most of my layers and
stuff them away. It felt good to be riding without rain gear! The climb to the
top of Bow Summit was not particularly steep, except for the last 2-3 km or so.
On the way up I saw lots of other cyclists coming down the other side, the
first time I had see any non-rando cyclists on the journey. I reached the
summit around 2 o'clock and from the top it was downhill all the way to the
next control at Lake Louise. The descend was a blast, but i did stop a few
times in order to snap a picture here and there of the scenery. It was clearing
up for sure, but I had the majority of the scenery on the parkway behind me.
Around 15.20 I rolled into Lake Louise and the control. 679 km down, 525 km to go.
When I pulled up I
couldn't see any other bikes outside and I was wondering if I was the last one
of the riders to arrive... I walked into the control and the first person I saw
was Dave, sitting at a dinner table. I go my card stamped and then sat down to
chat with Dave. I was surprised to see him here as I would had thought him to
be at least 100 km ahead of me at this time. It was then i learned that he had
DNF'ed at Beauty Creek. He had left Jasper shortly after 23:00 Monday evening
and set out on the parkway. At the time he left it was still raining. Outside
of Jasper he had taken a right turn onto the highway towards Kamloops, instead
of going straight onto the Icefields Parkway... He had ridden 21 km before he
realized he was on the wrong track and turned around. As he came back to
intersection at Jasper and turned on the parkway he saw 2 other riders and sped
up to ride with them. It turned out to be Seana and Toby so the 3 of them rode
to Beauty Creek. By the time they arrived there Dave was too cold to carry on,
no matter what he had tried to get warm on the way to Beauty Creek hadn't
worked for him and he was unable to continue. I felt sorry for him, but at
least i had an explanation for the small number of bikes outside the control:
according to Dave around 35% of the riders had abandoned because they were too
cold to continue. Once again I thought back to LEL2009 and still didn't think
that the RM1200 was wetter or colder. Regardless, I became even more happy
about my rainlegs! My knees had been warm and dry throughout the entire ride;
they are usually the first body part to suffer if it's really cold and they can
really mess up your riding if you're not careful to keep them warm and dry. I
only had an impending saddle soar...
There
was a tap on my shoulder, and before I could turn around a voice behind me
asked ‘Excuse
me, can I take a picture of you from behind?’ Thinking that my looks couldn’t possible have deteriorated
to the extent that I was now better looking from behind than the front I turned
around a bit incredulously ‘Sorry?’ I said. He pointed to my hi-viz RainLegs: ‘I want to know what brand they
are and how they attach so I can find them when I get home.’ Now I understood; after some
22 hours of riding in the constant rain, and another 10-14 hours in the cold on
the icefields Parkway my legs were still dry and my knees were warm because of
my rainlegs, and I hadn’t had a single chill since the start Sunday evening @ 22:00
of the 2012 edition of the Rocky Mountain 1200 km grand brevet. It was Tuesday
afternoon, I was at Lake Louise, a bit over half way, it was sunny and the
route profile was mainly downhill for the rest of the ride. I lifted up my
jersey so he could get a good picture of me, my bum and the rain legs from
behind. Things were looking pretty good indeed. I finished my late lunch and
took of for my 2nd overnight stop, which I had planned to be Golden, only some
80 km from Lake Louise, an d a few hundred meter lower - the elevation profile
was mostly downhill of flat from Lake Louise to Golden and I was really looking
forward to that part of the ride in the afternoon sun. What followed was
probably the worst 12 km of cycling I have ever had in my entire life.
The
first 12 km from Lake Louise were on the trans-Canada highway, which was in the
process of being twinned. Immediately outside of Lake Louise the construction
began, and there was NO shoulder to ride on whatsoever. This did not prevent
the cars and trucks from going 50 km/hr 10 cm from me and my bike. On top of
that there was a tremendous headwind, which made it difficult to cycle any faster
than15 km/hr. There were potholes and debris from the construction everywhere
on the road. It was awful. It took em almost an hour to get to the end of the
construction and the downhill began. I dropped a couple of hundred meters over
a few km, and my speed reached 70 km/hr on the descent. It lasted 10 km or so
and then I reached Fields, a small town in a pleasant valley, but man was I
ever noisy - it seemed to be some sort of railroad hub. There was lots of
railroad traffic, and the trains were braking and maneuvering around all the
time. I could still hear them miles away on the other side of Fields.
After
Fields the road leveled out and I rolled along for 20-30 km or so. Then I saw a
sign up ahead 'Ten Mile Hill - Brake Check Area'.
Truck drivers probably
dislike that type of signs as much as cyclists love them - it usually means you
get a long break at high speed whereas all the truck drivers have to pull over
and check their brakes before going down the hill. The road turned a bit uphill
and to the right and then I was at top of the hill and began the descent. A
truly massive road cut appeared in front of me and behind it a very long and
steep downhill. Yeehaw! Gravity assist is one of the best things in
randonneuring after a long day in the saddle. No wonder it's popular with NASA
and other space agencies as well. The downhill, however, only lasted for a
couple of km and I was extremely disappointed. The sign had said Ten Mile
Hill?? There was a nasty steep uphill for about a km or so and then the road
dropped again, this time for real all the way into Golden, 12 km ahead. 15-20
minutes later I pulled up in front of the Golden control - 764 km down and only
440 km to go. It was 20.12 so I had been on the road for 17 hours and change
since leaving Jasper.
There
control was almost empty when I arrived; most riders were still behind me it
seemed. I sat down for dinner and had several servings of a fabulous frittata.
Then I was off for a much needed shower. Ouch. I had a bit of a saddle soar in
the making which made itself known when splashed with water. Oh well, not much
to do about it now. I changed into fresh bike clothes and asked for a sleeping
spot. They were very well organized in Golden: the sleeping area was in a gym
and everybody got their own private wrestling mat - a King size bed in the
Sheraton never felt so good. I asked to be woken up 1.45, which would give me
almost 4.5 hours of sleep and then promptly fell asleep.
