tmacphail.ca

Knowing that this was going to be a long day I got up at 5:40 and started to get ready. I had breakfast in the entrance to my tent where it was warm and dry (compared to outside after the thunderstorm). I got on the road by 7:45 (a little later than I was trying for).

I took lots of breaks on the way up to Rogers Pass in Revelstoke Mountain and Glacier National Parks including an hour break at the Hemlock Grove Boardwalk and Picnic Area in Glacier where gophers (I think) and a Blue Jay were constantly coming to the table looking for crumbs.

I got to the summit of Rogers Pass by about 1 and took lots of pictures before heading back down. Finally, the slopes that look downhill are actually downhill. The mountains cause a bit of an optical illusion and make me think that certain uphill areas are flat or slightly downhill and it feels like I’m working too hard for what the road looks like. Downhill from Rogers Pass was probably the longest stretch of downhill I’ve ever biked and at high speeds of anywhere from 40 to 74kph.

It was still a long ways to Golden and there were a couple of other (smaller) climbs on the way that I hadn’t expected. I finally got into town by around 7pm (after the time zone change) but took another 30 minutes and 10km of riding to find the Hostel I had booked for the night. It was on 9th St North and my GPS took me to 9th St South (and the hostel map I had didn’t specify north or south).

Once checked in, I immediately had a shower and went wandering around town to find somewhere to get a large dinner (I had hardly eaten much since lunch at 12). After dinner I came back to go to bed. I had booked a bed in a dorm room which ended up being a private room simply because nobody else was booked into the dorm.