posted by gavin on Jun 19
Alex made it to Golden, BC today. He kept up with the same group of girls that he was biking with yesterday, and eventually met up with a family who was biking across Canada for diabetes research. He biked with them at a high speed for 25km. They were using road bikes with no extra gear, so everyone (including Alex!) was surprised that he was able to keep up with them for that long.
He replaced one of the spokes on his wheel that’s been giving him some trouble with a tougher one that will hopefully hold up. He has a problem with his derailleur cable, so he’s planning on taking a rest day and visiting a bike shop tomorrow.
He’s staying at the Brookside Motel in Golden, thanks to the owner/manager Rheal, who gave the group a good deal on a three bedroom rustic cabin with a nice view of the rockies.
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posted by gavin on Jun 18
Alex reached the summit of Roger’s pass today without a hitch. He caught up to some female cyclists from Ontario that he’d met in Hope (they had taken the Greyhound bus from Hope heading east), and they all rode together for a while.
He’s now staying at a hotel, presumably near Roger’s Pass (he didn’t say). Perhaps the Glacier Park Lodge.* I think he turned his phone off after sending the update, so we’ll have to wait to find out 🙂
He wanted to thank Rainie for giving him a pin. (I hope I deciphered this part of the message correctly!)
* UPDATE: I confirmed with Alex that he did stay at the Glacier park lodge 🙂
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posted by gavin on Jun 17
I got an update from Alex earlier but haven’t been able to post until now because I was busy at the Mozilla Toronto Firefox 3 release party (download Firefox 3 if you haven’t already!).
Yesterday he camped in Craigellachie, BC, behind the last spike of the Canadian Pacific Railway museum. He says there were a lot of mosquitoes and the passing trains and trucks were bothersome.
Tonight he’s staying at a hostel in Revelstoke, BC and loading up on food. He has a nice view of the mountains that’s he’s going to have to climb tomorrow. He’s going to take on Roger’s Pass, an 850m climb from Revelstoke, which means he’ll probably end up camping somewhere near the summit, in Glacier National Park.
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posted by alex on Jun 15
I am using a computer at an internet cafe so I have to make this message brief. The last few days have been the best so far. Wowy the scenery is nice. I’ve been basically riding next to Okanagan Lake going up and down some hills that hug the coast. I entered Kelowna this morning after fixing a broken spoke on the bike, I broke the same one as before (my spares aren’t strong). Last night I camped and for the first time I didn’t wear many layers, love it! The neighbours’ dog gave me a good laugh. Every time the dog hears sirens he imitates the sound haha. I would like to thank the Johnson’s from Kelowna who I met at the Timmy’s in town. Thanks to them I had a free lunch. Happy riding guys 🙂
I am adding a video to this post. I managed to attach the camera to my GPS mount on the handlebars. It makes for some interesting shots.
View the video.
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posted by gavin on Jun 14
Just got a call from Alex. He started his day off in Keremeos and had breakfast in a beautiful peach orchard. Then he hit the road, and eventually stopping at a bike shop in Penticton to clean his bike and tune it up a bit. Most of the rest of today’s 105 kilometers were along the edge of Lake Okanagan. He says it was hot and that the wind wasn’t too bad. He eventually made it to Big E’s bar and grill in Peachland, BC, where he met a waitress named Nikki, who graciously offered to let him stay in her backyard in Westbank, BC which is right across Lake Okanagan from Kelowna, BC.
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posted by gavin on Jun 13
Alex made it to Keremeos, BC, the fruit stand capital of Canada. He says it was his best day in BC so far, he cycled an easy 130km. Keremeos is a little village in a narrow valley – you can see some nice pictures of it on Flickr. The canyon he’s in now has a much different climate than Manning – less humid, and dustier, and full of ranches and pastures.
He’s staying at Raj and Sabi’s house tonight, he met them at the fruit market. He’s drinking tea and listening to some music with Tammy, one of Raj’s tenants.
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posted by alex on Jun 13
So let’s see, I’ve been through quite a lot of ups and downs lately. Weather wise things are looking up though. I left Hope late on the 11th, the cold rain didn’t help. Thankfully, it stopped raining when I started doing the serious climbing on the Crowsnest Highway #3. I climbed two mountain passes on the 11th above or around cloud level 1400m. The largest being Allison pass at something like 1450m which is higher than Roger’s pass. I was extremely glad to make it that night to the Coldspring campground. What a rough day that was, I ended up spilling all of my food on the ground and I had almost nothing to eat at the end of the day. Waking up on the 12th, I had a huge headache and I spent the night before trying to warm my feet the best I could. By the grace of god, the Manning Park resort was only 2 clicks out and I got the chance to warm myself up at their hot tub. I seized the opportunity to take a day off at the hostel they have over there and I took advantage of their facilities 🙂 At the hostel, I met Chris who runs the place. He kindly offered me some food and we chatted plenty. I am now at the Princeton community center posting to the blog and picking my classes for next semester! I should be in Karemeos by tonight but if I feel tired I might stop at Stemwinder Provincial Park.
Alex “wild” Seguin
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posted by gavin on Jun 11
I got a message earlier today from Alex, he was waiting out some heavy rain before getting ready to head uphill to the cooler mountains. He asked for a weather forecast – today had a 60% chance of rain, tomorrow only 30%, both days with averages of around 15 degrees.
He asked for the coordinates of the western entrance to E.C. Manning provincial park, where he was planning on camping out tonight. I gave him the latitude and longitude of Coldspring campground, one of the campgrounds in the park that’s open during the summer, about 64km from Hope. I’ve only now realized, after looking at cell phone coverage maps, that he’s going to be outside of cell phone range while he’s there, which explains why I didn’t get a text message update tonight. He’s not too far out of it, though, so he’ll probably be back in range tomorrow as long as the weather gives him a chance to keep biking.
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posted by gavin on Jun 10
Alex made it to Hope, BC today. There was a bit of light rain, but he had a much better day overall, and enjoyed biking surrounded by majestic snowcapped mountains.
He’s camping at Coquihalla Campground thanks to a German couple who let him stay on their lot for free. He also wanted to thank Anita in Hope for the directions to the camground and for watching Carmen while Alex went grocery shopping.
Tomorrow he’s going to take on his first mountain pass, Allison Pass. It’s a 4265 foot (1300 m) climb over about 60 kilometers from Hope to Allison Pass, so it certainly won’t be easy. He’s going to be passing by Hope Slide, the site of one of the largest landslides ever recorded in Canada (be sure to check out the picture and map link in the Wikipedia article).
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