Grand Forks: big-ass hills

I had a casual start out of Kimberley. Friends, beers, and huge meat meal were great. I decided I would have an 'easy' day to prepare for today, which I was hoping would be a 10hr one. Yesterday the weather was mostly agreeable and I made it 25kms past Creston (168kms) by 3:30 (Pacific, now). So I got lots of rest.

Woke at 4:30 and was riding by 5:30. I was pretty motivated to start the day and the skies looked OK. The climb over the Salmo-Creston Pass was grueling. From where I camped it was 1:25 of continuous climbing. The pat back was sweet, if a little scary: I hit 74kms/hr.

After Salmo came the next big pass, before Castlegar. Another grinder, but headwinds ment the ride down was slower. Out of Castlegar, it started raining, then pouring, then got colder as lightening crackled all about. After more than an hour of heavy rain I lucked upon a shelter at the 3B junction (Nancy Green park), where I hung out for a while, ate and contemplated life.

It eventually slowed almost to a drizzle and I headed out again for another 20 minutes of climbing. This pass also had some incredibly steep sections and I was flying, with lots of dirty water getting thrown up at me. At one point, a truck descending slowly had a line of traffic behind it and I had to wait my turn to fly by him at 60kms/hr. A unique experience.

For the animal people, I saw a bear in Kootenay, a moose today and more deer than I could count, many of them in twister-like poses at the side of the road.

My butt sores are not stopping me, but they can be pretty uncomfortable towards the end of the day. More importantly, as you can imagine, I have a ton of time to think during the day. Today was particularly dark. Not trying to be a drama queen, but simply being honest in saying that I am having really serious problems feeling motivated for this project these days. Frankly, negative thoughts have dogged me since Moose Jaw. The pysical issues have played into this for sure, but getting this done is at least 50% mental, if not more. (Erik, I have SO MUCH respect for what you have done!! and thanks for your comment. I started out using nothing and then the problems started.)

There are two aspects to this project: breaking the record (mostly for myself) and raising awareness about diabetes. As for the latter, my efforts have been totally rushed, amatuerish and no where near effective to this point. It would takes many months of planning, negotiations, etc. to get it done properly and I had less than one, effectively.

So that leaves the former. I would need to be in perfect physical shape and highly motivated to have any chance at this incredibly difficult stupid human trick. It just feels like I'm not there. At the shelter today, and the hour and a half leading up to it I had myself convinced I would throw in the towel. Many of you have said what I'm doing is "nuts" or "crazy". Maybe I'm just too slow and prideful to see that. In Sat. Globe the Airies horoscope said something to the effect that you have something heavy on your mind and are not willing to let it go due to pride. I don't put any value in these...usually.

I'm just over 8hrs of riding into the day (4:15pm). I hope to get a bit furhter, but another pass lumes and I don't want to spend the night too high for reason of being cold. 10hrs on the prairies would be a piece of cake compared to this, so I'm not that worried.

I need to think more and may consult with some friends. Sorry for the crappy outlook.