Kimberley: Good, Bad and Ugly

The Good: The forecast was mostly off and the ride wasn't too bad. Got to Canmore in good time and stopped to see about changing my large chain ring. The first two bike shops didn't have anything. At the third, the owner took a lot of time to talk it over with me and put the bike on the stand so we could go through the gearing. He convinced me to give it more time and get used to it. It is a big change from what I had and I was concerned about chain torque when it is out of alignment too much. Basically my flat terrain cruising speed range of 27-31 kms/hr falls between the two, so it feels like I would have to do a lot of bothersome shifting back and forth. 'Felt' better today. But still might need to deal with it in Calgary.

In Canmore I met a tourer heading east who is a fellow retired (Brit) C-130 Hercules Navigator. We chatted for quite a while and I passed on some route opinions. He is giving himself three months for Vancouver to St. John's.

Camped 55 kms NE of Radium in Kootenay National Park after just over 200kms of riding. There was actually a fair bit of sunshine and the winds were decent. Today was almost 190kms, with some good tailwinds at times, and again some sunny stretches.

Today had a good chat with a New Jersey couple who are riding from Montana to Alaska. I'm a little jealous of their pace and ammenities. Very nice folks.

The Bad: It did rain this morning and I had to break camp in a drizzle. Not the end of the world, but I did get damp riding. Just before Radium there is a big pass and a steep descent. I had a shell on, but 15 minutes of speeds over 45kms/hr and cool temps made me VERY cold. In Radium I went into the Husky, had four coffees over 45 minutes and was still shivering! Fortunately it got a bit sunny after this and I had good tailwinds to help warm up too.

The Ugly: Despite very little riding for over a week, two new pairs of shorts, using anti-bacterial wipes mid and end-day and gooping on Vaseline and Lanoline, I have started to redevelop at least one sore. This is exceptionally disappointing, to say the least. I will press on to Vancouver, but if I can't deal with this over the next four days then 27 days is a lost cause.

One last challenge I will need to try is doing at least one 10+ hr day in the next few. I could well need to do many on the record attempt and my longest ride so far was only 9:15. Again, if one of these days takes too much out of me, it would be hard to contemplate stringing a lot of them together. Barring saddle sore problems, I think this will be OK, though.