Christina Lake to Nelson

Distance: 119.73 km, Total ascent: 1,857 m, Time: 07:06, Trip distance: 1,153.63 km

Another big big day in the saddle. 120 km is far enough, but having to do that and get over a 1,000 m high mountain with a loaded bike is a different story.

Here's the snaps (more):



Another early morning. I was in the saddle at 5 AM sharp, leaving the beautiful Christina Lake. After about 3 km I cycled past a much better camping spot than the one I stayed at in town. Arggh... another sweet provincial campground. For some reason it did not show up when I ran a search. Anyhow, onwards! I have a mountain to climb.

Half-way up the Bonanza Pass on Paulson Bridge (elevation 1,106 m). I still had 400 m more to climb. The sun and heat was also starting to creep up on me.

I reached the top of the climb at Paulson Summit (1,535 m). I rewarded myself with a bite and some Gatorade next to this weather station. Mozzies were again ferocious up there.

The downhill into the town of Castlegar was great! I clocked 60 km/h and nearly broke the law too. There was a headwind, so one should be able to go down even faster than that. This suspension bridge is down stream from a series of dams used for hydro-electricity generation along the Brilliant River. Kid you not, the Brilliant. Overselling it a bit, but it was nice enough.

I'm not sure why, might be the fatigue creeping in, but I got extremely angry with myself for getting stuck in Vancouver for two weeks. I guess it is because I passed several places I would have loved to explore, which my current time frame did not allow. I read Paul Wittreich's book before starting my tour and he mentions that he never allows adversity to get him down. I should have taken up that advice.

Long story short; exhausted and annoyed, I cycled into the town of Nelson and had to wait for some blasting (road works) to finish. Great. Once the dust settled, we were allowed to continue past the blasting zone in single file. For the first time during the entire trip, I accidentally dropped my fantastic Olympus Tough 6020 camera. Aaargh... I stopped immediately to pick it up, only to see a huge pimped-out pickup truck, with a trailer, run right over my camera. @$%#!! A pickup AND a trailer; are you kidding me? These cameras are tough indeed, but not THAT tough. Needless to say, it was dead, but still looked in pretty good shape considering the pounding it took. Felt like the worst day ever.

Ok, so my options were:

1. Finish the trip without photos. Yeah right. Not going to happen.
2. Use camera phone. Not a chance, the image quality was horrific. Those pictures are not worth a thousand words.
3. Have my camera repaired. I'm not sure what the extent of the damage is, but even if it could be repaired, I did not have the time to wait. Being Sunday did not help either.
4. Buy a new reasonably-priced camera.

It felt like such a waste of money, but the last option seemed to be my only one. Luckily I found an electronics store that was open on Sunday and they happened to have a special on pretty sweet little Canon (PowerShot SD1400 IS). I bit the bullet and bought it.

With the new camera in-hand, I took a few photos of the town (a streetcar, a sail boat race, City Hall, the historic Baker Street, etc.) I checked into the fantastic Dancing Bear Inn (backpackers) planning only to spend the one night there.

During the night my heart-rate was jumping around between 60 and 80 beats per minute. This is somewhat unusual as my heart rate is usually just below 50 when at rest. I was pretty sure that it was not anything serious, but having done three 6-7 hour rides in a row, I thought it best to stay in Nelson for another day and give the old ticker a rest. I had one final rest day to play with, and it seemed as if this was going to be my last one. I would need to cycle at least 100 km every day for six days straight. No easy feat as I still had to get over the Rocky Mountains.

Gist: The climb was hard, but I felt a million times better than I did on Allison's Pass in Manning Park. My form has improved considerably too, but the fatigue was getting to me. I was extremely disappointed with myself for dropping the camera, but luckily managed to find a nice replacement. I'm also very glad I got to spent my final rest day in Nelson. I love that town. The vibe is great and it's location, nestled between the mountains and Kootenay Lake, was even better. It's the type of place where one can hike for days, mountain bike, ski/snowboard, sail, row, catch some brilliant live music and emerse yourself in everything cultural. I spoke to several locals and their interests and views resonated with my own. Definitely my favourite hangout thus far.