Day 14: Grande Prairie, AB: 607 km
July 12, 2013.
We were on a 4 lane highway today! It felt so good!
We were up pretty early (4:30) and had breakfast in the hotel (they open breakfast at 5:00). While there we met a nice guy from Ohio. He rides an FJR and was planning on doing the Klondike loop (Dawson City to Tok) and then the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay (Deadhorse). He was going to do this in 16 days total from home. That seems rather ambitious but cool. We wished him well and went back to getting ready. Our goal was to leave by 6:00 and we only missed it by 15 minutes (Spot should prove me fairly accurate).
It was cold. How cold was it? It was 6 C when we left. But it was not raining. We made distance while it was mostly dry and there wasn’t traffic. It started raining at some point. We had to be in Grande Prairie by 3:00 for Dendog’s service appointment so we made few stops. By the time we got to Fort St John, we were both shivering and ready for our first break. We encountered 3 C and SNOW 70 km south of Bucking Horse. Yes SNOW. Because it was a balmy 3 C it did not stick. Not long before the snow fell we noticed frost on the trees about 100 m higher elevation than we were at. Every new hill we saw had us a bit worried.
A brief video of the snow falling.
Construction on the road today gave us more mud opportunities. Just like old times!
We encountered three metal grate bridges and we think we are done with them. Look far forward, accelerate through and hope for the best! The last one was long and really windy.
The rain was bit disappointing as it obscured our view of the beautiful gorge at Taylor, BC.
The nice thing about the cold& rain and snow: No insects added to our splatter patterns.
Wildlife count: Zero. We saw two dead moose by the side of the road. Glad we didn’t see anything else in these conditions.
While Dendog was at his appointment (special thanks to the guys at Redline in Grande Prairie for fitting him in on short notice), I did a bit of walking around and shopping.
I had been looking for bicycle shorts to help with the comfort (or lack thereof) of my seat. The guy at Sports Experts set me up with these. He said they are what all the cool guys are wearing now. I can’t believe my fortune as they were on sale too!
I also got a new case for my NEW GoPro (see the tweets). When I took the GoPro off the bike I noticed that one of the supporting prongs had broken off of the case. A harshly worded letter will follow. That’s two broken GoPro cases on this trip. I will stop using the mount point.
For dinner we went for take out “Taco Time”. We haven’t been eating lunch very often other than the occasional granola bar or Snickers (TM).
Tomorrow we are off to Lloydminster, AB. I’m going to have Dairy Queen. I had to teach them how to make a Peanut Buster Parfait Blizzard last time.
When I get home I have three emails to write:
- Rev’It to complain about the “waterproof” Summit H20 gloves being far less than waterproof. I will have to let the OGTC know too.
- GoPro for the two cases that broke.
- Sears Canada for completely botching the fridge delivery at home. Q: How many days does it take to install a fridge? A: at least a week and at least 3 visits by various crews.
I have cell service back. Yay!
Special thanks to friends and neighbors that are helping back home.