Day 4

I've already managed to lose track of what day it is, which I am taking as a good sign. Today was my defining ride so far, rife with adventure, intrigue, bears, and fatigue. The day started off on a good foot with a resupply of Pop Tarts, and meeting my first fellow cyclist. He was Quebecois and I relished the opportunity to bust of my very rusty French to chat about the route and where we were headed. Turns out he was a total beast and had just done what took me three days in one and a half, and he was planning on ending the second in Princeton. He then took off before I could ask if he wanted to ride together. Leaving the Lodge started with some very enjoyable downhill, followed by a second climbing section. I have eaten through most of my original 15lbs of food by now, and was feeling pretty good about going uphill at this point. Sure enough, it went by in no time, and due to an accident I got to pass all the cars that had passed me earlier as I reached the second summit. This also let me catch up to my fellow cyclist, who was once again forced to exchange small talk and then ride with me for a while. Since we had rolled to the front of the line, the flagger let us through first, and we got to bomb all the way down to Princeton ahead of the traffic, which was awesome. I gave up on pedaling and just tucked down low on my handlebars and got up to around 65km/hr, which was pretty exhilarating, especially considering we had the whole road to ourselves. Upon reaching Princeton, I pulled in for lunch, and my cycling companion bombed onward without so much as a wave, never to be seen again.

After lunch, I decided to keep going as far as I could go, rather than camping out early and relaxing. I have family in Penticton that I was looking forward to seeing, and I figured I would try to make it by nightfall, or just camp out and make it the next day if I pooped out. So on I go, stopping along the way to check out a young buck eyeing down a Jeep before taking off into the woods with its silly four legged bouncy jump, and then again in Keremeos to munch on some gas station food. At this point it's around 6pm, I'm starting to feel a bit tired, and Penticton's still 45km away. Figuring the plan is still sound, I carry on, leaning towards camping soon as my legs are pretty dead after 135km of riding. But that all changes about 8km down the road from Keremeos, when a black bear bounds out in to the middle of the highway about 200m in front of me and stops to check me and a car on the other side of it out. I stop as quickly as possible, and start wondering about what my best course of action is. Do I turn around and bike away? I'm pretty tired and frankly am too slow at this point, so thats no good. Do I take a picture? Well that would look good on the blog, but I can't upload it if it eats me. Oh! The bear spray, good thinking exhausted James! Thankfully by the time I reach a decision the bear has bounded back in to the woods. And then a minute later sprints back across to the spot it emerged from. After waiting a few minutes to see if it was all a ruse, I pedal past, timing my run with some other traffic. No sign, but camping has just been taken off the table. Onwards, to Penticton!

As luck would have it, yet another climb begins within a kilometer of the bear sighting, so I am now back to biking 8km/hr, with no energy, while constantly scanning the woods for any imminent bear attacks. After a few Pop Tart breaks, and what felt like forever riding uphill (more like an hour and a half), I reached the summit and got to enjoy the ride downhill in to Penticton. Of course, it was now dark, and storm clouds were gathering, but downhill, don't care. As I blast downhill, really hoping there aren't potholes since I straight up can't see them coming, I start wondering why my little blinky light it making suck bright flashes off the reflective signs. After it happens a few times, I realize that it isn't; what I'm seeing is actually lightning, and a thunderstorm has decided it was a good time to get started. Oh well, not much I can do about that, and it isn't raining so just pedal faster and get to Grandma's ASAP. Finally I reach the bottom of the hill, cross Penticton with a nice wind at my back while following a police car (my imagined escort since I am totally a VIP), and sure enough the heavens open with five minutes to go. I blast up the last hill and roll in to an open door, a relieved Grandma, and three meals worth of food, which I promptly wolfed down before settling in to bed for a 13 hour nap. I managed to reset my little computer deelie with my crotch several times when I took breaks, but I rode somewhere around 180-190km with two major climbs. I took the following day off as a well deserved rest day to ease cramped muscles, spend time with family, and catch up on the blog. Tomorrow, on to Kelowna!

No picture today because bears.