Day 8

Today took us from Revelstoke to Golden, via Rogers pass. It was a longer day at 150km , especially considering it was all through mountain passes. On the bright side I had two people to ride with and all my gear in the van, so it went by pretty quickly. Mike (the father) rode with us for the first half of the day, but after a few longer climbs he retired to the van while Robin and I pressed onwards. It turns out Mike was in his seventies and had been pushing for a third consecutive hundred plus kilometer day. I was awestruck. The climb up Roger's pass went by way faster than I had imagined it would, it was actually pretty underwhelming. Coming down the other side through the tunnels was absolutely amazing though: several minutes of 60/km+ riding through black-out dark tunnels. Definitely a highlight so far. We rode past plenty of snow, and thankfully managed to stay ahead of the rain clouds, which were constantly on our tail throughout the day. Pulling in to Golden with no gear, and a hot meal waiting was wonderful. Tomorrow Robin and Heather are heading back to the Okanagan, while Robin and I will ride out to Banff, and then on to Calgary. According to Mike and Robin there is a parallel route to get in to Banff that is basically empty, so looking forward to a day of no-traffic riding, even if I do have to carry my own gear again.