The Similkameen Valley

Another 4:30 a.m. start. I think they are catching up with me. I could not seem to do anything right this morning. And once I get out of my routine, it just leads to a muddled up day, as it is not one thing that set the day on end ... it is indeed a series of unfortunate events.

Okay.... where did it all go wrong..... well...

I stagger up stairs and I make coffee, as without a couple of cups of coffee I am a wreck. So I pour the water in and hit go and procede to make coffee with last nights grounds. That's just wrong. It came out all tea-like. Hell no.... I want molasses. Then I ended up missing my morning hot-tub... which is where I do some initial stretching to start my day. The heat sort of limbers your body and the coffee limbers your brain. Well..... I got neither. Then my breakfast was all wrong... basically I had too much. I had my usual ironfuel and a big honkin' cinnamon bun. Just a wee bit too much, I think. Then I went to mix my gatorade and keep in mind that this is something I have been doing for months and months on end on auto-pilot every time I work out. Well for some strange reason I decided to add an extra scoop to each bottle. Now... for those of you who do not do this regularly.... ya don't gennerally taste it at the time you mix it. You jsut take you bottles along with you on the bike and then the first time you have some is often about 30 minutes in to your day.

So... today was the last time before the race that I would get a chance to ride the Ironman bike route. As I am in "Taper" mode, (when I say that, I always think that it sounds like I have a tape worm and that's why I am wasting away to nothing), we decided that it would be best not to ride the whole route, but start in Osoyoos at the Husky station and begin with the assault on Richter and then make my way back to Penticton via: the rollers, Cawston, the out-and-back, Keremeos, Olalla, and Yellow Lake.

My parents have been absolutely 100% supportive of this crazy venture, as you can easily tell. Both of them want to be my support crew and are eager to do whatever they can to make sure that I cross that finish line. So my Dad volunteered to drive me down to Osoyoos for the start. Well, actually, I drove and he enjoyed the last Cinni-bun and a coffee I made for him.

Here's my Dad and I. Family certainly is fuel for life.

So then, with no warm-up , I say my good byes and head out to conquer Richter for the third time this season.

It really is not a bad climb... just constant for about 11K. Without the real heat of the day beating down on me, it did feel a bit more manageable, that said, I was gasping like a fish out of the bowl by the time I summited the first part of the climb. Remember that gatorade that I have not yet tasted..... well there I am gasping away and I take a big swig of this yucky syrupy swill. OMG! WTF! NO LOL! Tri-Guy is sad. Not only is it disgusting, this is the only liquid I have for the next two hours until I am at the Big Bear fruit-stand just outside of Keremeos. This day is getting sticky. Nothing like washing down a gel with treacle.

Fahggeddaboudit.... wha-yagonnadoo?

Doesn't look so bad..... does it? (No clouds at all.... or rain for that matter)

So here is the view you would see out of the back of my head as I made my way up the pass. Off in the distance is the town of Osoyoos and as you can see, there is not a cyclist to be found. The last time this happened, the sky opened up and poured on me..... but as you can see there are no clouds here.

So I continued on my merry way and made the summit in 36 minutes. I am not sure if that is any kind of big deal, but it felt fast to me and I guess that is something. On race day, they make quite a big deal of this climb and I understand that it is covered with spectators and well wishers. I don't think it is like l'alpe d'huez or the col du tourmalet on the tour where you wonder how in the heck are the leaders ever going to get through the throngs of screaming masses. Nevertheless, it will be pretty neat to see that.

Over the top is great descent and then you come around a corner and you can see the start of the rollers. You are going to have to enlarge this photo, as the shadow from the mountain sort of obscures the view, but if you do enlarge it, you will see the first roller way in the distance as the highway turns north to follow the Similkameen valley.

Always nice to stop on a hill for a photo as it is easy to get going again. (no clouds here either... hmmmm I wonder where they are?)

....... Then you continue on your way through the seven rollers... some people (Michael) call them the seven bitches. Judging by the way he rides them, he should be calling them the seven speed bumps. He attacks those things like a olympian going for a medal in the moguls. I have great jealousy for that. Needless to say, they are absolutely beautiful, and if there was not a head wind, I should have hit 77kmph again.

Does that not look like a great ride or what? If you look (enlarge) you can see the road stretching out for miles towards the turn to the out-and back at Beck's road along the old Okanagan highway. (Is that a cloud in the distance.... no.... wait a minute.....that's just a bit of fluff on my screen).

After the rollers had their way with me, battered and bruised and covered in syrup, I made my way onto the flats of Cawston and Keremeos. So there I was in the aero-bars riding into a headwind... now that I know how to do well. So I found it comfy and reassuring. And, if you squinted real hard the mountains disappeared and I was on highway 26 heading towards Poplar Point back home.

Just some really neat topography here. All the water eroded valleys make the mountain look older and wiser.. or is could just be trenched by the sun like some of those old leathery people you see on the beach that apply the lotion to keep their skin from cracking.

I wonder what you are supposed to do here?

Well... as you can guess the heat was starting to kick in and in a few short kilometers, it was time to get some cool water from the wonderfully refreshing well outside the Big Bear Fruit-stand.

The poor Giant. No action here either....Little gender confusion I think.

Now that's helmet head.

Just after I left the fruit stand I came across this fellow in by the side of the road.

That's a baby rattler. They are all over the place around here.

Basically rattlesnakes are very shy and reclusive.... but cannot resist warming up on a hot surface like the road. This guy was hit by a car or whatnot and was of no real threat. As it is still young it does not have a rattle. It "grows" its rattle. Each time it sheds its skin it adds one bead to the rattle.

The highway department has just redone the asphalt from Keremeos to the top of Yellow lake. On the side, most likely for some paving purposes unbeknownst to me, they have marked off every 100m from the fruit-stand to the lake. So you can count down to the 13k marker where the hill starts and the 17K marker...that's if your lungs have not popped out of your chest from the last big climb on the route.

Up on the left side you can see the turn to Green Mountain Rd. where I have taken you all before as it meets up with the start of the climb to Yellow lake. This photo is at the 12.6K marker.

All in all it was a nice ride that took me 116k through the Okanagan countryside. Upon my return home, I went out for a brief transition run of 3.2 miles (5k) just to get the legs moving and the HR up. There is this beautiful route from here out to where I took the first photos yesterday of the beach.

Sorry to hear that the weather is so poor back home..... as much as I jest. All the best to everyone as they prepare for their events.

Be safe.