Day 15 – Eagle Valley Campgrounds, Maple Creek, SK (May 16, 2015)
I left Medicine Hat a little before 7am and like the previous day made good time for the first hour or so. It occurred to me that perhaps at last the forecast wind direction was wrong. I started making plans to go further that Eagle Valley. Alass before too long the wind picked up.
All I can really say about the day is that the wind was the worst yet. The wind gusts were well above 30km. There were no places to stop and eat along the way. At one time I stopped for a short break and was catching up on the texts to Michelle when the wind took my bike and rolled it right over so it was upsidedown momentarily. All the contents of my handlebar bag were left on the ground.
I made Eagle Valley about 2pm, setup my tent, had a shower, did the laundry and then relaxed over a good meal with salmon and shrimp. The campground was very well organized and well maintained. I likely should have gone further today given the time but the wind takes a lot out both mentally and physically and I couldn’t beat the spot.
Calcium deposits beside a pond. There is no drainage for the water, only evaporation. 12:24 pm 2015/05/16
Ralph, and the contents of my handle bar bag on the ground after the wind flipped it over. 11:14 am 2015/05/16
I left Brooks with almost no wind and for the first hour or so made relatively good time. After that the wind picked up but I managed to make the most of it with a good rhythm that kept me from getting too frustrated with the lack of speed; stand-up, sit down with my hand on the bars, sit down upright with the hands on the risers, and repeat every 15 minutes or so.
I decided I’d stop at Suffield. I think it was the only stop between Brooks and Medicine Hat so it was a no-brainer. I almost missed it. I have to remember that if there is a clump of trees with a number of buildings that’s likely the town.
I had the worst burger for years in Suffield. As I was leaving the cook who was taking a smoke break asked me how the burger was. I lied and he smirked. I can say with some surprise that it didn’t make me sick.
The wind abated as I approached Medicine Hat. I think it may have reversed. It was as if Medicine Hat sucked me in to a vortex. In the last hour I made very good time.
I stayed at Best Western in Medicine Hat. It was more than I wanted to pay but the campground looked a bit sketchy. The receptionists were nice. Not knowing whether the bike would fit in a normal room they gave me a suite for the same price. I don’t fully appreciate a suite but I appreciated the place to shower and sleep. I would be happy with a place to
Ralph the bike ready for a bath in the suite. 4:04 pm 2015/05/15
Some Pronghorn. They were much closer to the road when I first saw them but something spooked them. Perhaps I looked like a hunter in my orange raid coat. 11:07 am 2015/05/15
After tidying up my camp site and eating my breakfast I was on my bike by about 7:30am. I stopped by Pete’s Cafe to get rid of my garbage and was checking the pressure of my tires when the Mayor lady came out with a cup of coffee. She reminded me that Pete’s doesn’t open ’til 9am. There you go – Cluny an isolated little place with some friendly people living a life.
After that I set on my way heading into the wind all bundled up for the 4 degrees C morning.
Beside the obvious open space the prairies may appear at first uninteresting. However I have found a few interesting things:
When you are on flat land a pessimistic cyclist like myself looks around and sees the horizon as hills in every direction.
In order to draw attention to the mundane the department of highways occasionally puts up “Important Intersection” signs. I could not for the life of me figure out was important about them.
Cattle, like gas molecules, take all the available space. In one expansive area there appeared to be one cow/steer (whatever) per 10,000 square meter. There were hundreds of cattle as far as the eye could see.
In low lying areas the ground looked white from some salt or calcium deposits. I imagine that this was from irrigation runoff and had very little vegetation.
Cattle are about as dumb as fish. A few times one started running for no good reason that I could tell and they all started running for miles around.
Most of the land doesn’t appear to be used for anything. They should roll up east and west together until they need it. This would make the distance shorter for bicyclists.
There is nowhere to pee without being seen.
I made it to Bassano by about 10 something and knowing that I may not stop until supper I had a second breakfast. More french toast.
The wind had by know put me about 2 1/2 hours. I planned to stop for the night at Brooks effectively making what would have been a two day ride in three days.
I completed the ride to Brooks by about 3:15. I was happy that Brooks resembled a real city. I had supper at Boston Pizza and met a cyclist in his 50s who reminded me of cousin Ken. He too had issues with the roads in Ontario and suggest a route involving a ferry across Lake Michigon. I think it’s out of the way but I will take a look. I ended up staying at the Lakeshore Hotel. I was in good time to relax and purchase a few things including a pair of replacement ear buds. I am now depending on music to get me through the daily ride.
Bassano finally. 2 1/2 hours late. 10:07 am 2015/05/14
Cluny in the early moring with the flags blowing west. 17:51 am 2015/05/14
I packed up at the hostel in Calgary and was on the road a little before 7am. Apparently the hostel served breakfast at 7:30am as part of the cost of the room. It would have been nice to take advantage but I find the continental type breakfast insufficient (waiting 40 minutes translates to too long) and I wanted to get started.
Eventually I had my breakfast at a retro Harley Davidson place and ordered the breakfast staple, “Pain dore”. Katie would appreciate it.
After breakfast I weaved my way through the bicycle trails that followed along a dyke of one of the canals.
When I left Calgary the wind started to pick up from the East by South East I as predicted. I knew that if the wind continued I was going to have a hard time making Bassano.
As the hours wore on working against the 20 km head wind a number of things occurred to me.
There is this ‘stinking’ effect somebody came up with. I think it was Beroulli or some other sick person. Basically it says that the air travels faster over a hill. I’d like to tear that out of the text books.
Truck drivers are too nice in Alberta. Imagine this: I get this huge shoulder lane all to myself on the transcanada. Along comes a truck pushing air and the drivers, thinking they are doing me a favour, pull over the passing lane increasing the distance between the truck and me to about 30 feet.
As the day wore on making it to Bassano became a bigger and bigger obstacle. At the first sign of a gas station I stopped and bought some chocolate bars and beef jerkey – no real food.
In Cluny, about 50km from Bassano, at about 4pm, I decided to call it a day.
The was a gas station at the corner at the trancanada. A restaurant was advertised but the restaurant area was cordoned off. It looked like it had been that way for years. The lady at the counter explained there was place to eat at Pete’s Cafe in Cluny “just down the hill”. That worried me since hills in the prairies are up to 5km long but I took the risk.
The population of Cluny was around one hundred. Pete’s Cafe and Bakery was in the center of the town. I was served by a friendly girl in her 30s who scurried about with a low center of gravity. Another lady came by explaining I could camp down the road and wouldn’t be charged. She was a kind magnanimous person who seemed to run things. She could well have been Cluny’s mayor (or should have been.)
After chatting with some local guys about bikes I settled in for the night in an open field by a baseball diamond (the town camp site.)
My bike pointed east with a flag pointing straight out toward the west. 10:39 am 2015/05/13
Pete’s Cafe and Bakery in Cluny. 7:51 am 2015/05/14
It’s 105km from Canmore to Calgary. Because the forecasted wind direction was from the NE I new it was going to be harder than I had planned. I was up at 6:15am. Later than I had wanted.
I had decided to have breakfast 14km down the road in Eshaw. The morning was about the coldest yet. My thin gloves were insufficient. As it turns out it appears all that exists in Eshaw were a number of Lafarge Cement Plants and, praise the Lord, one truck stop that served breakfast! The place was run by a couple of tough looking Filipino guys who didn’t say much but served a good breakfast.
After breakfast it was earlier enough that the SE wind hadn’t yet picked up and I made good time. I noticed that the roads away from the TransCanada were more protected from the wind. At about 10am when I merged onto the Transcanada the wind had picked up and it was hard slugging.
I arrived in Calgary about 2:30pm. It was pleasant to see that Calgary had excellent bicycle trails and bike lanes. Perhaps the best bicycle aware city yet.
On the way I passed by BowCycles which is the biggest bicycle shop that I have seen. I thought I would stop and take the opportunity to have my front derailer fixed. They immediately took me in and bumped me to the front of the repair line. They switched the front and rear brake, switcher combinations and all the cabling.
While I was waiting I had a long conversation with an employee (who could have been the owner). He did all the talking. I guess he was in his 50s who was a former engineer, a graduate of Carlton, who had worked in the oil business. He told me a bit about his time in Saudi Arabia and how his wife wanted to come back to Canada. It was mixed in his comment about the “no alcohol” policy. Then he smiled and said everyone made their own anyway “the grapes were there right beside the sugar. All you needed is some yeast which somehow almost everyone had.”. He has since retired to work in a bicycle shop. Hmmmm – interesting thought. He had done bicycle touring in Europe including the eastern block before it was opened and kicked himself for not paying more attention. “East and west was like night and day back then. Now you hardly tell the difference.”
It was 6pm before the bike was ready. The fellow who did the work treated it with a lot of respect and care. All the cables had been carefully rerouted around my lamp. Everything worked now just like it was new.
The bike trails in Calgary are just about the best I have seen anywhere so far in Canada. Generally they are all paved, well marked, have center dividing lines and even have speed limited. As I was riding I was overtaken by another man on his road bike. He was a big man in his 50s with calves at least the size of my thighs. He rode with ease on his light bike as I laboured. I will call him “BigCalves”; I may refer to him later. He talked to me about his trips across Canada. (By the look of him it would be like a short Sunday ride.) He confirmed for me that biking in Ontario and specifically north of Lake Superior are the worst in Canada. He recommend a route south of Superior through the states. “Better roads and more towns”.
It took me to 7:30pm to find the HI Calgary. By that time it was too late to meet up with the Hunkas as I had planned. Apparently the USB adapter that Ann had sent had not yet arrived.
When I arrived at the Hostel there were only two beds left. The HI Calgary was just as well maintained as HI Canmore but much busier full of interesting people either transient or serious travelers. The girl ahead of at the reception counter was a smart, German girl, with a pack that looked as big as my four panniers together. I gather she was doing some sort of traveling article or something. There were others too. Mostly young people still in their twenties; an Australian, someone who was caring for their sick friend and older man who seemed in another world.
Tomorrow is another long day. Because of the wind I am thinking of breaking it up. We’ll see tomorrow.
Bike heaven! BowCycles in Calgary. (I believe the “Bow” is the name of the river and large valley running from Canmore to Calgary.) 4:37 pm 2015/05/12
A panorama of picture scanning the mountains in the west to the prairies in the east.
A panorama of picture scanning the mountains in the west to the prairies in the east.
A panorama of picture scanning the mountains in the west to the prairies in the east.
A panorama of picture scanning the mountains in the west to the prairies in the east.
A panorama of picture scanning the mountains in the west to the prairies in the east.
A panorama of picture scanning the mountains in the west to the prairies in the east.
The last picture of my bike with the last view of the Rockies in the distant background. 10:27 am 2015/05/12
