Spills, chills and thrills...

Yup, we had all three of the above on our trip to Pigeon Lake yesterday. Granted, the thrills would have to be attributed to seeing actual homemade pie on the menu at the Eco Cafe, but that was sufficient for me.

The spills... well, there was really just the one. Our benevolent and bikey friends Mark and Micah joined us for the first half of our ride yesterday, despite the rain. They rode one of Mark & Jen's two tandems and were leading us over to Keillor Road, north of Fox Drive. I'd not been that way before so when Mark took a sharp left off the bike path onto the road, my first inclination was to follow him - at short notice. In the span of about a second and a half, I started to turn, thought the better of it and attempted to straighten out - while on the border between wet concrete and wet asphalt. Not a good choice: concrete is slippery stuff. The bike went out from under me and I took what must have been an interesting wipe out. (Wish I had a video!) I don't know what happened exactly after the bike slipped as it was all rather speedy but I ended the fall with a rather nice roll and have only a very slight bruise on one knee to show for it. Since I frequently get much worse bruises by whacking my calves on the pedals, I'm quite pleased. My helmet doesn't even seem to be scratched, which I can't quite figure out as I would have guessed it would at least have brushed the concrete when I rolled.

The bike is also fine, though the bell, light and shifter tops are all a little scratched - I'm not sure how that happened as it would seem to imply the bike actually landed on the top of the handlebars...? Now you see why I want a video! In any case, I was up and pedalling again within 5 minutes - the delay only caused by having to fix my slipped chain.

And as for the chills... well, it was raining when we started out, though that happily quit after 15 minutes or so, but it remained cool - say 5-8 degrees? for the whole trip. I was quite chilled by the time we got to Calmar for lunch and never did really get comfortable. It was a good temperature for Rem to be riding with just his jacket and no sweater - which of course means it's freezing for me. I was VERY VERY happy to get into the Village at Pigeon Lake and order some tea at the Eco Cafe. OF note, if you ever want a nice day trip by car, head out that direction, enjoy the pleasant wetlands scenery, have a wander around the provincial park or a paddle on the lake if you have a boat, and be sure to eat at the Eco cafe. The food is fantastic, the decor is lovely and the service very friendly. We'd happily make it a favourite stop if it weren't 118 kms away.

We stayed at the By the Lake B & B, which was also highly recommendable. Really nice hosts who welcomed us with tea and homemade cake and fed us a fabulous breakfast this morning, and a beautiful house facing out on the lake.

So, the numbers:
118km
Average speed 20.?? km/h
5 hours, 45 minutes pedalling time
10 hours of trip time ... with a good stop in Calmar for lunch and a long, long stop at the eco cafe for supper
Max speed: 43km/hr

Times Steph's sugar crashed when Rem had gone on ahead, thus risking being torn limb from limb by his ravenous wife when she finally caught up: 1
Beavers watched: 1
Species of domesticated pasture animals seen: 7 (Sheep, goats, cows, horses, llamas, donkey, buffalo)
People who randomly invited us for a pit stop in their houses: 1
Lebanese former professional cyclists turned pizza makers met: 1
North Saskatchewan River crossings: 2 (once by the Whitemud, once on the highway getting into Devon)

Pedalling to Pigeon Lake

Some days I'm certain I'm masochistic. Not two weeks ago I was swearing I would never move again and here I am now planning to bike to Bentley via a B&B at Pigeon Lake, despite a forecast of rain. I have new rain pants which would definitely come in handy, and I'm now considering buying a new pair of rubber gloves at Safeway... it sounds ridiculous, I know, but they'd be good and grippy, keep my hands protected from the wind and rain and maybe not be so hot as insulated winter gloves... and they'd match my yellow rain pants, too!

We're leaving Friday morning and returning from Bentley Saturday night with Rem's mom and her bike-carrying SUV, so sadly, Friday Feast is cancelled this week.

Day 2

So yes, there was a day two. Against my better judgement and inherent laziness, I agreed to venture out again. I must admit that Sunday was significantly less joyous than Saturday. There was a lot less "ooh, look at that great sky! what incredible colours! I love this place!" happy pedalling and a lot more staring at the road going "keep pedalling. just keep pedalling. if you take a nap in the ditch surely someone will phone an ambulance and they'll spoil your rest anyways".

Sunday's ride started at 10:30am as we weren't on a tight schedule so we had time for a lovely crepes and blackberries breakfast with my mother and her beau. We got home at about 5:45, after about 5 hours of pedal time and 2 and a quarter of rest time. Our average speed was down slightly - about 22.06km/hr (not sure about those decimals - #'s at home) but less than I expected consiering we were pretty sore and tired and had a lot more headwind to contend with.

By happy accidental timing, we met up with Malcolm, Micah, Mark and Jen in Beaumont and received a pep talk about the last 25 or 30 kms. Jen tried to convince me that it was a 40 minute ride all downhill with a tailwind. I didn't believe her but I liked the idea! Turns out she was wrong about the timing (I think she overestimated our speed rather a lot) but pretty accurate with the grade and the wind - thank heavens!

Sunday night was filled with a lot of sitting and a lot of whimpering every time I had to sit or stand up. Not moving was my preferred activity for the evening. Pleasantly, my muscles were feeling much better by monday morning and are quite fine today. Hurrah! And it is still sunny and gorgeous and I get to bike home soon. Double hurrah!

So the bike tours will continue, but I am still far far far away from thinking it would be a good idea to bike up a couple of mountain ranges as my nutbar husband is planning to do in June. Be careful, nutbar!

Camrose Expedition: Day 1

Today was our frist long-distance Canadian bike excursion. Rem has done some very long (120km) days in Taiwan and we did some lesser (50-70km?) trips in the Netherlands but we'd yet to attempt similar feats on our home soil.

So today we filled up our pannies, strapped on our helmets and biked to Camrose. We stuck to secondary highways for the most part, taking Malcolm's advice on a route to Beaumont and then catching the Rolly View road a few klicks out of town there. From there, it was straight on to Miquelon Lake and then a slight jog to Camrose. All told, it was a pretty good day. The last home stretch from the Lake to town started well but I was picturing it being closer and the adrenaline ran out a little early. Probably should have stopped for some food and water but the mosquitos were feasting on Rem's exposed flesh and I REALLY wanted to get there.

The day was wonderfully sunny, the scenery amazing, the wind frequently at our backs and the traffic fairly mild. All in all, a lovely day. Just don't ask me about the current state of my knees.

Today's ride by the numbers:
Trip length: 108 km door-to-door
Ride time (time when the bike was actually moving): 4 hours, 46 minutes and 50 seconds
Average speed: 22.64 km/hr
Max speed: 54.99km/hr
Actual trip time, including breaks: 6.5 hours

Progress Report

My mother gave me a little bike computer last year when we were in Utrecht. Due to laziness and then the theft of my piece o'junk bike, it never got installed. I finally got motivated to put it on my beautiful birthday present a week or three after I got it and a few weeks later it even started working (it was a little moody at first). So now I can report some numbers:

Time it takes to get up Emily Murphy Hill: the longest 3 minutes I experience all day
Usual speed going up Emily Murphy Hill: 9-10km/hr. (She's like the wind...)
Usual speed going up Groat Road: 15km/hr
Usual cruising speed on the flats... depending on the wind, 20-25km/hr.
Fastest speed noticed (going down Groat Road) before I decided I'd best brake: 40 km/hr. I could probably go a heck of a lot faster than than going down Emily Murphy on the road rather than the bike path as I don't have to dodge pedestrians then, but I probably don't want to be sure that I could break the speeding limit on a bicycle.
Distance to work: a little over 7km. (That's actually due to viamichelin.com. I haven't figured out how to reset my odometer yet!)

Hopefully in a month or so I will have improvements to report. Already I have noticed improvements as I find it easier to use higher gears and cruise at 20-25 more often than 15-20.

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In other news, I am pleased to welcome back some long-awaited friends. Stephen and Meaghan arrived back from BC (well, Montreal via Vancouver for M) on Tuesday night and will hopefully be making a great many appearances at Friday Feasts and other gatherings. We must appreciate them while they are home. Hurrah!