Whistler - Kamloops

After finally regaining control I hit the road again and reached Seattle in about 25 minutes.  I wish I'd had some time to spend in Seattle because it was beautiful, and contrary to everything I've ever heard about it, it wasn't raining.  I guess I was there 1 day in 3.  Unfortunately I had to simply drive on through but it's one for the list of places to come back to.  A few hours later there was a rest area advertising free coffee so I thought I'd see if hot chocolate was on the menu - it was, along with home baked chocolate chip cookies, andthere was a huge tree stump that had been transported there over a period of years (photos to come).  So it was a pretty good place to stop, and one of the last opportunities before the border.

I reached the border around 11.30pm, 13 hours after starting out.  After a brief interrogation (what are you doing here, how long are you staying, how are you supporting yourself, is your van going to make it - it's FINE, it was just a bit tired!) I entered Canada :o)

By midnight I reached Vancouver and followed the rather small and infrequent signs all the way through what appeared to be downtown for highway 99, for about half an hour (plus a 20-odd minute detour after missing a turnoff) and finally reached the highway.  110kms to Whistler - great!  Just over an hour... not!  110kms of roadworks does not make for fast travelling - nor does max speeds of 80 (usually 50-60 because of roadworks) and waaaay too many flashing lights at night after 14 plus hours of driving.  Every rest area, or possible stopping area, seemed to be shut off due to roadworks - sure, the Olympics are important but couldn't it be done in smaller chunks??? Finally I turned off just south of Squamish around 2am and slept for a bit.  I rolled in to Whistler at 6.30am on Tuesday morning, a bit tired and totally confused by the streets not being in a nicely arranged grid pattern, but pretty stoked and keen for another sleep.

In my bit-too-tired state I couldn't find the hostel John was staying at so I called Hayley on the off chance she was home - lucky for me she was, and very quick to offer a bed for a night or 2, and directions to get there.  Ace!

The next couple of days saw me riding Whistler trails (not a bad reward for so little mtb action in quite some time), realising why Michelle got a fully after being there, and wanting to see a bear while at the same time being a little worried about the prospect after seeing plenty of bear poo around.

This morning (Thursday) I picked up John and we drove up to Kamloops.  I finally got to see a bear as we rounded a switchback on the road and one was casually ambling across the road!  Wicked :o)  So cute, but he ran away too fast...

Upon arrival in Kamloops we discovered that we are 2 of the most directionally challenged people in the world (there is a reason they put arrows and tape on xc courses!) after driving across the same bridge about 5 times trying to find the information centre.  Eventually we made it and booked some accommodation (more directional dramas...) and it turns out we are a 5-10 minute ride from the course - sweet!  I spent just under 2 hours on course today - it's totally exposed to heat and wind - no tree cover, very dusty.  Temperature predicted for Sunday is 36 degrees so hydration is going to be critical.

The course itself isn't as technical as expected.  It should be very fast.  Women have 5 laps.  It might not be technical, but it's going to be pretty demanding just because you can effectively pin it everywhere if you have the energy, and it is quite rough.  Some of the descents are long so should allow reasonable recovery.  There are a few of my much-loved steep but short pinches - one of which gave me grief a couple of times today.  They're going to hurt after 3 or 4 laps.

Tomorrow morning the bikes are going to get some love as they've seen a lot of dust in a short time.