for many kilometers.
I stopped and had lunch here. Nice lady, that Kathy.
Right next door was a welding shop and I liked their sign.
I had a request for close up pictures of bugs and my butt pad. Power to the people.
And I kept riding and did not, that's right, did not put on my rain gear. Then I saw several bicyclists and it was a family of riders. They were looking at the same storm as me.
It seemed like the storm was staying south. And it did for about 30 minutes, then it sprinkled a bit. Then it rained and the temperature dropped from 84 to 53F just as I was climbing a mountain. I passed a minivan and then the hail started, at first it was sleet. I saw white stuff along the edge of the road and was talking to myself, saying, that is not snow, right? Then it hailed hard for 10 minutes or better. Really hard, marble or grape size as reported by others that I talked to later. They just looked at me and shook their head. Since there was no where to get under protection. I kept riding up and over two passes like this. No rain gear...what an idiot. I was soaking wet, cold and pretty sure I had welts on my arms. Then the hail stopped. And it rained, and rained and rained again. I had 200 kilometers to Dawson Creek and I could dry out there in a nice warm hotel, with maybe a jacuzzi. I was fantasizing.
It finally cleared off a bit but never got warmer than 74F, which feels cold when you are soaking wet. But I rode on, it would be better. I thought of a good reason i need to take up yoga, so iI could raise my legs up high enough to drain the water out of my boots, while riding. I am pretty sure i had 8-10 mm of rain in each boot. One good thing was Red Velvet was cleaner and had less bugs on her. I could tell her drag coefficient was less and she was cutting thru the wind better.
I liked this set up for two ATVs with a pickup.
About 40 kilometers or 20 minutes from my jacuzzi in Dawson Creek, I saw this.
Traffic was stopped going up a mountain. And I waited, waited and waited. I finally got off the bike and took off my wet gear, my helmet. No movement of traffic. I started talking to a trucker right behind me, his name was Steve and he hauls goods foe Walmart to Whitehorse once a week. He told me about all the roads, driving in the winter and how to put chains on a truck, which are required during winter. When I told him I had seen all kinds of wildlife, but not a brown bear (grizzly). He told me how he watches some and takes pictures. He then showed me his latest pictures, which were awesome. Great guy, I liked chatting with Steve. So I decided to walk up the mountain a bit and I chatted with two young local girls and they said they talked to someone up the hill and they said an airplane had crashed and hit a semi tractor trailer. Wow! I waited a bit longer and then finally grew impatient and went back to the little town I passed earlier to get something to eat. We were told it would be an hour or two. That is Steve in his truck along with the long line of backed up traffic.
After diner I was told the road was closed until 11:00 PM due to a fatality. So I found a small motel and checked in. It's not great but I won't get hit by hail tonight. Yep, the same storm is being predicted to hit later this evening.
Another night of worrying about bed bugs. Tomorrow will be a better day!
-Mark
No comments:
Post a Comment