Beautiful British Columbia / Mount Robson.

I write this post from the mount robson basecamp. I'm smack dab in the centre of the cellular black-hole that is this highway. I have no service, so I will send this tomorrow, when I pass through valemount.

My apologies to all who would like to hear from me today.

I went much further today than I had planned on. 130 km all told. Add that to yesterday's push, and I'm forty km short of arriving in vancity a day early. I'm tempted to bump up the milage to 125 a day, and see how I feel.

Now, for my day...

Beautiful weather all told, hot, but not unbearably so. I saw goats outside of jasper, and a baby deer later on, as well as another deer outside of this campground.

I decided to skip the tourist trap of jasper (I was there around noon) and keep trucking onwards to BC.

I broke my rack at some point, and it will have to be replaced at the earliest opportunity (here's hoping on valemount!!!) The weld broke, and a bolt rattled loose. Ordinarily, this would be a trivial replacement part, but not when you're this far out. Thankfully, after the little bit of string failed (I was tempted to reinforce with chewing gum) I found some wire and a roll of electrical tape on the side of the road.

So, yes. I stopped to fill up my water bottles at the lucerne campsite on yellowhead lake -> Just over the continental divide (where I spat). I suspect the camping was cheaper there than here, but the shower I just took made it all worthwhile. Also, the parc-narc has not collected my money.

Also, I waded into the water at yellowhead lake. The temperature was around 30, and the icy cold water felt wonderful on my butt, which now must have open saddlesores on it.

Which brings me to my next point. The mental resiliancy of cyclists (and other endurance athletes). I assure you, that it starts hurting after the first 20 km. It doesn't stop hurting, until days after the ride. It doesn't get better as the ride goes on, it does get worse, and more painful. Where the magic happens, is that your ability to tolerate pain increases, the further you ride.

Really, in comparison, all other problems that one might come across living the quiet life of a mostly sedentary office worker seem trivial in comparison to the searing, burning pain in my legs, or the saddle sores, which feel three strokes from abcess: even though I'm not quite halfway yet. (Tomorrow, I will likely cross the halfway point.) Mental toughness comes from learning to ignore all of this, man up, and soilder on. This mental toughness means ignoring logging trucks, four feet to the left, dust clouds, heat, searing, unbearable pain, while still smiling and taking in the scenery. The cyclists ability to cope with mental, and physical duress over long periods of time is perhaps unrivaled to any other sporting activity. I think that it is this toughness that endears me to the sport, amongst a multitude of other practical reasons.

I am not going to take the rest day yet, I am in motion to the ocean!!!

If I keep up this pace, I'll be early. Way early. Like tuesday or wednesday. Monday, if I really, really push it.