We got up early while it was still on the dark side and packed our gear up in the rain. I shouldn't say we were in the rain because we moved everything up onto the open air theater, which we free camped behind, where it was dry. So the pics I promised were missed do to dArkness and rain but I did take a few as it lightened up. Today was going to be a long hilly one with an early start to manage our time.
I received a text from a friend, Joe, who cycle toured with us from Osoyoos to Cranbrook. He had flown to his hometown of Barrie and decided to do a road trip in a motorized gas consumer and give me a visit. The original plan was to hop on his bike and join us but a cold and an injury prevented this from happening. Future tours are in order. He found me on the side of the road minutes after the neatest rain squall passed over me or I should say ran into me. I was riding along and could hear a strange roar getting louder and louder. Ahead was a thick fog of mist and water rising up from the road moving quickly towards me. Realizing it was one of the heaviest walls of rain I've ever seen, I grabbed my jacket and threw it over my head and leaned over my leather Brooks seat to protect it. Seconds later it hit like someone threw a bucket of water at me ending with a minute of light drizzle. I said to Joe, "Did you see that heavy rain just now?" and he just shrugged his shoulders. So many experiences are lost traveling inside a vehicle. He brought food and water, what a touring cyclist always consumes in large quantities, and we talked close to an hour. Thanks, Joe! I'll be talking to you later. It was getting late and I still had another 50 hilly kilometers to get to griffith where I'm sure Karin already had her tent up.
After Joe and I parted company, I ran into two of the steepest, not to long thankfully, hills on this entire trip across Canada so far and I was able to grunt up each one. I would have been pushing the bike six weeks ago.
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