My route plan for the day changed at the last moment when, as I was folding the leaf of my Alberta-BC road map and re-inserting it into my tank bag window, I caught glimpse of an alternative through road from Revelstoke to Lumby, positioned roughly parallel to the highway, also along a southwesterly diagonal, but with that alternating shading pattern on the map which means "no traffic." After five minutes of research, I was sold on the Mabel Lake Forestry Service Road, applied all of my insulating layers, and set off to find the head of the road on the TCH, 2 km west of Three Valley Gap hotel at the top of a passing lane. |
The route started with 70 km of southbound gravel, with only a handful of logging trucks as traffic. Traction was good despite the ongoing drizzle, and my pace was mostly mid-to-top of 2nd gear, up on the pegs the whole stretch and probably averaging 45 km/h. I stopped several times for photos (because, unlike yesterday, I could) and once to shake the tingles out of my right wrist and both ankles (because I'm still working on perfecting the ergos; bar risers are already on order) and eat a fruit bar. This was a great route that I'd take again. After passing the Provincial Park and Shuswap Falls dam, the last 25 km of the road was a 5-star section of pavement through majestic farms, dumping me out in Lumby.
I turned west on 6, and followed the beaten path through Vernon and south on 97 into Kelowna, rolling in mid-afternoon for another cherished pit stop with family.
Today I realized that a simple log printout of Badger's user settings would, as an alternative to my ramblings, also give a fair summary of a day. For example, today would have read as: Heated grips MAX, traction RAIN, gas FULL, trip meter 2 RESET, traction OFFROAD, heated grips MIN, traction RAIN, traction STREET, heated grips OFF, traction RAIN, heated grips MIN. Yup, that's about got it covered.
Day total: 215 km, 4h40m Trip total: 2,728 km | Start: Revelstoke, BC. End: Kelowna, BC. Soundtrack: Beck's "Guero," "Sonic Highways," K-OS. |