Three days to Prince George, I mean Five days to Prince George

Well it has been an interesting few days.  I have been bad about writing so I will try to recap. 

After taking another unplanned rest day in Chetwynd due to illness, I awoke on Saturday morning feeling about the same as I had the day before.  Knowing that I had already sat out a day that I should have been riding, I had no choice but to try and ride.  The kicker is that the wind was the worst that I have seen yet, the weather service reported the winds at 40 kilometers per hour gusting to 90 kilometers per hour (about 25mph gusting to 55mph) and it was directly in my face. 

Needless to say I was not looking forward to the day’s ride.  About ten minutes into the ride I was throwing up over my shoulder and just trying to keep the bike rubber side down.  When I hear some branches break followed by a bark.  Another branch and more barking, as I turn towards the noise, I see a large German Shepard busting through the woods at me.  I pulled out the bear spray and began to pedal as hard as I could.  Funny thing is, as I was focused on the dog giving chase, I failed to notice the black bear standing in the middle of the road.  Good thing for me I think the bear was as scared by the dog, as I was and took off running into the forest.  I managed to out run the dog without having to use the bear spray, but the sprint took its toll on my already weary body. 

Virginia Beach is a very windy place; at no time during my training did I ever ride in a wind this heavy.  If I had to guess I would say that the weather service was way off in their report, it felt like I was trying to ride through a hurricane.  To make matters worse this section of the ride was on tight winding mountain roads, it didn’t have a white line, much less a shoulder.  Head down and pedal that’s all you can do, I kept telling myself, until a gust of wind knocks you off the road and into the ditch.  When that happens you have a second option, call it quits for the day and hope for better conditions in the morning.  Which is exactly what I did.  With all the RV’s and trucks as well as the many cliffs and steep drop offs Azure and I decided that I got lucky escaping injury after getting blown off the road so we bagged it until the morning. 

The following morning conditions were even worse, the wind was the same and now there was rain accompanying it.  I road as long as I could but again, for a second day, I didn’t get very far.   The shame of it was that this wasn’t very challenging terrain.  It was very flat considering the fact that I was in the mountains.  I should have plowed through this ride in two short days, instead it was a three day grind fest.

I awoke the third morning knowing that I had no option; I had to make it to Prince George regardless of how long it would take.  The wind was relentless again (however not quite as bad as the previous days) and after three flat tires, four rain storms, and what seemed like an eternity on the bike I was on the outskirts of town.

 Prince George is largely a farming community, so it came as no surprise when I saw four Great Pyrenees running around their farm.  What did come as a surprise was when the four of them took notice of me and made a b-line right for me.  A moment of panic set in, this seems to be a regular occurrence on this trip, and then I noticed the barbwire fence surrounding their property.  I relaxed and thought to myself, it’s a damn good thing there is that fence there because I don’t know if my legs had it in them to out run those dogs (at this point in the day my legs felt like wet noodles).  Then a funny thing happened three of the four dogs hurtled the aforementioned barbwire fence and sprinted right for me.  I’m not sure how but I found spare energy and strength that I didn’t know I had and managed to out run them.  I am a dog person and I wouldn’t have wanted to, but if it had come down to it I would have emptied my entire can of bear spray on those three, without a second thought.  They were big, muscular, and fast, really fast.  These were not the loaf around the house Great Pyrenees pets that you see in the States, they were working dogs and I apparently looked like a threat to them or perhaps prey.  If I were a sheep or cow on that farm I would feel pretty secure at night.

Ride Stats

8-7

24.3 miles

12.7 mph average

27 mph max (German Shepard induced speed burst)

1:54:27 ride time

8-8

48.66 miles

14.5 mph average

39.3 mph max

3:20:46 ride time

8-9

89.18 miles

14.1 mph average

32.5 mph max

6:19:11 ride time