Thursday June 24, 2015

What a tough ride. Hope is surrounded by mountains and it doesn’t matter which way you go out of Hope you are going to go up!

We started climbing almost as soon as we left Hope, a steady 7% grade for about 15 kms. We had climbed to 721 metres from sea level, then we started to go downhill to Sunshine Valley. I didn’t want to lose all the climbing we had gained, because I knew our total elevation today was going to be 1,497 metres. But – we went downhill!! Fortunately we didn’t lose too much, it gave us a nice break from climbing and we went through the valley for about 10 kms.

The Hope Slide, this landslide occurred on January 9, 1965.  It is the largest historic slide in western Canada. NZ they are called slips, Canada calls them slides. Half of the mountain broke away. It buried Highway 3 to a depth of up to 79 m and claimed the lives of four motorists.

The temperature started to rise as we started to climb again. A combination of the hills and the heat got to me and I had to stop a few times. Ralf was really supportive, at one point I had looked ahead and seen a curve in the road, I was aiming for that. Ralf gently encouraged me to get to the curve – he was hoping it would level off there – so was I.

It didn’t but we took a break anyway. About 5 kilometres before cresting Alison’s Pass at an elevation of 1,497 metres we did a combination of walking and cycling. Ralf suggested we cycle for 2 kms and walk for 1 k. However, after we had cycled the first 2 ks we crested Alison’s Pass.

This is how I actually looked.

We hurtled down the other side of the Pass to the Provincial Park.

During our ride we were passed by a number of classic cars and kit cars – all on the way to Penticton for a week-end car show.

We stayed at the Manning Provincial Park which was established in 1941 the park was named in memory of Ernest C. Manning, Chief Forester of British Columbia from 1936 – 1941. During his time as Chief Forester he was very instrumental in developing the idea of setting land aside for future generations to enjoy. The Park has a great lodge to stay in and we were tempted, but not at $110.00 incl taxes per night. There was a campsite we could stay at 1 km back up the hill, or another campsite 5 kms down the hill. When I came out of the lodge Ralf had been chatting to one of the Park Rangers. I asked him about the vacancy rate at the campsite down the hill. He told us about the Horse Corral – we could pitch our tent for $25.00 use all the facilities at the lodge which included showers, hot tub, swimming pool and wi-fi. Much better than cycling 5 ks and only have a pitch, and no showers.

Unfortunately, they didn’t tell us the showers were cold showers, we didn’t have our swim gear for the hot-tub (which was closed), so we froze our little white tushes off in the shower. Both of us commented that we got freezer head from the coldness of the water. We were able to buy some beer from the store at a reasonable price, if you don’t mind paying extra for chiller fees! Yep you pay extra for it coming out of the fridge!

I think we will sleep well tonight. We are going to try and get up early to beat the heat.