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Wednesday July 31        Cycling Day 23

  Fort Nelson (BC) to Prophet River (BC).....Bush Camp #4

 NB1:    Posts 28 and 29 in reverse order

NB2: Comments- can comment as Anonymous, just include an identifier at end of comment.

Distance:  (Km). 105

Time:  4:46

Average Speed: (Km/ hr). 22.1

Ascent:  (m). 824

Heart Rate: (beats / min). 117

Cumulative Distance:   (km). 2546

Cumulative Ascent :  (m).  20,518

Punctures so far : 0

Back to business today fueled by a Boston Royal in the Boston Pizza just down the road. In bed around 10 and a good night’s sleep in Room 203.

General operations got under way in the motel car park just after 7. Permanent bags (mine circled) were dropped by the lunch truck sporting a map of TDA cycles.....just installed over the Rest Day.

After Riders Meeting (short one) a hot breakfast was ready for all. It was still a bit chilly and the hot coffee and porridge suited the conditions.

Immediately afterwards (7:45) all out on the road, turn right and follow the Highway for 105 kms. Some riders left at 6:30 from the hotel. Today I noticed that most riders rode solo for some reason or other. I passed people today that I wouldn’t normally pass.

Fog was heavy enough for the first half hour but soon burned off. As the morning passed, dark clouds appeared to the left and to the right of us and at lunch time (60km) drops began to fall. Most donned rain gear there at lunch resigned to a wet finish to the day. However it didn’t get too heavy and had cleared within 30 mins.

Just outside Fort Nelson it was clear that energy and natural gas exploration dominated the local economy. For the first time on this trip I spotted train tracks.

The road for the first half of the day had good surface but little in the way of scenery, and I spotted no wildlife. For the first 3km out of Fort Nelson, across the road at 10 metre intervals were winrows of gravel (reason?) and I found it risky to do anything over 22 km/hr on the slight downhill. For the rest of the day we had a lovely smooth surface and generally rode in that strip between the rumble strips and the gravel. Once again the lunch stop at 60 km was a welcome sight on a long straight stretch.

For the second half of the day the road was more interesting. For 10 km I cycled with burned trees on both sides. Some new growth so it happened in the last 5 years.

All forestry here is natural, not planted, but the resource is being managed with fire-breaks complete with water channels cut through at regular intervals.

Thank heaven that rain after lunch came to nothing. Had it developed it would have destroyed an otherwise easy comfortable day.

A few short sharp climbs today with the worst one (topping at 10%) coming at the 100 km mark. It wasn’t in the same league as the big ones of the last few days - just a reminder.

I passed quickly the abandoned motel in Prophet River.....nothing much else in Prophet River. I’ve had my fill of abandoned motels to last me for a while.

Tonight is actually a bush camp (Bush Camp#4). The location was an official campground till a couple of years ago and toilets and bins were removed. So the shovels will be in use again !! The site was an army camp during the construction of the Alaska Highway and a grass airstrip is still here.

I arrived in at 1 pm and got the tent up quickly (Just now at 3:30 I hear thunder overhead and it has started to rain). Some of those in earlier utilized their excess energy by splitting timber for the camp fire.

Tomorrow and the next day won’t be as easy.

Thank God for the health and thank God for the energy.