Day 6: Revelstoke, BC -> Mara, BC

Stats:
Start: Revelstoke,BC (Lamplighter Campground)
End: Mara,BC (Mara Cottage Campground
Distance: ~93km
Date: May 21

I'd stayed up till 11pm on the zero day writing blog posts and charging electronics and expected to sleep in a bit, but I stirred at 6am and was eager to get a start on the day. The clouds were threatening rain and I wanted to try to tear down everything while it was dry. I started the day with another shower, because the feeling of civilization to me - at its most fundamental - is a warm shower. It makes me feel human again. After that I packed the sleeping gear and tent, organized my panniers, checked the tire pressure on the bike, and ate breakfast. I'd been for lunch with my friend Laura the day before and ordered the largest pizza they made so that I could bring the leftovers with me. Cold pizza was a good great way to start the day and get out earlier. I managed to hit the road just before 9am, my earliest start yet!

To any future bike tourers: The Lamplighter Campground is great. They offer free showers, clean bathrooms, a kitchen with a water boiler and sinks, electrical outlets in the kitchen, laundry facilities ($3 each for wash and for dry), and wifi across the entire site. The tent pads are gravel and sand, very large, and well placed so they don't get wet. There's a reason I stayed two nights.

Just before leaving I snapped a picture of my campsite. I grew up on Maple Street and there was a large maple in our front yard. I have strong feelings for them, so to have two of these giants vaulting my site and keeping me dry in the one drizzle we had was a taste of my childhood. Also Calgary doesn't really have maples so these big, broad leafed trees were a sure sign of being far away.

There isn't much to tell from the bike ride this day. It started raining about 30 seconds after I rejoined the Trans-Canada Highway. I'd anticipated this and had my rain gear handy. I put my jacket on and kept riding. Eventually it stopped and the cool, humid mountain air was a such a welcome change from the days of straight 30C and sunshine.

At some point I passed The Enchanted Forest, a kind of children's theme park that a friend had joked I couldn't just pass by. I sent him some excited pics of me outside of it, and why should you be denied the experience?

After another ~25km I came to Craigallachie, BC. This was the half way mark of today's ride but more importantly the site where the final spike was driven to finish the Transcontinental Railway. It's difficult to talk about the history of modern Canada without discussion of transportation. To bring together a piece of land this large required communication and transportation, and so the completion of the CPR was a major milestone in the story of Canada. This place has LOTS of plaques to read!

Thankfully, the memorials and explanations acknowledge the workers who drove this iron line across the continent and particularly through this one stretch which was the wildest and most difficult in the country. In particular, the thousands of Chinese immigrants who worked (and many died) on the line was emphasized. The panels detailed how white workers had better housing, food, and treatment as compared to their Chinese counterparts. The fact that the history isn't just the then President of the CPR driving a single spike and completing the railway was good to see....and this is coming from someone who wrote his thesis on corporate presidents and CEOs, so I know a thing or two about unbalanced history!

I ate a lunch of pizza and finally finished it off. It was great. I bought a purple freezie at the gift shop, tarried a bit, and set back off.

Another 20km and I came to Sicamous, BC. Their town sign looks like they stole the font from a 1950s motel. The same sign out of town boasted Sicamous as the "House Boat Capital Of Canada"...which...why not?

This also marked the point at which I would turn off of the Trans-Canada and pickup highway 97A South to Kelowna. I likely won't be back on the Trans-Canada till Vancouver Island. It's actually been fine so far. The shoulder has been consistently good, wide, and the people driving the cars (because I refuse to identify the cars as the culprits) have - almost without exception - been respectful. The one difficulty I encountered today was that there are a lot of original, smaller bridges over creeks and small rivers that were built as part of the original Trans-Canada. I know so because they're stamped with "1958" or "1959" when the highway was completed. There's no shoulder on those small bridges, so I would have to wait at each one till no traffic was coming and then race across them.

The sun came out just before Sicamous, for about an hour. I hadn't put on any sunscreen because it had started out cloudy and raining. I would later find out that hour was enough to cook me. I'm pretty burned on my arms now, and it's entirely my fault. I hate sunscreen, but not as much as I hate a century of human activity that thinned the atmosphere to the point that I burn every time the sun finds me!

Anyway...

Turning south immediately brought me up next to Lake Mara. It's a lake on the scale of the ones I grew up with in Southern Quebec. It goes off into the distance, as far as you can see. I biked along it for almost 15kms. I stopped along it at one point to just enjoy the sound of the water and the sight of water as far as I could see.

I made it to Mara Cottage Campground just before 4pm. I quickly setup camp because it was threatening rain again, and explored the site. Some others at the site told me where the water and shower was....wait....SHOWER?!

Yes! Shower! Mara Cottage Campground sports an outdoor shower. I think they warm the water with propane, and you're surrounded by giant coniferous trees. It must have been one of the top 5 showers I've ever taken. That was until a curious hornet started checking me out and I suddenly felt VERY exposed. It decided I wasn't interesting after 5 tense seconds. The campsite is next to a local store/gas station and I went in and picked up one of those Sidekick instant noodle packages. I also grabbed a bundle of local asparagus and made myself an asparagus alfredo kinda thing. It was pretty soupy because the alfredo calls for boiling for 8 minutes but who has that kind of fuel? We're loaded for speed, not comfort!

The meal was great! The shower was awesome! I chatted with the other people at the campground and exchanged stories with them. The air is humid, warm, and a gentle breeze blows. It's been another great day of riding and BC does not disappoint. I'm happy I'm spending so much time on this ride getting to know it!