Steve’s Blog – July 4 – Rain builds character – Summit of Anarchist Mountain to Christina Lake

I awoke to pain and rain. One stayed.

Thanks to several helpful contacts (thanks guys), and some self analysis, I realized the cause of the pain – I was locking my right arm against the handlebar, and my shoulder cuff absorbed shocks over the day. Realizing this, I kept a bent arm today and – voila – I am back to my old familiar aches and pains. Heaven.

The rain stayed, spotty at first and slowly intensifying over the day. We had a rare treat today, as Mike opted to join us for the morning. As it was mainly downhill and Mike has about 80 pounds on me, I pedaled like a fiend as Mike coasted. He then became uncatchable when I rode back to check on Jim, who was waylaid with a flat tire.  Flats are usually just a minor nuisance, but on this day we had a deadline to keep, to be in a quiet, dry place for an afternoon radio interview. We are in the wilderness and, since deer and elk don’t carry mobile phones or share memes, there is rarely cell service outside of larger towns. We calculated that we had plenty of time to make our way to one of two appropriate towns, but misadventure, fumbling cold fingers and rain gummed things up enough that we ran out of options.  

With 25 minutes to go, we found ourselves standing in the forest, sheltered (somewhat) from the rain under a Larch tree, only to find that we had no service. We hopped on our bikes in a mad effort to pedal 25 km in 20 minutes, but then came flat #2, and shortly thereafter, flat #3. Alas, the good people of London Ontario may never hear about our wacky adventures or Parkinson’s initiatives. We will try to reschedule.

Jim and I pulled into camp as two cold and shriveled prunes, but  were quickly revived, as usual, by good cooking and a shower (thanks Darlene and … er … water.) Tomorrow’s weather looks more promising. Oh, and to any Americans who may be following this blog series, Happy 4th of July.