Day 5--Boulder Alley, or Derik's Playground...If He Had The Right Bike

We managed a 15 minutes earlier start today. Derik said, soon we would be leaving at 4:00am. Of course, before we left Sparwood, we had to stop at the Titan truck.

It's now a museum piece.

Mama Cass' tires are almost as big!

There was a Subway across from the Titan. The boys had second breakfast. I had mid-morning snack.

Finally, we headed out of town. 

We had a long number of miles on pavement to start with. I mean, a lot--like 30! 

We were following Corbin Rd to the Teck Coal Mining.

Coal!

From the time we got on the dirt, we had a 7 mile climb. Amazingly, it was nothing I couldn't ride. Oh, I had to take breaks now and then, but it was okay. The guys were waiting for me at the top of Elk Pass. This is what they do while they are waiting for me...I guess.

Connor scrapes mud from his shoes.

Derik does wardrobe adjustment.

The map said the descent from Elk Pass was rocky in places. The book said there were places where the stream bed and route become one. They weren't kidding. 

Connor crossing a stream.

Yeah, I walked or scootered through most of it. Derik thought it was fun...well, it would have been more fun with the right bike. It was pretty challenging on the trucker. Connor did pretty good, but he also walked a lot too. Crossing one stream, I hit my pedal on a rock and, unfortunately, ended up soaking my foot. We had several sections of Boulder Alley. 

We continued along. The guys were ahead of me, but I caught up to them at Pollock Creek where...the bridge was out. Now this was a full on creek, not just a little stream. 

See the sign?

The new way.

The guys took their shoes and socks off. I took my shoes off, and put my waterproof socks on and walked across. It was great! My feet weren't cold at all, and they stayed perfectly dry!

After the creek the road was much better. It was still pretty bumpy, but that's what Mama Cass does best. Derik was wishing he was riding a plus bike like MC. He even said I was able to ride away from him--meaning he couldn't keep up with me. Of course, that's only as long as there is no hill...

We arrived at our destination of Harvey Lodgepole CG. It's just two sites, and it's free. We did 48 miles today, our longest day so far. Oh, and it drizzled most of the day. We are really hoping to have some sunshine at some point...

So, I'm sitting in my tent typing this. A whole bunch of cattle just went by in the dark. They are wearing bells. I guess we probably won't have to worry about bears (all our food and stuff with a scent is in the Ursacks again, and we all have our bear spray in our tents).