Saturday 15th June - To Manning Park

Today's ride was up over the Allison Pass from Hope to Manning Park. A tough but short ride of 66km. The pass is at 1342m and starts climbing almost as soon as one leaves camp.

The day was cloudless with a tail wind. The first 11 km were at about 5% gradient then a stretch of 6 km at about 8%. Thereafter the road flattened out for perhaps 20k before continuing to the summit at between 3 and 5%. I rode with Peter from Dundas in Ontario. He is probably a stronger rider being a few kg lighter as well.

I was ready for the summit with about 4 km to go! However the last 9km were down hill to camp. A special treat is that we are staying in the Manning Park lodge. If you Google it you'll see what its like.

We did the 66 km in 4 hours 36 minutes at an average of 14.6kph. To put this in context, ironman Chris took less than 3 hours. He is a very competent rider. 

The surprise at Manning Park is that we are staying in a lodge with spa and swimming pool. So I've soaked my weary muscles in the hope I'll be right again tomorrow.

One of our number is struggling with the ride. He's a diabetic so I suspect that he maybe finding it hard to balance his sugars.

All in all a great days ride. Tomorrow we have a 100k ride to Hedley which I suspect a good part my be downhill following a river.

Dinner was was curry chicken with a fancy white sauce! Yummy! I was rooming with Mike from Alaska, a man of few words.