September 21, 2019
Princeton, BC –> Lightning Lake, Manning Park, BC

Distance: 94.2km
Ave: 14.6km/h
Max: 68.5km/h (flying down from Sunday Summit)

It was cool last night – I guess summer is technically over now, and I’ll be wanting to put more layers on at night. I cycled into town for breakfast, which turned into second breakfast and breakfast ice cream as well (I swear the portions were puny!).
I picked up maps for Manning Park and a few groceries (I am still very well supplied with dehydrated meals and should probably start eating them for breakfast and lunch).

The climb was solid, but beautiful and interspersed with some descents, as well as lunch and second lunch breaks. Today’s Summit was Sunday Summit, which is one of two in the park (Allison Pass I’ll climb on my way out of the park). Flying down from Sunday, I set a new trip high speed.

Today, I was flagged by two solo men in their 60s – one was previously an avid touring cyclist himself and wanted to indulge in some nostalgic discussion, and the other (who was almost unable to get out words other than prepositions in his anxiety) wanted help because he was running out of gas and was confused about where he was. I showed him a map of the area, pointed out approximately where we were, and described the elevation profile of the road ahead. I assured him getting lost on the way to Hope would be nearly impossible, but also acknowledged the futility of asking a cyclist where the next gas station is, and suggested that if his gas situation became dire, he might want to flag a passing motorist! I saw him again a few kms later filling up at the last gas station before the park, so I hope things became more coherent for him.

It was a gorgeous blue sky day, and I am very happy to have cycled this leg in good weather. The forecast for tomorrow is light rain all day, and the following day mainly showers. With that in mind, although I plan to explore on foot tomorrow, I knew that if I wanted to get any views of the park, it’d have to be today. So, after climbing >1000m already, I took the 8km detour up to the Cascade lookout. I became that kind of crazy cyclist you see cycling up to the Mt Seymour trailhead, only fully loaded with gear. It took the better part of an hour (without stopping) to climb up, and <15min to fly down (riding the brakes and pausing to take photos).

Needless to say, the last 5km up to lightning Lake campground afterwards were not the easiest.

I looked up the elevation gain up to Cascade lookout and it’s just shy of 500m… which makes for a total of 1760m of climbing today!

The stars are beautiful tonight – the milky way is clearly visible and all sorts of unknown constellations are bracketed by the silhouette of trees. I ogled until my neck got sore, then crawled into the tent. Tonight I’m adding leggings and a hoodie to my usual flannel anod wool pj attire.

Alice