Day 9: Agassiz to Somewhere on the Coquihalla

Saturday 22 September 2018

“What idiots cycle up the Coquihalla in a downpour?!” We could hear the words from those in every car, truck and massive trailer that blasted past us, buffeting us in their backdraft and sidespraying us in their wash. In case we weren’t drenched enough. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves – that was the last third of today’s fun little challenge.

Breakfast at Tall Timber is a feast for those who’ll spend the rest of the day burning it up – fresh fruit, toast, frittata and gammon.

We needed it – today we were indeed hard core.

36km up Highway 7 to Hope in steady light rain. Drivers clearly felt the 120km/h posted speed limit was a bottom-range suggestion. Fortunately most gave us a wide berth as we soldiered up the shoulder. We had the company of a long Canadian Pacific Railway train and the Fraser River beyond until we crossed the Fraser (again) into Hope.

The Blue Moose in Hope is warm, dry and serves a great cappuccino. We should have heeded the forecast and stayed right there for the afternoon.

For the first few kilometres out of Hope we were delighted. We were climbing up alongside the Coquihalla River, but we were on a forest trail hundreds of metres above the river and could see the highway across the canyon. This is part of the Kettle Valley Trail, almost 650km of trail network along an old railway line that was closed in the 1960s. Built partly out of defensive offence, the Kettle Valley Railway was constructed in the 1880s, with the thinking that an easier, more southern, route could be attacked by aggressive Americans. The canyon rises straight above the river and a series of tunnels was needed to break through the mountains. Legend has it passenger trains ran at night so the poor folks inside the trains couldn’t see the precipice they were steaming along.

As we rode through these Othello tunnels the downpour hit. So the pitch dark was a welcome break from the rain and the bridges gave spectacular views of the river below. We managed a few pictures before our drenched phones stopped responding.

That was that for the second, wonderful, third.

Trail gave way to back country road, which took us to join the famous BC Highway 5 – the Coquihalla Highway, or Coq. It’s not particularly steep, but neither does it have a wide shoulder. Essentially we were cycling up what had become a drainage ditch of about 5cm of water, with wet stuff coming down from the skies, up from our own wheels and sideways from the traffic barreling past us. A few expletives may have escaped …

Finally we reached our target distance, called the helpful Hope taxi and huddled, frozen and soaked, in a narrow underpass waiting for salvation.

We caught a glimpse of the sun later though – while we wallowed in the hot tub back at Tall Timber.

61 km today

520km total

#TheGreatTrail #TransCanadaTrail