A tough day from even before we started to 5km from the finish.
From our hotel early in the morning we FaceTimed in as the family scattered Bron’s dad Richard’s ashes in South Africa. It meant his never-give-up attitude propelled us the rest of the day, and we probably needed the help.
We knew we were in for a headwind (as we turned south, of course the prevailing northwesterly would turn too). But we had expected a newly paved road and got 12km of lumpy paved road followed by 40km of thick and unforgiving gravel. Fortunately the road was fairly quiet with only an occasional dust bath from passing vehicles. Gravel roads mean solitary riding – the tyres make so much noise there is no point in trying to chat even when we do have breath to spare.
We also climbed gradually all morning, counting on two fingers the short, freewheel-able descents by the 50km mark. The afternoon brought more downhills but by then the wind was so strong we had to work to keep moving on those too. For a flat province this area is quite lumpy.
For all the work, and the two punctures (one caused by mishap when replacing the tyre after the first), it was a beautiful day. The swirling contours of harvested fields and grasslands were frequently interrupted by lots of trees and ponds. Hawks followed us pretty much every minute of the day and the skies and light were gorgeous.
Fortunately we were powered by pierogies from last night’s dinner for the first half, and a decent lunch at the sweet Ituna cafe took us the last 60km.
The last five kilometres presented us with a lovely sweeping farm track and the spectacular descent into Katepwa in the Q’Appelle valley to join up with the Trans Canada Trail again.
We were pretty shattered at the end and the scary part is tomorrow will probably be even tougher. And as we head north, the wind is forecast to do a turn to face us again …
Today’s distance: 118km
Today’s climb: 400m (but it felt like we were climbing even as we went down most hills)
Total distance: 3,395km
#transcanadatrail
@transcanadatrail
Trans Canada Epic 