Let it snow!

This morning we tested drafting off of each other, which worked really well. We kept the speed above 30 km/h for a long time. It felt like we were doing windsprints though, and I was tiring myself out too much to maintain for the whole day. While drafting, I had my first real scare of the trip. I had just finished leading, and Nicole and Travis were passing me when Nicole cut in too early and he pannier knocked into my handle bar. We both lost control, and I had to swerve on the road to maintain balance. Luckily there were no cars coming, and we were able to stay on our bikes and there were no wipeouts.

We stopped in Hope for lunch, and looking at the mountains up ahead, there was a rain storm that was about to come in. This would be our first real outdoor day with precipitation. One of the guys in town was telling us that we should stay in town for a couple of hours to wait for the storm to blow by, but the three of us wanted to test out our rain gear and we were excited to were really excited to bike through it.

Just out of Hope and entering Manning Park, there was a great 6 km uphill. The scenery was great with the mountains and the clouds covering parts of the mountians (especially since we almost got level with the clouds). however, we did know that Allison Pass Summit was coming up. After the first big hill, the terrain was rolly, and we didn't want there to be any more downhills since we knew that we would be climbing right back up them and more. It was also difficult to regulate temperature since it was getting colder as we were getting higher, but we were sweating coming up the hills and freezing coming down them.

Climbing up Allison Pass Summit, Nicole's knee was starting to act up, and Travis and I were exhausted. It was such a long uphill, and to make matters worse, it started to snow! So there we were, chugging uphill at no more than 10 km/h for what seemed to be forever, and we saw a sign in the distance. It was the sign for the summit! I was so happy to see that!

Afterwards, the downhill was pretty painful and cold with the wind blowing so much snow in our faces (we wore sunglasses so we could actually keep our eyes open) that we had to stop early and set up camp by the side of the road. We got set up fast, had a large hot meal and went to sleep.

Fun facts, stats and lessons learned
Distance travelled today: 105.10 km
Total distance travelled: 666.88 km
Starting point: Campground in Harrison Hot Springs
Our Route: We went back on Highway 9 to Highway 7 through to Hope. We then hopped on the Crowsnest Highway (Hwy 3) for the rest of the day. There was great shoulder and road up until Highway 3. There were great shoulders on the uphills for Highway 3, but it was very cracked at other points.

Ending point: EC Manning Provincial Park, by the side of the road just past Allison Pass Summit

• It's not always sunny in Sunshine Valley. Talk about false advertisement! I was dissapointed.
• Total black bears seen so far: 4
• Allison Pass Summit: 1342 m.