Day 1 - Carpe Diem

Finally an accurate weather forecast. Our ride out of Vancouver was in 50°F overcast skies, with the promise of rain on the horizon. We were not let down.

Shortly after our group photo at the Totem Poles at the Museum of Anthropology, and trip out of Vancouver proper, we were met with a driving rain as we headed by the Simon Fraser University Campus. Today was intended to be a fairly short (51 mile ride) up the north side of the Fraser River. In keeping with my promise to “Tour’ rather than ride head down, I kept on the lookout for some interesting sights to see along the way.

Thirty miles into the ride, we passed by a Hot Rod show (mostly new Ford Mustangs) in a parking lot along side the route. Not to miss out on things, we looped back and took a little tour. The most interesting part of the show were the “Hot Rod Hotties” who were the main attraction.

After about 48 miles of riding, mostly in the rain, we (Serge and I) passed by a sign for the Stave Lake Power Station Museum, a national historic side, 10 Km off the route. Figuring that we would only be by this part of Canada once, we opted for the detour. The other option was to arrive in camp early and waiting around in the rain. Little did we know that getting to the museum, involved a rather significant climb up and over a big hill, and then down a pretty fast and long descent to the bottom of the dam. My biggest fear that we would arrive there only to find out that since it was a Sunday, the Museum was closed. We arrived at the museum, and were literally the only ones there. After trying to dry out, we opted to visit the museum. The guides were very friendly and once they learned of our treks off the beaten path to visit the museum, they gave us a private tour of the facilities. The original power station was built in 1910, and designed for a service life of 30 years. It was finally closed with a new generating station opened up right beside it in 2000. The scale of the room containing the turbines was difficult to grasp – enormous would be an understatement.

With the overcast skies (OK rain!) the mountains to the north of the lake formed by the dam were framed with wisps of clouds. That view alone was well worth what turned out to be a 20 mile detour with about 2,000’ of climbing.

After our team finished cooking for the group, I spent the next hour or so cleaning my bike and cleaning and lubing the chain, I then helped out two other riders by doing theirs, and lubing first my bike and then a couple of others.


The mosquitoes are biting as I am typing this (it is 10 PM now) so I will call it a night as we have to get up at 6:00 AM to cook breakfast for the group before tomorrow’s 60 mile ride.

Uploaded at the end of Day 2.