Day 2, May 31st, Hope to Princeton (139km)

The Coastal Mountains

Allison... I have a cousin named Allison.  From all accounts, she's a sweet girl who loves nature.  My sincerest hope is she's nothing like the Allison I met today, an Allison known as Allison Pass.  From the B.C. Randoneur Club, I knew that the Crowsnest Highway through the Coastal Mountains involves a massive climb through 2 mountain passes before a crazy descent into Princeton.  Online, some bike tourers say this is most difficult climb on the route across Canada.  Many journeys have ended because of the brutal ascent through these mountains.

Junk Cache

Starting in Hope, I quickly made my way to the fork in the road. Today's choice was the Coquihalla Highway to Merrit or the Crowsnest Highway to Princeton.  Both routes involved steep, energy sapping climbs.  My choice today was the Crowsnest Highway.  Just outside of Hope, the Crowsnest Highway begins to climb to the Hope Slide almost 20km away.  Evidence of how brutal the climb is could be found beside the road in the numerous junk cache's left by bikers trying to lighten of their loads.  

The Hope Slide

After a climb of over 600m over almost 20km, I made it to the Hope Slide.  In 1965, an earthquake triggered a slide that literally left a mountain split in half.  Four people were killed in the slide and 3km of the Crowsnest Highway was buried in up to 70m of debris.  Today the remaining debris field is massive.  It's difficult for a picture to put in perspective how big this slide was.

Black Bear About 100m Away

From the Hope Slide, a quick 15km stretch of flat road takes you through the Sunshine Valley.  After cycling through the valley, a brutal 30km ascent to Allison peak begins in earnest at the western edge of Manning Park.  While I took a picture of the entrance sign to the park, a truck pulled up beside me.  Out popped a guy who casually pointed out there was a bear behind me.  Sure enough, 100m in the distance a black bear was checking me out.  He seemed harmless so I ignored it and resumed my trip.

Normal Irishman.

After 5km of climbing, I took a break for a snack and inflated my rear tire because it was slowing me down.  Out of nowhere, 2 Irish guys appeared from below.  The boys from Ireland are here on a 3 month visa and plan to cross the border into the U.S a little down the road.  At first, I thought they were going faster than me so I let them go while I continued with lunch.  After resuming my climb, I caught up to the Irish guys as they took a break beside the road.  The 3 of us continued on together.  It soon became apparent one of them was superhuman and he quickly left me and his buddy well behind.

Allison Pass Summit Behind Me

While the two of us labored up the hill, A mother bear and two cubs appeared 50 feet beside the road staring us straight in the eye.  Needless to say, we were a bit shocked and weren't going to stick around for a picture as we quickly zoomed by.  Today we saw 5 bears and countless deer.  The high snowpack is forcing them down from surrounding mountains to forage for food.  Eventually, 62.5km outside of Hope and averaging 12.5km/h we reached Allison summit at 1342m in just over 5 hours.  At the summit, we found the superhuman Irish guy hanging out in sandals and a jacket having another snack.  He must have been there for half an hour.  After stopping by Manning lodge for a real lunch, we found out the high altitude campsite at Lightning Lake was closed because of snow.  The Irish guys decided to descend 10km to Mule Deer Lake and call it a day.  Near the lodge, I had seen a sign saying Princeton was only 66km away.  It was 2pm, rainy and my legs felt like rubber.  In retrospect, it would have been smart to call it a day.

Hippy Took My Picture

From Allison summit the Crowsnest Highway descends almost 350m over 35km and exits Manning Park. By the side of the road past the exit, I met a hippy in his 50's who mentioned he had ridden from Hope to Princeton when he was 16 years old.  He was a really interesting character and offered to take my picture beside the road.  

1282m Sunday Summit

After a 35km, 350m descent the Crowsnest Highway ascends 290m over 8km to the top of Sunday summit.  I was suffering and out of water.  Inexplicably, I'd forgotten to fill my bottles at the lodge.  It took an hour to ascend to Sunday summit at 1282m.  Sunday summit is just 60m below the height of Allison pass.  On the descent to Princeton, I ran into a torrential downpour that left me chilled to the bone.  The irony of being out of water in the middle of a downpour kept popping out of the back of my mind.  My legs gave out.  Even on the flats I could barely get my bike up to 20km/h.  Drivers on this highway are really friendly.  A lot of them were honking in encouragement.  I guess it was a rather odd sight seeing someone cycling through heavy rain so late in the day.  After 8h:55m of riding time, it was finally over.  There was no way I was going to camp in that downpour so I found a motel in Princeton to dry my clothes.  Tomorrows ride should be a lot easier.  It's going to be downhill.  Downhill for almost 100km.  The legs finally get a break.

Western Gate at Manning Park Before the Climb to Allison Summit

Distance: 139km
Average Speed: 15.5km/h
Maximum Speed: 60.4km/h
Time: 8:55
Odometer 283km