The trip from Knutsford to Canoe was the first time I would
go beyond my maximum distance I had ever cycled, which at that point was 117km.
It felt like a day of testimony on whether or not I was truly built for the
tour. The day actually turned out to be one of my most challenging days because
I had my first galley duty and the ride was difficult.
Before I go further I will explain the concept of galley duty.
During orientation members of the tour were put into groups of 5 which were
known as galley crews. Each day, excluding rest days, a crew would cook dinner,
make breakfast, lay out the food to be eaten during the day, and do dishes. My
galley crew included Eric, Louise, Fred, and Alain. Galley duty was challenging
because on the day that a crew had to cook dinner they had to leave camp early
to ensure they arrived at the next camp at an appropriate time so that dinner would
not be late. Further, the next morning the crew has to get up early to have
breakfast served for 7am. Although preparing food for over 20 riders is
challenging, the meals are appreciated because everyone knows the work involved
in making the meals.
The day began with discomfort as right at the beginning of
the ride I was experiencing saddle troubles. I had 134km to ride and at
kilometre 62 my saddle was driving me nuts. And to add onto the frustration
there was a headwind. Luckily we (Clarke, Bill, Louise, Becky, and I) breaked
for lunch and I took that time to calm myself down. Following lunch there was
an improvement to the day as the route took us down an awesome hill which gave
me the opportunity to give my bottom a break from the saddle and the view was
amazing. Shuswap Lake was to our right and trees were covering the mountains
sides, it was breathtaking and gave me an energy boast.
In a little town called Sorrento we stopped at Toby’s Coffee
which was a great little cafe with fantastic character.
The end of the trip was fun but difficult. The route took us
out of Salmon Arm; however, rather than taking Route 1 out of the town to camp,
we were directed to take a route containing several small but steep hills. In
one moment I went downhill, turned a corner and was met with a tiny but steep
hill which literally took all the oxygen out of my body. When I made it to the
top I was huffing and puffing. To add to the experience, it started to downpour
and so I was soaked when I got to camp. But it was a great physical and mental
challenge.
None of my galley crew arrived at camp early, but it was a
challenging day. Also, before we began to prepare the meal we all wanted to set
up our tents because it had stopped raining so this was the perfect chance
before it would potentially rain again. Once we were all set up we read the
meal we had to make which consisted of chicken immersed in sour cream, mashed
potatoes, and vegetables. The chicken took a century and a half to cook, the
water for the vegetables wouldn’t boil fast enough and we made the potatoes too
early so they were only slightly warm when we served them, which happened to be
at 8pm. It was an absolute disaster time wise, but the meal didn’t taste that
bad, which we attributed to the sour cream ;) However, everyone was incredibly understanding,
not minding that dinner was late which made the situation so much better.
Overall, there were a lot of frustrating moments with this day, but I got
through it which showed me that I could do this, I could cycle the country.
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