We were justified in stopping in Princeton last night as the forecast was correct and it started thundering and lightning at tea time and it rained all night long.
We went out to a nice place for tea so it was not a problem for us.
In the morning we went for a nice coffee and breakfast at a local cafe on Bridge Street. The storms last night had started eight more fires in the area so I doubled checked my route with the locals and crossed referenced that with the BC fire app. Take a look at how many fires are ranging across BC in the image below. It is normal life for these folks nowadays. Something that was not an issue 15 years ago.
I also knew that we were to expect another thunderstorm between four and six in the afternoon. I planned my route so that we could be all set up before it came in.
I always knew this part of the trail was going to cause some issues. When researching the trail back home I knew the section between Princeton and Hope was a washout due to floods two or three years ago. The trail has not been rebuilt since.
I have read the blogs and watched videos of other people that have done the route and there is a mixture of advice. In the end I took the advice of the visitor centre and cross reference that with other cyclists and locals and it seemed to match up. So the route we decided to do would be to follow a gravel road that runs high above the route and when we get to the top it will meet highway 5 and we can follow that down to Hope. We also knew that the gravel road would be up and down and not a gradual incline like the rail trail. But that has some advantages. One you gain height quickly and you are more comfortable as you are constantly moving your body in different positions.
So we continued on the gravel road and there were beautiful views. If the rail trail was running it would have gone through the middle of steep canyons. But we got a good view of them from above.
We were also given guidance by a yeti.
Rachael spotted a tree that was covered in shoes. The locals keep the tradition going as it used to be a tree travellers used to use to dry their gear.
I had to fix another puncture which has become the norm on this trail. The large gravel pieces ruin tyres and tubes. Tubeless would not have completely stopped issues as there are quite a few tips in the tyres.
We found some shade to have lunch.
These are the signs that were saying the trail is out.
So we followed the advice of the signs and continued on the gravel road.
Then we came to a section of the trail and it said that it was open, but we should take care due to trail damage. It was what I had plotted so we went for it. The skies were getting dark, but at this point it would have only been seven miles to our destination.
We got going and were surprised at the condition of the trail, given the warning. BUT. Then we got to a dead end. The trail just dropped away into the river. I had a look for a way round, but there was not one. So we had to go back to the gravel road.
This wasted a hour and the sky was getting darker and we could hear thunder in the distance. This road would add an extra 20 mile to the day and we would not be set up before the storm came.
We were also at a point where we were the highest thing on the road as it went over numerous passes. As the sky got darker I found an old horse shed to hide in until we worked out which way it was blowing.
As we were in the shed we had two bouts of thunder that seemed like they were right above us. It was so loud. We were there about thirty minutes and the sky got a bit brighter and the thunder seemed to be in the distance so we decided to move on. It was only ten miles to our destination.
As we rode on more storms started to come out of the woodwork and we had one on each side of us. It was a case of head down and crack on as again we found ourselves as the highest point on two passes before the road would go five mile downhill towards our end point. As we were making our way down the anxiety started to subside as we were now not the highest point. Two miles for our end point I got another puncture. Just at that point the rain came down with a blast of thunder.
We fixed the tyre but it was not perfect as we just wanted to get moving. We got into the little hamlet of Brookmere and asked a house if they had water as we were running low. We also spotted a lovely little area over the road to camp and asked Dixie if she thought people would object to us using the area to camp. She could see no problem with it but she had a better plan. She let us have come bottles of water and set us up in her camper van. The sun did come back out about ten minutes after arriving in Brookmere. But it is nice and cosy in the van where I am writing this blog.
Tomorrow we have another fifty five mile day on a highway to get us to Hope.