Monday, August 3, 2020
50.7km, 525m of up
This is Day 0 because it was originally to be the day we drove from Grande Cache to Jasper, having completed the Death Race relay. With the Death Race cancelled this year, it allowed us to make Day 1 a bit shorter of a ride and get in some climbing. It was to be a cruizy day, or at least, that was th plan.
Yesterday, Jasper was HOT, and the hostel room was ridiculously so. I love the common areas in that hostel, but the rooms can't keep the heat out, appearing instead to be designed to keep in the warmth when it's cold. Maybe it's nice to stay there in winter, but last night was, I swear, worse than my old rool in Toronto. At least there I had airflow to help cut the heat. I drank a lot of water overnight, but think I still got dehydrated, waking up dizzy, slightly nauseous, and with a light headache. I worried that maybe I had caught something from all the people in Jasper showing no signs of awareness that there's a global pandemic.
This morning was gloriously cool and windy, with rain obviously coming
in from the West. We decided to get organized and wait out the rain. As
soon as the rain stopped we got a "before" shot (to be added at a later
date), locked up the car, and started riding South. We decided to take
the 93A, which is far hillier than the 93, but, I reasoned, would be
less busy.
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| All ready to start out after waiting out the rain. |
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| Roadside Foxtail |
It definitely was a quiet, hilly road, with a couple of good climbs. We grabbed out lunch at a picnic site overlooking the Athabasca River, crossed the Whirlpool River, and followed the part of the road that we had skied before up and over a ridge to drop back down to Athabasca Falls.Vehicles lined the roadway by the falls, so we did not stop, but rather rode past, looking at all the people crowded together not wearing any masks, all along the various viewing platforms.
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| Cruising down one of the hills on the 93A |
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| Motion blur! |
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| Lunch break on the Athabasca River |
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| Riding down the 93A towards the 93 |
We quickly found the hostel (closed mid-day), dropped off some gear, changed clothing, and decided to head down to check out the Kerkeslin climbing crag.
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| Gearing up to go climbing |
The climbing area for the crag was a further 7-something km and a couple more hill climbs on the bikes away, albeit with only my climbing gear and camera on my bike.
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| Riding down to Kerkeslin Crag |
Hiking into the crag was as described, gradually getting steeper and steeper until we got to the cliffs. I headed up one of the first climbs, which was supposed to be a 30m climg. As near as we could tell, it was the 22m 5.7, as it was definitely not 30m, and only took 5 quickdraws. I then belayed Marieka up and switched to lower her down. In the process, I twisted up the rope, so had to lower her a bit, untangle the rope, and repeat until she was at the bottom.
As Marieka's foot had been injured last weekend on our first day of rock climbing, this was a good enough amount of climbing (plus, I was starting to get hungry), so we headed out back to the hostel to check in, eat dinner and dessert (rehydrated chili and a freeze dried chocolate cheesecake/pudding) before heading to our cabin to sleep.
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| Post-climbing re-packing to head back to the hostel |
Now, it is gloriously cool in our bedroom and I think I'll be able to actually get a good night's sleep.
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| Our hostel room wall, with stuff hung to dry/get ready for tomorrow. |
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