{"id":760,"date":"2012-06-30T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-30T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/?p=760"},"modified":"2024-04-08T20:55:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-09T02:55:28","slug":"day-5-sunshine-and-wind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/2012\/06\/30\/day-5-sunshine-and-wind\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 5 – Sunshine! and wind"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Day 5 – Sunshine! and wind<\/h2><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

June 27, 2012<\/strong>

Start:<\/strong> Elkford Motor Inn<\/em>
Finish:<\/strong> Causeway Bay Hotel, Sparwood<\/em>

Today\u2019s miles: <\/strong>30.6<\/em>
Total miles:<\/strong> 140.0<\/em>

Splats:<\/strong> 1.5<\/em>
Divide crossings:<\/strong> 0<\/em>
Wildlife:<\/strong> moose, cows, miner, big trucks<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada –> Mexico<\/span><\/div>
<\/div>
5%<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>
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My first sunny day!! The rain clouds cleared out this morning to reveal glistening white mountain tops. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I would not be venturing to high enough elevations to reap the frosty rewards of the previous day\u2019s cold and wet precipitation. No, today I\u2019d be booking it to make it to Sparwood with enough time to resupply and get far enough out of town to find a suitable camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day started with a big 700-foot climb, complete with twisty roads and tractor-trailers right off the bat. Riding around cars, let alone 18-wheelers, makes me nervous, so I was glad to get off the pavement late in the morning and onto a bumpy dirt road. Much of the land today was part of a mining establishment, and a highlight was a miner hollering and waving from atop a large mining structure.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I found the climb out of town enjoyable despite my motorized vehicle complaints. The dirt road portion of today\u2019s ride was even more enjoyable! I mean, I was riding in the sun for the first time! (Well, the first time for any duration longer than 10 minutes\u2026) It was also my first time riding without my crash gear (body armor to protect from falls). I planned to start with it and send it home after I felt a little more comfortable riding the route with a full pack. Today was a trial run without it, and wouldn\u2019t you know, today brought my first \u2018splat.\u2019 As I attempted to ride through landslide debris, I lost it on pointy rocks. I thought my GoPro was recording and wanted to show off. Thankfully, I was mistaken, and the failure was not documented. Just before the splat, I bailed off the uni; though I landed on my feet, I didn\u2019t stop until I was a good 30 feet from where the unicycle lay.\u00a0 Thus, 1.5 splats for the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just after the landslide debris, I came across the remnants of an avalanche, complete with dirty, melting snow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My fun for today\u2019s ride ended when I rejoined the paved road and the tractor-trailers. It\u2019s scary when they barrel past at 70 mph and even more horrifying to watch how long it takes them to fade off into the distance, an infinite distance I am headed toward. To compound things, banked roads, which are very awkward to ride on, and strong head and crosswinds made the last part of today\u2019s ride somewhat stressful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I arrived in Sparwood around 3:30 and parked in front of the grocery store with plans to resupply and head out of town for the night. I took one last look at the maps and convinced myself, without too much trouble, to get a room for the night. That may have been one of the best decisions I\u2019ve ever made! When I jokingly asked if there was a unicycle discount, Mary, who works here at the Causeway Bay Hotel, said she\u2019d get the room for me! Not only that, but after chatting with some of the others here about the ride, I was offered dinner and drinks at the house! The folks here in Sparwood and at the Causeway have been amazingly friendly, generous, and accommodating. I can\u2019t thank them enough! Hmm, maybe I should take a zero (day off) here to let the achy ankles heal. ;P<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, I\u2019m very excited to have picked up a set of camp\/town shoes! The wet sneakers around town and in camp just weren\u2019t doing it. Maybe I\u2019m just not cut out to be a true \u2018ultralighter.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My first sunny day!! The rain clouds cleared out this morning to reveal glistening white mountain tops. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I would not be venturing to high enough elevations to reap the frosty rewards of the previous day\u2019s cold and wet precipitation. No, today I\u2019d be booking it to make it to Sparwood with enough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-transparent-header":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada","category-riding","post_format-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1646,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760\/revisions\/1646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatdivideride.com\/unicycle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}