TourBC

For the second year in a row, I volunteered as a Tour Leader for TourBC, a week long cycle tour that travels a different route in British Columbia every year. This year the route started in Penticton, travelled north to Armstrong and Revelstoke before heading back down the Slocan valley, The route then went through Nakusp, New Denver and Castlegar before heading to Grand Forks, Osoyoos and finally back to Penticton.

Day 1

Day 1 travelled from Penticton to Armstrong, 140km and 5530' of elevation gain. The weather was sunny and extremely hot, and many of the participants were worn down by the combination of unrelenting heat and the never ending hills on Kelowna's westside road. Gord Cook and I ended up patrolling up and down the route looking for tired cyclists and offering them water if they still had energy to continue, or a ride to the campsite in Armstrong for those who had just had too much. It was the first of seven long days on the tour, with the last cyclist coming in well after dinner started, and a late night on a hot, tired day.

Day 2

Day 2 was my first riding day. I've been suffering with iliotibial band problems in both knees since the Lower Mainland 400, and was not even sure that I could complete the stage. However, a little blue pill (Aleve) obtained from one of the participants at the first water stop proved to be just the trick and I had a nice ride cycling from Armstrong to Revelstoke, with only minimal knee pain. The slightly shorter, flatter profile and lower temperatures were easier on everyone, and I even had time to ride into town to pick up ibuprofen and a six pack to share with the rest of the tour leaders still out on the road, the first of a series of alcohol fueled evening recovery sessions among the tour leaders.

Day 3
On Day 3 the tour travelled into territory that was totally new for me: from Revelstoke to Nakusp via the Arrow Lakes ferry.

Marty and I were assigned to sign the route and man the last break of the day. This meant that we needed to be awake, packed, and at breakfast before everyone else in the entire campground. Reveille was at 5:30 and we headed down the road to lay signs on the first part of the route before reaching the ferry.

Once we got on, I left the van out of boredom and was delighted to notice that there was a family of barn swallows nesting in the upper girders of the ferry. Barn swallows are incredibly fast and pretty fliers, and I quickly got out my longest lens to try and get a good photo. Alas, a truly good photo was beyond my capabilities, but I had a lot of fun trying!

Once across the lake, Marty and I finished putting the signs before backtracking to the water stop, which was set up at a rest area with a beautiful waterfall streaming down. Lots of the participants took the opportunity to cool themselves off before riding the final leg to Nakusp. Unfortunately, delays at the ferry meant that the participants got totally spaced out, and it was yet another long, long day bay before the day's sweep rider, Michel arrived at camp. For the staff, it was yet another day of arriving at camp too late to even have time for a shower before dinner, and then loading the vans and getting them ready for the next day.

Day 4
I had a great day today riding with the group from Nakusp to Castlegar. The roads were beautiful and twisted and turned as they wound up and down through the valley. Since I wasn't riding sweep I could ride the entire day at my own pace, and I ride fairly briskly to maximize the amount of time I could spend in each of the towns along the way. A particular highlight was a vist to the Nikkei museum in New Denver. Whenever I go away on a road trip like this, I always try and buy a cup or a piece of pottery for Sarah, and I managed to find a simple but cute cup for Sarah made by Kaitlin Murphy in Silverton.

Although the riding was fun, all of the volunteer Tour Leaders, myself included, were getting pretty fatigued at this point. The length of each day's ride pretty much ensured that the most of the Tour Leaders were spending 12 or more hours on the road each day either on their bike or in a van. That plus pitching your tent every night, having a shower, eating your dinner, stocking the vans and repacking your bike all added up to a long day with very little time to yourself. We did, of course, have time to head to the pub after dinner to watch the Tour de France coverage. It's all about priorities, after all.

Day 5
It rained overnight in Castlegar, and we awoke to a wet campground before marching out to breakfast. The goal for the day was to end up in Grand Forks, and accomplishing the goal meant climbing up to the Paulson Summit (1535m) before descending. I was riding sweep this day, and for the slower riders and myself, the weather was actually reasonably pleasant for the entire day. Earlier riders, however, were not nearly so lucky, and one rider, Jennifer, got hypothermia as a result of the rain, wind, and cold temperatures descending from the summit.

Many of the riders found the descent from Paulson summit a bit harrowing, as the roads were in bad condition and the shoulders were even worse. For me, the scariest thing about the descent was that the rider I was shadowing and sweeping down the hill had never been taught how to look behind her on a bike without swerving left into traffic. Since the shoulders on the part of the highway were often unrideable, I was forced to try and bully the chip trucks and motor homes barreling down from behind us into crossing the double line rather than smushing us both into the barriers. On a bicycle, the only way to do it is to take more and more of the lane, normally not a problem when descending at 70+ km/h down the highway, but slightly dicier at 40.

Due to the nasty weather, Michel and Marty booked a motel room for the Tour leaders to dry out overnight. Danelle very nicely offered to pay, and after dinner we all rushed to the motel to have a shower watch the Tour and drink Michel's beer before dragging ourselves back to camp to restock the vans before dark.

Day 6
Grand Forks to Osoyoos is a 125km ride over two big mountain passes, Eholt and Anarchist. I was doing first break with Gord this day. After all the riders passed through the first break, we'd return to clean up signs and end up as the sweep vehicle for the ride.

Since we were sweeping, we had a bunch of time to kill, and we spent a good chunk of it at the Greenwood Museum. I love museums, particularly small town museums, and this one was really great, with pictures of the old mine sites and smelter, a section of the museum devoted to the history of the Nikkei relocation in Greenwood and an amazing collection of the old hand tools used by the early settlers in Greenwood.

Although I didn't get to ride this day, the roads and scenery were beautiful, as the terrain slowly transformed into the dry rolling grasslands and Ponderosa Pine forests of the Okanagan valley.

Day 7
The last day of the tour!

An easy day back to Penticton, past wineries and orchards. The eastside road between Osoyoos and Penticton was wonderful, and as the morning turned into afternoon, we got an enormous tailwind blowing us home. The Maritime Mafia, a group of four ladies determined to have as much fun as was humanly possible along the way decorated their helmets for the occasion.

It was a good tour, through amazing roads and terrain. I'm totally thrilled that I finally got to see and ride through the Slocan valley. But I'm pretty tired right now. It was a lot of work this year, and I'm not really sure that I'll volunteer again next year.

Want more? I put a few more photos in an album.