Got an early morning start, up at 5 and on the road by six. Said goodbye to Rod, but the rest of his family was still asleep. They had to settle for text messages.
Had a really nice ride along the 10th Ave bikeway, then the Central Valley Greenway out to Warren's house in Burnaby. Said hi to the kids (who I last saw in 2015, so naturally they didn't remember me). Warren and I rode together to his friend Graham’s place in Maple Ridge, at which point he turned around to head to the office. He's casually fitting a 100km ride in before work.
It was really nice riding with Warren. He rides more than anyone I know, so was able to provide excellent turn-by-turn navigations while leaving the city. Warren's wife Hillary went to university with my wife, they were roommates for a while, and she was one of our bridesmaids when we got married. Sara and I rode our tandem from Toronto to Kingston to attend their wedding. When they lived in Ottawa, we'd go visit them and go for bike rides together, and one winter we rented a yurt in Silent Lake provincial park for a cross-country skiing weekend. Sadly, Hillary died of cancer last year, and this was the first time I'd seen Warren since she was diagnosed. It was a good chance to talk about our grief, the intricacies of outliving your spouse while you're still in your thirties, and parenting through all that. Warren's been blogging about this since Hillary died, and I recommend reading it if you want to know more. It's heart-wrenching reading at times, but provides a window into what a lot of us idly speculate about.
The ride was going well enough by mid-day that I opted for a detour to Harrison to visit the hot springs. I'm glad I did—I found a lovely natural cheese shop on the way. I got a few hundred grams of Rustica and went on my way.
The hot springs were a nice place to relax my tired muscles. The town of Harrison has a sasquatch thing going on, so of course I took some fun selfies.
It was more nice riding on the #7 highway. Relatively quiet roads, but I was very happy to reach Hope as my legs (and everything else) were getting tired. They shot part of a Rambo movie here, and the town is still really excited about it. On the way out of town I took the Kettle Valley Railway trail to the Othello tunnels, which were phenomenal. Mostly hand carved out of stone (no tunnel-boring equipment), and fast twisty canyon river running underneath. Highly recommended.
Today's distance: 189 km (new personal record!)
Cumulative distance: 340 km
