There and Back Again - Part 03: My BC Epic1000 Yoyo Experience

June 26, 2021

Recovery, 1%
Heart Rate Variability 19
Resting Heart Rate 69
Respiratory Rate 15.1pm
Sleep 1:50hr
End of day Strain 20.7

The track between Grand Forks and Christina Lake is awesome in both directions. I always seem to have a fast and fun rip on that section of trail. It’s pretty much flat with a compact gravel surface and after the night I had, I needed the recovery. I rolled into GF but was a bit turned around navigationally and had to make some corrections before I finally found coffee and muffins. I was starving and fully enjoyed the refueling.

The next leg was to get to Midway. By now I was thinking that I was going to have to travel at night to avoid the heat. The plan was to get to Midway and to try to get a room for a couple of hours to cool down and rest. The route to Midway was uneventful and pretty mellow. A quick 50kms. Once I arrived, I called the hotel in town. Unfortunately, I found out that they had nothing. Disappointed, I hung up and headed to the diner to get some hot food. As I sat and waited, the woman from the hotel kindly called me back to make some other recommendations. As much as I appreciated her call, I would have had to back track to greenwood to get a room and I hate going back. I thanked her for her thoughtfulness and dove into my burger.

I couldn’t eat it. The food was fine, but my stomach just wasn’t interested; you know, the old “eyes being too big for the stomach kinda thing”. I ate what I could and then headed down to the river to find some shade and relax. Whoop reported sleep during this time but I don’t recall losing consciousness. I went and sat in the Kettle River for a bit, did some laundry and laid all my stuff out to dry, while I rested in the shade for a couple of hours. I laid in the grass and texted with some friends and took the odd trip to the river to grab some more water and cool down. Locals were coming and going as this spot was a popular pull out from their floats down the Kettle River, which looked like a wonderful way to spend a hot BC day.

I started to get the itch to move so around 5pm I started packing up and hit the trail. It was nice to get moving again and the temperatures were starting to fall as the sun made its way closer to the western horizon. The next 100km to Arlington Lakes Recreation Site was a blur which usually means the trail was mellow and I didn’t see too much along the way. After a while, the rail grades all look the same and can become uninteresting to the point of torture. Especially in the dark.

Darkness fell, as did my eyelids, so at Arlington Lakes, I pulled over and laid down for a bit. I was hoping to run into the pointy end by this time as the official grand depart left Merritt on the morning of the 26th. While most riders would be sleeping, I knew the lead group would still be riding. I was on my back resting when I heard the familiar sound of rubber on gravel. I looked up just in time to watch two riders smoothly roll through the night. It would have made an amazing photo as they pedaled into the boreholes their lights made through their dark surroundings. Instead, I just watched the scene unfold and burned it into my memory. I laid back down briefly but started to get excited about the day, so I packed up and rolled on.

June 27, 2021
No recovery score today as no sleep was recorded.

Kevin Wirtanen

Today, I would be running into all the riders as they made their way to Fernie. I figured I’d start to see them around Myra Canyon and the trestles. Sure enough, the flood of riders started. As I rode along I ran into Richard Palfrey, whom I remember from my first AR700 experience in 2017. I saw Carl Miller, also an AR/BC Epic rider and Jenny Tough, who I’ve had on the podcast before. No one stopped, as they were on their own missions, but Jenny did almost knock me off my bike when she realized it was me and our knuckles connected! Her beaming smile was a great way to start the day. I ended up having a great conversation with her on the Trail / Castlegar Connector on my return tip. Next I ran into Kevin Wirtanen. I recognized his big smile through his very impressive beard. We stopped and had a great chat. Kevin said that the heat was already getting really intense and told me to take it easy.

I finally made it to Chute Lake, just as they were opening, and decided to wait to get some food and coffee. As I sat outside and waited, who should roll up but my brother from another mother, Tim Bulger. It was around this time that I began to reframe the yoyo. Even before I started the ride, I was thinking about how I was going to navigate meeting all the people I was going to run into. Do I just keep riding? Do I stop and take some time to connect? Being a podcast producer and host, in a relatively small community, means that lots of people know who I am.

“I’m kind of a big deal. I have many leather bound books and my house smells of rich mahogany.”
Ron Burgundy.

This would be a great opportunity to meet some of the people who listen to the podcast or follow me on social. There were also athletes that I have had on the podcast that I wanted to meet.

Tim Bulger

Tim and I sat down and started to chat. He bought me breakfast, which consisted of some fantastic and very greasy, wet breakfast sandwiches. We lingered to catch up on things. Tim is one of those guys that I share a kinship with. There are some people out there who just vibrate on the same frequency as you, they get you, and that can’t be ignored. I had to linger. And it was after that interaction that I decided to take more time to smell the roses and connect with people. Like I had mentioned, this was the ride I wanted to spend my 50th birthday on. I wanted to do it fast, but I also wanted to enjoy it and savour special moments as they emerged.

Tim decided that he was going to scratch, as the heat was just too crazy so he was going to head down to Kelowna to catch a ride. We said our goodbyes and rode off in our separate directions. Tim filled my bucket, which was a good thing too as things were going to start getting really challenging past this point. 40 degree temperatures were looming and I was riding straight into it.

The descent down into Penticton was a breeze. I ran into some more folks making their way East. I bumped into Nathan Siemens and his group who had already shifted their goals on account of the heat. That’s one of the most important things to consider when challenging yourself in these events. It’s cool to have a plan, but it has to be loose. There needs to be some margin of error as you may have to deal with mechanicals, mother nature and wildlife, not to mention your own energy levels that could affect how you traverse the route. Nathan’s horde had the right idea. Slow it down, stay together and have a great time.

I started to worry about my water supply, so I hit a gas station and grabbed a 1.5 litre bottle and strapped it under my down tube. I always bring two or three voile straps with me as they can be be so handy for so many things. Including the 2x1 litre bottles on my forks, the 1.5 litre bottle strapped on my downtube and my 600ml Katadyn BeFree water filter, I had over a gallon of carrying capacity. I felt good about that and headed out of town toward Summerland. As I began to climb up to the rail grade I ran into Jesse Heise, who I believe was calling it quits as well. Jesse didn’t look happy and in this kind of heat who would be! Scratching is a hard thing to do. We spend a lot of time planning for these events. We take time off work, we buy tons of shit, which is why these “free” events are so expensive. We tell our friends and family and of course they support us fully in these challenges, but when you scratch, often times it’s difficult to talk about it and one can really beat themselves up. I know I have. It was great to connect with Jesse. He passed me a Gatorade, which I chugged and with my thanks, we parted ways. Next, I ran into JaBig. We spoke on the podcast so it was awesome running into him in real life. He ended up scratching as well as I think he was counting on sleeping in hotels most of the way and it wasn’t looking realistic for him.

JaBig

The heat pressure was getting really intense at this point. Between the blazing sun and the heat radiating off of the pavement I was on, it was like being in a pizza oven. All I could do was to slow down and keep the heart rate and respiration down. It was over 40 degrees Celsius, that’s 104F for our imperial friends, but in the forest it seemed much much hotter. At some points, I thought I could almost smell the forest smouldering, like at any moment the trees would burst into flames. It was hot as fuck!

Before getting to the rail grade above Summerland, I stopped under a shelter for a shade break. Pulling out my phone to take a photo and check my email, I notice a message from my friend, Trish. She had sent me $50 to help with hotels because, by this time, I would be doing most of my riding in the dark to avoid the high temps and people wanted to help keep me safe. I broke down. I was feeling pretty depleted by this time. The sleep deprivation left me emotionally raw and I cried. I talk about the great community we have in the world of bikepacking but to experience it in this way was emotionally overwhelming to me. I shot a video expressing my gratitude. Often times we only see all the good stuff on social networking. Rarely do we show ourselves and our vulnerability but, as a pretty emotionally available dude, I wanted to show just how meaningful a gesture this was. To know that I had a community of bad ass athletes encouraging me and supporting this effort made me feel so thankful.

As I climbed up a very steep, paved grade, I came across a sprinkler that was running in someone’s garden. I stopped and made my way to this beautiful oasis for ice cold water and a bath. I doused my body, wet down my sleeves, which became a very routine temperature maintenance program for the duration of the trip, and filled up my bottles. I found staying hydrated really difficult as the water on board would warm up and became very unrefreshing. Piss water. It sucked, but I kept moving and drank when I could. I wanted to keep moving until I reached Princeton, which is around 100km. A very long, hot and dry 100km. I was able to move pretty rapidly along this section but the steady nature of the rail grade and the monotony of travel caused it to get real old, real fast and I was getting to the end of my rope. “Why am I doing this?!”

One of my faults, especially when it’s the middle of the night, is I fantasize about what I will find at the end of certain legs. The issue is when I don’t find what I am looking for. It can be so demoralizing when this happens, especially when you don’t have a plan B. On this night, as I briskly pedaled along the rail grade that undulated up and down over what was mostly soft gravel eroded by quad and side-by-side vehicles, all I wished for was a hotel and a 24hr gas station. I wanted it so bad. Despite hydrating the best I could, the skin on my arms under my sun sleeves was like roasted chicken skin. Dry and inelastic. The sleeves kept me from burning but my arms showed signs of deep dehydration. I was tired and hungry and so in need of a good nights recovery. Sure enough, as the urban glow in the distance emerged and sings of civilization appeared, my wishes were granted. I found a room that was directly across from a 24hr Chevron.

I checked in around midnight and stashed TiMBR in my room then, headed across the street to the gas station for food. I think I bought about 20,000 calories there and proceeded back to my room to eat a great deal of it, while soaking in the tub. Sandwiches, chips, chocolate bars, meat and cheese stick. What I thought was chocolate milk was actually 10% table cream. Drank it… Ice cream sandwich - 2 please. If there was ever a case of caving to the craving and surfing the dopamine wave into rewards-ville, this was it. And I loved every fucking second of it!

I melted into the soft mattress and I passed out. Whoop reported almost 5 hours of sleep but it felt like a lot more. I slept very well and spent most of my sleep in SWS (Slow Wave Sleep). That’s where the body recovers and rebuilds. My resting HR was high at around 54bpm and my respiration rate was high normal for me, around 13.4 rpm. I woke up and decided that I was going to recover some more during the day, then head out in the evening to rip off the last 100km to Merritt, completing the first half of the yoyo. I would then turn around and do it all again! I estimated to be back to Princeton by mid morning. It wasn’t a hard decision to take a few hours to recover. I hadn’t had much sleep up until last night and I still had well over 1,200km to go.

I woke up slowly and began my day. As soon as I started moving around I could feel the effort of the last few days. I wasn’t travelling nearly as far or fast as I wanted to, but all things considered, I was doing okay. I was doing my best and that’s all you can ask for. There were a couple errands to run, like laundry, but first I really wanted to get some breakfast. I wandered over to the A&W and checked out the menu.

“Hi! Could I please have the Canadian Breakfast?” (bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns)

“Anything else?”

“Yes, and a breakfast sandwich, please?”

“Okay, that’ll be….”

“…and two breakfast wraps, please. Oh! And a large coffee 4 x 4. Thank you!”

I sat down to wait for my food. Then, I was called back over to the counter. The server wanted to make sure that I wanted that much cream in my coffee as it almost filled half the cup. Calories! I thought. I confirmed… When my tray was ready, I picked it up and went back to my table. Around this time, an older gentleman came by and asked if he could sit with me. I graciously slid my tray aside and welcomed him to sit. I want to say his name was Gary, but I honestly forget… So much for working on remembering names… There are times when I wish I had my recorder with me as the conversation we had was very deep and meaningful. One topic we chatted about was his struggle in reconciling his religion with his prior career of being a science teacher. We also chatted about the current social culture, raising children and politics. This was one of those “stop to smell the roses” situations I talked about earlier. Take the time to engage and interact with different people you meet. As my friend Clee Roy says, travelling in this way is so wonderful as it encompasses the intersection between human powered travel, wild landscapes and people. The people behind the counter watched in disbelief as I ate my way through, technically four breakfasts before going up and ordering another 4x4. What can I say?! I was hungry as fuck!

I wandered into town and picked up some more food at the grocery store planning for the 200km trip to and from Merritt that I would start later this evening. I also got some snacks for the day. As soon as I got back to the room, I got naked, washed my kit in the tub and hung the stuff out in the sun to dry. The AC was cranked and the room was dark. I hung out in my cool dark cave to stretch, hydrate and listen to some music. I also repacked the bike and charged some electronics. I ate. I did a bolt check and cleaned and lubed my chain. And ate. It’s always good to go over the bike to make sure it’s not rattling apart. Eating is good too… I ate an impossible amount of food with no gut issues.

I stepped outside into the baking sun wearing only a towel to check my laundry. In a flash, I realized that I shut the door behind me. So there I was, standing out on the deck in my towel, locked out of my room. I shook my head and laughed. These were hotel towels, not the big towels you’re used to at home. Not quite as tiny as in the redux Starsky and Hutch movie but small enough. I walked down to the main level and found the older, Eastern European, cleaning attendant, who gave me some detergent earlier. I was met with wide eyes as this half naked, cycling Adonis asked for her help. Ya, that sounds about right… More like, I was met with wide eyes as this half naked, cycling dirt bag with a worn out ass limped over and asked for her help. She laughed and let me back into my room. Whew…

The rest of the day was spent sleeping. I napped for a couple hours and woke up around 5pm and started to get ready. That day, the temperatures cracked 40 degrees C and I was glad I waited it out. I run way better in the cooler temps, although it was disappointing that I would miss the views along the trail. The good thing about the yoyo is that I’d get to do the whole thing again! I’d get to see the trail from a different perspective and likely see parts that I travelled through in the dark.

Packed and ready I stuffed the room key in my wallet. I was going to try to get back to my room before checkout so I could get cleaned up. I doublechecked the bike and rolled out into the heat. It was still so hot! Much better than mid day but still almost stifling.

Alright! Let’s get this leg done!