Weather woes

June 5: Osoyoos to Midway (69.49km)
Well today we climbed the notorious Osoyoos hill. It was definitely long, but with what everyone was saying, I anticipated a cliff. As it turned out it was a 28km climb where we went up some 1300 meters. They actually call the hill the Anarchist pass (there's a picture of me at the top). The day was super cold. At a break that I took a car was stopped and the driver mentioned that the air temperature was 12 degrees. Even with that cool weather, I was still in a T-shirt and sweating like crazy. After reaching the top, it started raining and thankfully it only started then, because I could put on my rain gear and not sweat like crazy as we were going downhill. It was raining pretty heavily at times.

The day before I had determined that I would stop being such a woos and start camping. Well my conviction started to wain as the rain was coming down and the temperatures were still in the low teens. So when we got to Midway at around 4:00 I told Tony that my preference was a motel. Well apparently the Gods had heard my initial vow and they would have non of my wavering, because the one motel in town was booked solid and the next town was 13km away with another hill in between only had one room left. So we succumbed to the forces and decided to go to the municipal campground. I feared how the evening would go thinking that my gear would be all cold and wet. As it turns out, it went pretty well. I pitched the tent and got my stuff in and hung my food in the trees (because there were apparently bears in the area) without getting too wet.

June 6: Midway to Grand Forks (55.87km)
This day was rough.

One of my physiological characteristics is that I sweat a lot. In the heat of the summer this doesn't cause any problems because it evaporates as quickly as I produce it. However, today it was drizzling and the terrain was rolling hills. As a result, I was wearing my rain gear which doesn't breath well. So when I was climbing small hills, I would start sweating. There would then be a small downhill where the cold wind would make me freeze. This up and down continued for a couple of hours. I tried different things to try to warm up from wrapping myself in paper to block the wind to working harder to get my body temperature up. Anyways, after we reached the summit of these meandering hills I changed my shirt and put a sweater on under my rain gear. I am so glad I did because we then had a long continuous downhill into Grand Forks into a glacial headwind. My torso - though still cold - wasn't getting any colder given my new clothes was dry. My hands on the other hand were freezing. To get my blood going as I was going down the hill, I was cursing and yelling and it helped considerably - anger when well placed can be beneficial and warming:)

When I got to Grand Forks I told Tony that there was no way I was continuing - we wanted to reach Christina Lake that evening. So we checked into a motel, I took a hot bath and we went to the laundromat to do a wash and dry our tents.

June 7: Grand Forks to Christina Lake (23.17km)
Since there is nothing past Christina Lake for quite a ways and we have a huge hill to climb, we decided to make today a short day and only go to Christina Lake. This suited me fine as the cold from yesterday was still sapping my energy and the weather today was no better. I just wanted to recharge the batteries.

So I'm in a little motel in Christina Lake and will relax today. Sarah Jane, I'm not sure that I'll call your friends because I'm not really up to doing anything but veg so I wouldn't be good company if we went for a drink. Anyways, I'll see later after I run a couple of errands. We actually have a DVD player so we might rent some movies tonight:)

One last note. I'm continually impressed with the people I meet on this trip. Aside from a few drivers who drive badly or give me the finger, I have met nothing but the nicest of people on this trip. People go out of their way to be helpful and most people are curious about what we're doing. The nicest folk are in the campgrounds and, if only it would get a bit warmer, I'd could meet more of them.

Anyways, that's it for now. We're planning on going to Castegar tomorrow and Nelson the next day. If the weather continues to be foul, I may stay in Nelson for a few days until it warms up a bit. We'll see when I get there. Check out my pictures.