Anonymous said...'You look marvelous. What is your bike's name? Did you get my email forward about using mouthwash in a spray bottle & spraying it around you to keep the mosquitoes away?
HUGE HUG, Jo'
(Shamefully, Jo, I think I originally did name her, but I've since forgotten what. My '64 Ford with the roll-down window was named Betsy, and my property - Field of Cedars. Spokes, maybe?)
July 10/08 Woke early as planned and re-organized the contents of the panniers. Opening panniers to search for things turns out to be my biggest annoyances, although never having a clean face or fingernails is a close second.
My brother gives me an extra bungee cord, and I bungee the tent, sleeping bag and mat, the little tarp and the fleece blanket on the back rack.
When I first take the fully loaded bike off the bikestand this morning, 6am, in Edmonton's west end, it is so heavy that I say to Ron "I guess I'd better walk it home." He laughs. We hug, and I set off.
I wonder if I'll be able to ride with all this weight but surely don't want him to see me fall over so I walk the bike down the sidewalk past the neighbour's house so I'll be out of Ron's view first before I mount. The bike and I wobble like crazy for the first terrifying four blocks and I keep to the sidewalks. I should have practiced with a loaded bike, too, but hadn't thought to. However, I garner courage and eventually move out onto the main road in the traffic because there is so much stopping and starting at street corners when cycling on the sidewalks. Edmonton drivers are wonderfully considerate of cyclists, though, and gave me lots of room.
My first text message to Josie: 'Got to Rundle Park from west Edmonton in only one hr. Sunny. Got used to cycling on Edm. streets. Here I go...'
See a big white rabbit, pelicans in the river on gigantic rocks, lots of people - dogs with most of them. From a building on the embankment, I hear one fellow call out to another 'Look at that Cadillac!' Yes, I think, it does seem more like a Caddy when you consider most bikes here on the city trail are fast and sleek. This one is so heavily loaded that it smooths out the bumps.
I stop when there are dogs, even leashed, and meet Val, who has 3 friendly dogs with her. My favourite one looks like a small lion with a big bushy golden mane, and we chat for ages.
A young female cyclist pulls up and talks with us both. She had cycled Canada a few years ago, and knew from my panniers that I was doing the same.
Shortly after that, I come to a 'Y' in the path. The paved part goes up, the sandy part down. My guess is that I follow the river, so I go down, walking because it's so soft and sandy.
Nov. 12/08 - found this comment from first part of blog trip back on an earlier blog only today:
Comment from Viewer...Anonymous said...I met this wonderful lady at the dog off-leash area of Hermitage Park in Edmonton, Alberta. I was walking my 3 dogs, Frankie (shorn Sheltie), Zip (tall lanky black guy) and Brewster (chow with a lion clip). We spoke for a while and you took a pic of Brewster with his untidy lion clip (he loves it, keeps him cool and all the kids think he's a lion). I admire your spirit. It's all about the journey, no matter how long or short. The destination is really in the journey. God bless you and keep you safe. It brightened my day to meet you. I know you'll have that effect on many souls along the way. :)
Val, the 'lion' tamer.
(from me - I will never forget you, Val. Thanks so very much for the comment...love it.)
July 12, 2008 12:50 AM
Big mistake! At the bottom the trail becomes only one foot wide, and the grasses so tall, over 5' high with the trail going on into the wild, that I lost my sense of safety and retreat - 200 feet back up if it had gone straight up, which it doesn't, so maybe 1/2 mile walking up and up to the top of the ravine pushing this ultra-heavy bicycle.
Near the top, I sit at the picnic table/bench and another woman, Suzanne, joins me. She walks back up with me. Such friendliness!!!
The TransCanadaTrail is across the river there but at this point I don't realize it. I'm glad I snapped this picture.
Since I cycled the Edmonton River Trail a few days ago, I've now completed over 30 kms. of the TCT and feel great about that. At least, I think it's 30 km. My odometer has been set in miles, though, and I don't figure that out for a while yet.
I follow the River Valley Trail to the top of the ravine, which I still think to be the TransCanadaTrail, and go for many city blocks until it suddenly dead-ends at 18th. I guess I'm now out of Edmonton. There's no TCT sign so do I go straight, or go right - my only choices here. I turn right and it deadends. I go back and follow the other one. Follow it for awhile, and then north on Meridian until it joined a highway east to Fort SK.
Apparently, the TCT was on the other side of the North Saskachewan River. I incorrectly crossed the Dyer Bridge from Stathcona Science Park to Rundle Park the day I did Edmonton's river trail missing the TCT sign, so when I started today, I start at the wrong side of the river. Because of the storms, I've had to wait until today to start my trip. Being on this side of the river is a huge mistake and it costs me many miles on secondary highways. I say to myself that when I come back next year to do Edmonton to Victoria, I will start at Fort SK instead to make it up.
Much of the TCT is on dirt roads anyway, and there's little signage anywhere until I get to SK. There's many hills here because it's so close to the river and they're very steep. I have to walk up most of them at this point but will get stronger daily, I realize. Cycling seems to get easier with every km. cycled, though. And, like popcorn, it's more-ish.
Anonymous said...'Wow - this scene is worth losing the trail for! Maybe the trail did a jog or something. Wow - you're really doing it....'
July 14 Anonymous said...'Looks like this beautiful detour was meant to be seen...things happen for a reason. Love Ya, Jo'
July 10th, 2008: (from Josie) Karen arrived in Fort Saskatchewan, and took a hotel after loosing the trail for half the day and taking roads into Fort Sask.
From text message: "I'm one mile from Fort. Sask. Will find trail there, I hope."
I was on a fast highway by this time, and had a huge bridge to go over. My fear of bridges tested, but this bridge is flat, and cars slow down but there is little room for us both. Three male cyclists pass me, and there were two more down on the river road underneath which turns out to be the TCT route, too. Only cyclists I've seen all day - cyclists are rare birds out here, I guess.
Couldn't use my tent the first night on the road, though, as I sure was not used to the grueling work of constant cycling down the well-hilled roads, and back-tracking looking for the right one turning a 30 km trip into a 60 km trip. Didn't happen, (finding the right road) but I knew that Fort Sask. is east and on the river, so I kept going in the approximate direction and found it by 7 pm with the help of the map Ron gave me.
The sky is very dark now, and threatening and I'm too tired, anyway, to look for a campground so motel for me, Pizza Hut, re-organize panniers, dearly needed bath and to bed early.
I get up early, too, and go first to the RCMP detachment to ask about the trail. It's shown on the map that Ron got specially for me as crossing here and going east on the north side. They (3 of them and all women one of whom IS a cyclist) haven't heard of the TransCanadaTrail going through Fort SK!!!
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