Epic Camp Canada 2014 Day 10

Epic Camp Canada 2014 Day 10
August 28

Sunwhapta Falls - Lake Louise - 178km

We kinda figured we'd get some wet weather at some point and as it continued to pour all night long last night I thought we'd be lucky to not get hammered.
But there was only a light drizzle as we set out to run to Honeymoon Lake 4km away for our swim.
The lake is mis-named for sure.  Only penguins and Germans would honeymoon here.  Scenic yes, but cold as f...
Newsom had said the day before that he's hop in, make a call on distance minimum and let us know so we held him to that.  But he got all wishy-washy and said we could go as long as we could tolerate.
I'm not a lover of cold water but I lasted as long as he did and when we got out most were long gone.
Kudos to Lou and Gareth for staying in so long.  Lou because he's old and scrawny, Gareth because he gave that lake a beating it won't forget for decades.

Run back, pack, coffee, break and a 10am roll-out and the forecast was for wet and cold and it proved to be accurate.
When you pack for a trip like this you bring everything you might possibly need for cold swims and rides.  Unless you forget! Douglas and I were moaning the fact that we left all of our best cold water swim and cycling kit at home.  Damn.
But I was better prepared than most with my helmet jacket, Assos winter cycling gloves (thank you Rebecca!!!). best booties and jacket.   The new Epic cycling jerseys Newsom gave to every camper are also great for winter riding.  Loved that today.
We had 2KOM's on tap today at 55km and 135km and I was in no shape to be anywhere near the action for those.  I decided I was going to be happy just to finish, stay warm and get to a beer and a hot tub asap upon arrival.  Listened to a couple of episodes of IMTalk and one of the Rich Roll podcast and that certainly helped the hours tick by.
There weren't a whole lot of views you'd want to see along the Icefields Parkway due to the cloud and rain, but occasionally we got a bit.
Highlight of the day for me was the yummy, warm veggie soup Dwan jacked up from the kitchen in Sanwhapta before we left.  Magic. Between that and the Snickers bars (Rob hill - 4 at one stop, Phil Patterson - 5!!!) Lucky the crew didn't pull those out early in the camp as we'v definitely got some folks with a taste for chocolate.  I only had 2  :-)

So it was a long ride.  Over 6,000ft. of vertical gain on the ride and twice well over 6500ft in elevation.  Been a long time since I was at altitude and I certainly felt it today.
Gary has a wee hole in the mid-seam of his tights with chamois and if it gets any bigger then no one is going to be able to sit behind him.  Perhaps its a blow-hole to let off steam???
Spent quite a bit of it with young Adamski who was (in Gordo's words) "feeling the affects of an appropriate training stimulus" from the last 9 days.  Dude was very close to throwing in the towel all day.

We all made it.
But John Ballard nearly didn't.
He might not want me to go into details of his incredible moment today but I will say it was one of the most amazing sights I've ever seen from another rider during all my years on a bike.  Absolutely flabber-fkng-gasting.

Dinner at our hotel tonight.  Wonderful buffett but we still went for a stroll for ice-cream with our fearless ice-cream hunt leader Leah leading the way.  The girl has the nose for the smell of ice-cream.
I opted for a wee dram and some port to round out my supply of evening choices.  Gary found some beer - this time with alcohol included.  So we sit here typing away, each with our own version of the day.

Hope we get a bit of clear weather so we can see where we are tomorrow.  Newsom has chosen a very scenic mountain run as plan "A" and if its wet then a flatter choice of plan "B".  Will let you know how it goes. Cheers.