Elevation Profile - Merritt to Kamloops "I hate this highway" Cam yelled to Ken as he passed by at the bottom of a long descent around the 45 km mark of Day 4 from Merritt to Kamloops as he looked ahead on the highway to another long climb. Not having been successful finding an elevation profile for this leg of the trip on Google the night before, they had learned that the elevation of Merritt was 1,985 feet, about 750 feet higher than the 1,132 foot elevation of Kamloops. After a grueling Day 3, they both went to sleep smiling, content that Day 4 would be mostly downhill. The next morning, Cam confidently stated that "We should be able to get there by 2PM with a little luck." Wrong....
What they didn't know was what is illustrated in the picture on the left - for the first 55 kms, you are climbing for about 45 kms. It took 2 hours to climb the first 22 kms at a blistering 11km/hour pace. By the 40 km mark, Cam was calling the ride "dispiriting" and "demoralizing" - the extent of climbing was totally unexpected and this really wears on you when around every turn or over every hilltop there is just another hill.
What they didn't know was what is illustrated in the picture on the left - for the first 55 kms, you are climbing for about 45 kms. It took 2 hours to climb the first 22 kms at a blistering 11km/hour pace. By the 40 km mark, Cam was calling the ride "dispiriting" and "demoralizing" - the extent of climbing was totally unexpected and this really wears on you when around every turn or over every hilltop there is just another hill.
Surrey Lake Summit - 4,736 feet What kept us going was the knowledge that because we had done about 2,000 feet of climbing, there had to be a point where we would descend 2,750 feet, and as you can see from the elevation profile, this came at about the 55 km mark. It was a dream after that, except that the shoulders were filled with gravel and so we had to ride on the road in the right hand lane. We could feel the curses of car and truck drivers as they had to go to the difficult effort to move over into the left lane, but it would be extremely dangerous to ride on those shoulders in the gravel. Ken reached a peak speed of 73 kms/hour, and Cam reached 82.6 kms/hour! Apparently the laws of physics that are part of why Cam is slower going uphill with about 300 pounds on the bike including gear (compared to Ken at 225 pounds) work in his favour going downhill!
When we finally arrived at Kamloops we continued our descent all the way into the downtown area, as Ken needed to have his front derailleur adjusted. We did a search and found the Spoke bike shop, where Caitlin in the service department took good care of the Trek 7500. Upon hearing of our noble cause, she included two tubes in the complementary service! Thanks so much Caitlin for all your help!
Our accommodation tonight is the simple but homey Econolodge and dinner was at Harold's Family Restaurant, but we were saddened to learn that Harold couldn't serve us because he passed away in the '80's.
Ride Details:
- Distance: 91.5 kms
- Avg speed: 19.6 kms/hour
- Climbing: 3,510 feet
See the ride details on Strava and today's ride photos on the Photo Gallery,.
Plus check out the NEW Video Gallery!
When we finally arrived at Kamloops we continued our descent all the way into the downtown area, as Ken needed to have his front derailleur adjusted. We did a search and found the Spoke bike shop, where Caitlin in the service department took good care of the Trek 7500. Upon hearing of our noble cause, she included two tubes in the complementary service! Thanks so much Caitlin for all your help!
Our accommodation tonight is the simple but homey Econolodge and dinner was at Harold's Family Restaurant, but we were saddened to learn that Harold couldn't serve us because he passed away in the '80's.
Ride Details:
- Distance: 91.5 kms
- Avg speed: 19.6 kms/hour
- Climbing: 3,510 feet
See the ride details on Strava and today's ride photos on the Photo Gallery,.
Plus check out the NEW Video Gallery!