Day 9: Revelstoke – Camper’s Haven

By Deanna on June 14, 2013 • ( 1 )

To Day: 122km, 1,480m

To Date: 748km, 8,384m

To Go: Oooh maybe 7,052km?

The theme of today was: “Dig a little deeper”…. I said it to myself as I was climbing uphill for hours, I said it to myself when I was flying downhill through a tunnel in the dark (and you know how fond of downhills I am!), and I said it to myself repeatedly as I made my legs pedal more than they wanted to.

I had discovered last night that the campground in Glacier National Park may not be open until the end of June so that meant one of 3 things was going to happen today:

1. Miracle occurs, campgrounds open early

2. I wild camp

3. I ride through 122 km (which by my odometer was 135km…) to the next rest stop

I could not quite get the guts to wild camp, so I pressed on, and on, and on some more to appropriately named Camper’s Haven. Now I know to some cyclists out there 130km isn’t that much, but to me it is – especially when a lot of it is uphill. Not only was today too long for my liking – I was also a bit sad I did not have time to go for a hike or explore any of the park. Well that’s not true – at the start when I thought I had more time, I went for a quick run through the Giant Cedar boardwalk. And I chose to have lunch looking at some historic trestles – you know, kill two birds with one stone.

I got to Campers Haven at 8:30pm – that was just shy of a 12 hr riding day (I lie, one hour was added on due to time change – so a 10.5 hr riding day). I was so beat I opted to spend another $20 for the motel room instead of camp site – I honestly should have been suspicious the room was only $45, but I did not care. The motel turned out to just be an atco trailer – the bathroom was in a seperate room (no big deal) and there was a kitchen hidden in room #6 – the concerning features were that my key seemed to unlock every door (I walked into another bedroom looking for the kitchen as well as a storage space), a large collection of dead bugs on the bathroom counter and the lack of lighting in the kitchen entirely…. strange place to say the least. But it was still a little piece of heaven and I had a lovely sleep!

About to be attacked

But the biggest “Dig a little deeper” moment must have come today at Roger’s Pass. I saw a friendly litte groundhog and started snapping his picture. He seemed interested and started coming closer bit by bit…. until he was flat out running straight for me! I actually freaked out and had to run away from him!!!! That was a close call. Could see it in the headlines: “Woman cycling across Canada attacked by groundhog.”