July 16th, 2015
Facts about Valemount
Valemount is situated in a valley right in the heart of three major mountain ranges. These three ranges – the Cariboo, Columbia and Rocky Mountains contain some of British Columbia’s highest mountains. Two peaks close by to Valemount are named after two great Canadians – Mt. Sir Wilfrid Laurier at 3,505 metres (11,499 feet) and Mt. Terry Fox, 2,650 metres (8,694 feet).
Cycling Stats
Start point: Thunder River Rest Area, British Columbia, Canada
Destination: Valemount, British Columbia, Canada
87.90km trip, 15.18 km/h average speed, 39.39 km/h maximum speed, 5:47 time on bike
What happened…
Andrew writes: It was raining when we woke up. Then the sun came out, so we hurriedly packed everything up, but left the tarps and tent out to dry in the sun. Then it started raining again, so everything was stuffed into a bag. Fortunately, the sun came out again just after breakfast! About 20 minutes into my ride from the rest area, it started raining again. I stopped to put on my rain gear. By the time I had put everything on, the rain had stopped. After climbing up a hill, getting soaked in sweat, I took off my rain jacket and pants. It was chilly riding down the hill afterwards, and of course, it started to rain. I elected to put my rain kit on one last time, while Amanda gave up, and just chose to get a shower from the sky on and off during the day.
We were riding through the Monashee mountain range all-day today, and it just seemed to drag on interminably. A fierce head-wind kicked in for the last 20km into Valemount, and this only made the day seem longer and more punishing. Looking at the cycling stats, it’s easy to understand why I felt this way. We flirted dangerously close with my self-imposed 6-hour riding limit!
By the time we pulled into Valemount it was 1600hrs. There was a farmers market set up outside of the Information Centre. We perused the dozen or so stalls that were setup, and one even had chocolate chip banana bread. We stopped in at the Info Centre and figured out a place to camp for the night. Then, we decided that we really wanted that chocolate chip banana bread, but when we went back out to the vendor, it was gone. You snooze, you lose!
We’ve decided to take tomorrow off to check out what Valemount has to offer, as well as do laundry, shop etc. We pulled into the empty Pines Golf Course & RV Campground ($15) and Amanda started to setup our tent at a vacant site. I went to register us, and apparently, even though the campground is empty, we had to move to another, even more barren section of the grounds. I rode back to Amanda and together we walked our tent down the driving range, as a fierce wind whipped at the tent, causing it to almost fly away.
Amanda had a hankering for french fries, or poutine. Apparently, a truck stop 4km out of town serves up the best fries ever. McAllen’s it’s called. The staff were nice, the portions generous, and the food delicious. After dinner it was straight to bed, as today took a lot out of me. I’m looking forward to resting tomorrow and checking out what Valemount has in store for us.
Amanda writes:Rivers are noisy! It seems the more we travel, the less “river front” sounds appealing. Maybe it’s because the rivers in this region are raging. In any event we had an efficient site pack up in the morning, even with trying to dry out some things. It’s so funny that old habits die hard; I’m still trying to be efficient. In any event I was excited to be headed to a place with civilization tonight. I had heard about the town of Valmount from our friend Krissi.
The ride didn’t seem too bad today. As Andrew said the headwind was a bit frustrating, but we pushed through. Valemount is a quaint town surrounded by beautiful glacier capped rocky mountains. It’s very pretty but almost has an abandoned feeling to it. Many stores are for sale and closed and there wasn’t really a ‘vibe’ to it. While we stayed there for an extra day to get things done it wouldn’t be on my list of places to potentially move to.
The poutine hit the spot as did a meal that we didn’t have to cook or do dishes. We slept very well on the abandoned campground amongst a few golfers and enjoyed the day of actual rest aside from riding a little bit to buy groceries and coffee.