Tuesday, May 22, 2018
On May 21 I bicycled 65 kilometres. I thank my 56-year-old body. It says, "You're welcome."
A local ecologist organized a bicycle-themed weekend that included this ride, a shorter ride, and rhubarb juice: sour, but thirst-quenching.
Born here, she lived in Vancouver and participated in many "Critical Mass" bike rides, designed to remind society that roads are for people and bicycles, not only automobiles. Critical Mass rides helped produce a bike lane on the Burrard Bridge, whose remaining automobile commuters go faster now that so many got out of their cars and onto their bikes, feet, or city buses.
The Critical Mass ride I participated in here in Williams Lake on May 19 featured only ten or so riders, stayed on the shoulder of the highway, and went from the tourist centre at the city's south end to the Potato House, downtown, four kilometres away. The Potato House, an 80-year-old house whose late Italian-born building family grew potatoes all around it, is a local hotbed of ecology. It has hot beds of community gardens outside, exhibits inside, and a rare, drive-through compost station along the alley behind. I dumped my bucket there this morning.
The rhubarb juice, still warm from fermenting, was one reward for us Critical Mass riders. It was sour but it quenched my thirst. I twitch remembering my cousin who used to eat rhubarb raw from our garden. I suppose rhubarb juice would produce alcohol in time, like the cherry juice my parents' friends made, and let us children drink. I had a tasty childhood indeed.
Only four of us rode the 45-km from 150 Mile House Elementary School on May 21. We rode up Horsefly Road to Likely Road, along Mountain House Road, the old Cariboo Gold Rush Trail of the 1860s, to Deep Creek, and back into Williams Lake on Highway 97. Two of us, the other one a man of 68, had ridden the 20-km from Williams Lake to the school before the ride. The other two riders were younger and women, one about 35 and the other 40, the latter the local ecological whirling dervish who organized the weekend. There was no rhubarb juice to end this ride, but there was apple cider from a highway store 10 km before the Williams Lake end of the ride. That was welcome in the 25-degree heat.
The first 10 km were largely uphill, from 2-6% grades. A few km of 3-7% downhill grades followed. A passing motorist photographed us using our organizer's cell phone. The road turned gravel a few km later, and the 20 km of Highway 97 back to Williams Lake was on a shoulder one metre wide, with transport trucks whizzing by. I preferred the earlier, wilderness ride. The last three km into Williams Lake were 1-3% downhill through road construction, as much of the 20 km 1-3% uphill from Williams Lake to the school starting place had been.
I wasn't stiff after the ride, or the next morning, but I treated my obliging body to a swim and hot tub soak in the local pool complex the next morning. A lifeguard told me that every month the lifeguards have a training session, and every two years they take tests to ensure they are still good lifeguards. I wish drivers had such requirements; my last driving test was 23 years ago and I'd gladly take another driving test, to be sure I'm still safe behind the wheel.
After my pool fun, I cycled three km to my tutoring job at the local university campus.
Rolling along on a bicycle is such joy, with or without the nectar of rhubarb, cherries, or apples!
