Check in time at lodging in Canada is much later than in the USA. Much, much later. That time is also a pretty firm time. We were being told 3 PM, the past two days has been 4 PM. Given the fact today's ride was only 50 miles (ahem, who would think I would ever say 'only' 50 miles) - I negotiated changing the suggested 8 AM departure to 9 AM.

That doesn't mean I slept in accordingly. I did stay in bed, but didn't feel as if I were sleeping. The first thing I did when I got up was chug a quart of milk. That made my stomach uncomfortably full, but I did manage to down oatmeal for breakfast. Oren, Jim, and Genny went to the breakfast buffet at the restaurant. They declared it just as good as the dinner buffet last night.

I was ready early and went by Oren's room to see how he was doing. Yes, almost ready. Jim and Genny? Yes, almost ready.

Wait - I should have given the weather report first. Heavy rain all night long and still raining now. Sigh. What should I wear? I started out with just shorts, but came back to the room and put on the rain tights. My problem with the rain tights is that they are two layers. They have an outer waterproof layer and an inner warm layer. That makes them pretty tough to pull down for bush stops. Imagine how fun it is when they are wet. Today is a climb over Bow Pass. I am very sure I can't hold it for 50 miles, especially after drinking a quart of milk.

OK - ready to go. We are all stoic. Genny and I are hopeful the rain will pass as we can still see the mountains around us. The weather isn't totally socked in. Off we go, all four together. Jacinto? He is going to stay until they kick him out of the room, or until the rain stops. He has a package of hotdogs for breakfast. No microwave or buns, just hotdogs. He proudly pointed out that they are all beef. Which elevates them into excellent breakfast status.

Oren and I have a routine. We stop every hour for bush stops and a snack. I told him I'm not his mother or his wife, but I can be his sister. That gives me the right to boss him around and remind him to eat. Remember, he's not supposed to come home emaciated this trip! Jim was in the lead and he stopped before one hour. It was still raining, but that quart of milk was processing. I was happy to discover my wet tights went down and came back up with a reasonable amount of shimmying.

We had a surprise climb right from the start. What happened to Bow Pass being in the middle of the day? My legs were a little unhappy after yesterday's big climb over Sunwapta - but they got in the grove. I did a good job of staying with the group. Cycling, and especially climbing, is much easier now that I have lost weight.

But I was ready for stop number two. Ready. Ready. Past ready. Two hours went by. Two and a half hours went by. Come on, Oren. You know the drill. I think Oren was letting his testosterone get the better of him. Now way was he going to stop and let Jim get ahead. Finally, I just had to eat something. If I didn't eat now, I wasn't going to have any gas in the tank for the actual climb.

Jim finally stopped. He said now the climb was tapered off until the actual pass.

The weather report is continual rain. I was hoping it would taper off. It did occasionally let up some, but never enough to get hopeful it would quit. We saw three Backroads Bicycle Tour vans. They must have a huge group. The first van passed us heading north. It had a bunch of bikes on top. Then we saw two vans in a row at two pullouts. There were just 3-4 riders on the road that appeared to be with them. The Rocky Mountain Bicycle Tours van passed us again. We didn't see any other riders on the road, until one fellow coming off of the pass way too fast for the wet conditions. My opinion, of course.

The pavement was new with a nice wide shoulder. It did have a rumble strip - but at least the shoulder was giant. The new pavement was much appreciated. Yesterday was the old stuff with lots of expansion cracks. If it bothers a recumbent rider, you know road conditions are bad.

I kept trying to convince myself the rain wasn't a problem. I was reasonably warm and reasonably dry. I had sophisticated plastic bags for booties over my wool socks and under my sandals. Probably I would have been just as well off without the plastic bags as my feet started to sweat after awhile. The others all had real booties. Jacinto had grocery store bags that he put on over his shoes. They look really crazy, but his shoes were almost totally dry.

The pink pogies I made myself some years ago aren't of the best material. They are great as a wind break and good for rain for an hour or two. After that, they start to leak. I had lost one of my good gloves back in Yaak - which left me with my regular long fingered gloves. They have no warmth at all. As they day went on, my hands were wetter and wetter. That was my problem point.

Scenery? I'm sure it was wonderful, under the clouds. It is such a shame to miss the sights. We enjoyed seeing everything yesterday. Darn.

As we approached Bow Pass, there was a 10K construction warning. Hmmm - we've been through several construction zones where they were working on the shoulder and traffic wasn't effected at all. This time we passed a giant line of stopped cars. We had been working hard getting up the summit and were very sweaty. We pulled to the front of the line. All traffic was stopped both directions while they excavated dirt from the roadside and loaded belly dumpers. We chatted with the flagman while we waited and waited. Now I was getting cold for real. Not just a little chilly, but cold. Oren had already mentioned that he was concerned about being cold on the downhill. This is not good.

Finally we could go. The top was within sight. Jim had said the ironically beautiful part was the downhill was quite gradual with a few uphills thrown in. We would have some work to do to warm our bodies up. Who thinks I'd ever be thankful for an uphill after a summit? I was!

The line of cars passed us, then we were all alone in our downhill suffering on the nice new pavement with the wide shoulder. All of that should mean that we wished the day would go on forever, but we were just hoping the next 25 miles would pass in a hurry.

We got to Bow Lake. The water color is a very beautiful aqua. I remember this! It's where I took the iconic (to me) photo on my first trip here. The others were just in front of me. If I stopped, they wouldn't know why. If I didn't stop, I would forever regret it. I grabbed the brakes and made a hard turn. Even though the photo wouldn't compare at all, I wanted another photo in the same spot.

The lady I asked to take a photo, took a couple. Now if I can only get them off of my Yugo phone, I will load them here. Those are the only photos any of us took all day long.

Sure enough, the others were waiting for me just down the road. Genny had added another layer to try and warm up.

I had been keeping my Garmin in my pocket to keep it dry. I was very happy when I pulled it out to check how many miles to go and discovered we had 43 miles in the bank. Only two more miles to go! Soon we came to a major intersection. I was half frozen and definitely not up for navigation. I stayed right with Oren. Look? Who is that coming up behind me but Jacinto. Town was right after the busy intersection and our lodging was a quick left and a quick right. Yes! We are here.

I caught up with Jacinto on his day while the others went inside. Soon I could hear Oren yelling from outside. ??? Something about how expensive this place was and he wanted to check in now. That Oren. Every once in awhile he flies off the handle. The last time was in Vernon going through heavy traffic. I hope we don't get crummy rooms now.

The desk clerk had suggested we go to Bill Peyto's Cafe over at the hostel to eat while we wait. I really, really wanted out of my wet clothes. But I didn't want to put dry clothes on a wet body. What to do? I compromised by putting on a dry bra and top in the motel bathroom before we left for the cafe. It was just a couple of blocks away. When we arrived, I put on my extra wool socks. Ah. Nothing better than dry socks on cold, wet feet.

The food there was very good and reasonably priced, especially when you consider what we had paid the past couple of nights. We all ordered hot beverages, keep them coming please! The soup of the day with garlic bread was $6.00 - a nice, big bowl. Jacinto and I also ordered fish and chips to share. Oren got chili over poutine. It was great to be inside, sort of dry. Looking out the window, it had started raining. Again.

We were back at the motel at 4 PM. I had to sign a paper acknowledging the $250. fee if we put our bicycles in the room. Ouch. Our assigned room wasn't under a walkway. I asked if we could be switched so our bikes would be dry. They have a bicycle shed. OK. So much for access to the bikes, but they will be secure.

Our room was extra nice. I double checked our reservation - it says standard queen. But we got a great room with a little sitting area with a couch and a great bathroom. The others got regular rooms in the main part of the motel. I must have looked extra pitiful, I don't know what. But I do appreciate the nice room.

We didn't have internet last night, so we are all happy to catch up on the world. Each device is assigned it's own access code and if we use 'too much' internet, there is a fee. That's a new one.

We are supposed to be going to dinner at 6:30 - but I don't think anyone is too hungry.

We had a discussion after Oren's meltdown about adjusting our departure time to account for the late check in. Tomorrow we can't check in until 4:30. It is 55 miles and 1,900 feet of climbing. It will be hard to stay here and twiddle our thumbs, but we don't to arrive early again.

A plus to the rain and cold temperatures is that we aren't combating heat. Leaving late and riding in the heat wouldn't be good.

I'm disappointed we missed the good views today. It was probably my hardest day of the trip so far. Mostly because I wanted to stop on the climb, but didn't want to get behind. By the time I finally stopped to pee, I REALLY had to go. It's amazing how much easier riding is with an empty bladder. It was silly of me to not stop.

There are two big climbs on the Icefields Parkway - Sunwapta and Bow Passes. I remembered Sunwapta, but totally couldn't remember Bow Pass at all. I knew I had been over it because I rode the whole parkway. Now I remember Bow Pass. It is much more difficult from this side. Or maybe it is only more difficult if you need to pee and are riding up the pass in the driving rain . . .

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