deCycles 2006 Trip: West Coast Rockies

• Route Map (well the legs that Caitlin and I rode; the group started in Seattle, we met them at the ferry terminal coming back from Vancouver Island, 1500 miles)
• Photos: Part 1,  Part 2 (will take awhile to download as many are full size...)
• Highlights
• Biggest hill, on the way to Lillooet, 9 miles of 13% grade, temperature ~95 degrees (Lillooet is in the desert, to everyone's suprise...)
• Scariest descent, other side of above hill, 13% grades down, sketchy road surface
• Most fun climb: up to Logan's Pass and continental divide, Glacier National Park, Montana.
• Most fun descent: other side of Logan's Pass. 12 miles of narrow twisty, windy, swoopy road, rock overhangs, great scenery
• Fastest descent: Caitlin and I slingshotting each other on the way to Jasper, hit 52 mph.
• Longest day: Clearwater to Valemount, 137 miles
• Hardest day: Lillooet to Kamloops, +100 miles in 100 degree weather, 7200 feet of climbing. Outran the break trucks, 40 miles with no break, ran out of food and water, bonked at the top of a long hill, only be saved by kind German tourists in a rented RV who gave us cold bottled water out of frig, bananans, and apples.
• Coldest day: Columbia Ice Fields, temperatures in the 40's, between Jasper and Banff
• Windiest leg: crossing Canadian/U.S. border into Montana - treeless, rolling foothills, wind screaming parallel to Rockies
• Wildlife: bears, caribou
• Tallest mountain passed: Mt. Robson, tallest mountain in Canada
• Meanest drivers: Montana
• "Low" light, really: crashing in the last 50 miles of ride. Paceline leader didn't call out a fist-sized rock that he missed by 2 inches, but I was immediately next in line and hit it square on. Hit the ashphalt at 25 mph, lots of road rash, and partially separated my shoulder.  Parts of my bike were yanked back into position, handlebar is still bent, but I was able to finish the ride (leaning on the handlebars tends to jam one's arm back into the shoulder socket...)