Today was the first and last time I’m ever biking the Coquihalla.
The day started out nice and early so I wouldn’t be rushed while on the road. I forced myself to finish way too much oatmeal, afraid that I’d regret it later if I didn’t.
After locking myself out of Lauren’s house thinking I had everything I’d need, I quickly turned around after realizing I wasn’t able to get past the gate for their neighbourhood. Despite waking Lauren up, it was nice to say goodbye in the morning!
After about 10 minutes of riding back to the highway I finally made it to the on ramp. I turned my rear bike light on, took a big drink of water, and began the climb.
After a solid 30 minutes of riding uphill, I hit what would be the only downhill section for hours. It was a quick descent, and marked the beginning of the ~45km climb uphill.
While the hill felt never ending, looking around and seeing huge mountains, beautiful waterfalls, and a winding river helped take my mind off my burning quads.
I was riding uphill for a few hours when all of a sudden the beautiful shoulder that I was riding on started to disappear. This space was replaced with a third lane as the hill got steeper. This freaked me out for 2 reasons: