I wake up to cooler air and a strong tailwind. I am fully prepared to ride to Lillooet today. It is the only way to get to Kamloops along this road as long as the mud slide still has the TransCanada Highway closed. Almost immediately I start to encounter road damaged that was caused by the storms in November and December 2021. In one location there was still a temporary bridge in place with weight limit restrictions. It must have been an intense rain event.
As I got close to Lytton it got warmer. In the summer of 2021 Lytton set record high temperatures for North America. It is located in a weird place with unique climatic conditions that allow this to occur. A few days after Lytton set the records a person purposely started a forest fire which burned thousands acres of forest and most of the town of Lytton. Prior to my arriving at Lytton there was another forest fire burning but it seems like it was just extinguished prior to my getting there. When I got to the crossroads where the road turned to Lillooet a flag person that was keeping the road closed told me that the TransCanada highway was going to open within an hour. I had a choice to either wait for the opening of the TransCanada or go to Lillooet and add a day to my trip to Kamloops. It was a no brainer I stayed put until the road opened. It did take a little longer to open that originally told but nonetheless it was worth the stop. However, it was getting hotter.
When the road opened there were 6 vehicles waiting for the opening and me. It was hot, there were climbs but I had strong tailwinds. Thank goodness for that. While riding the section of road that was closed I could not really tell where it occurred. There was once mud many feet deep apparently, but now it was a little dusty in many places, but other than that it was difficult to tell where exactly the road was closed. Many kudos to the British Columbia DOT for cleaning the highway so well.
At Spences Bridge I was running out of water again and was hungry. In this town I came across a restaurant and got my standard fair of a BLT. It was fuel that I needed for the rest of the way to Cache Creek. In Spences Bridge I came across a pack, or is it a herd, of mountain goats. I thought one was going to butt me by his protective posture as I took a wide berth around him/her.
I made it to Cache Creek and wanted to camp but the only campground was having septic problems and only allowed trailers and RVs with toilet facilities to stay. So it was off to another night in a hotel.
Today’s stats
Total mileage: 77.72 miles
Average speed: 12.5 mph
Total Ascent: 4426 feet
Total Descent: 3507 feet
Maximum Speed 33.8 mph