Sat, Apr 25 2009, Sun, Apr 26 2009 - Drumheller Road Cycle Tour with COC (slow pace) (View Original Event Details)
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A fantastic event, and a great group! I was quite happy that with people coming in from Calgary and Edmonton, people coming in on Friday, people coming in on Saturday, and people coming in on Sunday, everyone showed up on time and rarin' to go!
On Saturday, we headed east out of Drumheller with a bit of a head wind. We stopped to check out the hoodoos and then continued on out to East Coulee. We checked out the Atlas Coal Mine and then continued on up the remainder of the paved highway into the hills. Where the road turned to gravel, we stopped for a quick break and then turned around to retrace our route. Unfortunately, the wind shifted and we were stuck riding uphill into... another head wind! Dang! Some of the group went ahead, and some of us were delayed for a while (flat tire and such). During our delay, the faster folk reached the intersection to Wayne, which is just when we had our one patch of really bad weather - some cold wind and rain - for a few minutes. They made an executive decision and gave Wayne a miss, returning directly to Drumheller. By the time us delayed folks were back on the road, though, things were clearing, and not knowing that the others had headed back to town, we finished our ride on our to Wayne (into a head wind, by the way). Eventually, everyone showed up at Wayne (either via bike, or vehicle), except for Susan who had continued on to her camp site.
After hoovering some buffalo burgers and beers, some of us finished the ride returning from Wayne back to Drumheller, into... you guessed it... a HEAD WIND. We rode all four directions today, and all four directions had a head wind. How does THAT happen!!??
A few of us hit the hot tub at the hotel, and then we all got together for dinner at O'Shay's across the parking lot.
Weather conditions were much nicer for Day 2, but some of our folks decided to do only the flat portion of the day with us, leaving the rest of us to climb that loooonnnnng hill without them. At the top of the hill, we enjoyed the Orkney Viewpoint, and then continued on to the Bleriot Ferry turn-off. Since the ferry wasn't running yet, we turned around there, but a few hearty souls, including Don (who just joined us on Sunday), Gen and Chris, decided they wanted a "bonus hill" and rode down to the ferry and then back up the hill to the top of the canyon. Most of us eschewed the "bonus hill" and just got our kicks descending the Woo Hoo hill back down.
We finished up the ride by about 1PM and headed back in our respective directions for an early Sunday evening.
Thanks to all who came out - it was a wonderful weekend. And special thanks to all of our roadside heros for the weekend - Brent, Mike and Dave.
- Rhonda
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Mark G at photos@edmontonoutdoorclub.com. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to thirty of your favourites (only) for a day event, or up to sixty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.