Ride organizer Richard Blair forwarded this message from Peter Mair which is a nice synopsis of the Interior 600.

Wet Wet Wet
Kamloops 600 Report
by Peter Mair

Richard,

Ummmm! where do I begin? Started out okay 5 of us managed to stick together to the top of Dufferin but spread out a bit towards Savona, where we encountered the first squall. Randy struggled up the Kamloops climb and was played sweeper until the rest of us stopped in the 100 Mile area. Bob B flatted on the Savona flats, then Kieth flatted on the false flat to Cache Crk, then I noticed my rear tire going soft just as we were about to leave the Cache Crk Petro-Can. An extra few minutes were spent mucking about - with me thinking oh, oh here we go again!
Ken, Kieth, Bob G and I sort of rode together to 100 Mile but essentially we rode our own pace. Bob B was just behind. Mr. relentless, Ken B, cruised on at the front and just when it seemed he'd be gone forever, there he was at a roadside pullout chatting up a motorist or sorting gear. Luckily the ride for our group of 4 was dry to Williams lake. We didn't have the strong tailwinds of last year as the run up to Williams Lk was rather slow. The construction section near Lac La Hache consisted of 4 kms of freshly compacted subsurface gravel - this was converted to a 4 km wash-boarded mudbog on the return leg. The sky was blacker than black to the west ominously closing in and as we trickled into Williams Lake it began to rain - lets just say pretty hard! I was not planning on riding straight through, like last year (good thing too) and I had booked a motel in 100 Mile on the way up like every one else, except Randy?
Anyway the ride back to 100 Mile was epic. The 4 km of road const. was pot hole city and a transport truck managed to douse me with a wall of muddy, gritty water.
A car pulled along side me and a rear window rolled down, a women poked her head out and asked "Was this a race, or something.....?" I said something about "No, this was just a fun ride, except I wasn't having any fun at the moment."
I was soaked to the bone and borderline hypothermic as I wheeled into the Tim Horton's @ 10:39 p.m. I choked down a bowl of Chili and realized I had better warm up fast as I was shaking so bad trying to spoon chili into my mouth. 15 minutes submerged in a hot bath perked me up and I arranged my sodden clothing over the motel room baseboards for the 4 hours I planned on spending before falling into bed.

Up at the crack of 3:50 a.m the sky was heavy overcast, cool and misting. I had a hot drink in the motel, grabbed a Tims' Sandwich and headed up the hill thinking I might hook up with Bob G who had opted for the 94 Mile motel just @ the Hwy 24 intersection. No Bob, He apparently left probably 1/2 hr or so behind me as I headed East. Just past Lone Butte the rain began in earnest. The ride over Mcdonald Summit was the typical slog. The rain let up a bit but was replaced by thick fog on the descent to Little Fort. The Rest stop Husky turned out to be a breakfast treat for me as I had some warm food and drink. Just when I thought it would be dry the roads became wet with more moisture from Darfield to Louis Crk. I pushed on as the wet and cold was now replaced with slight headwinds and I was grinding along at only a little over 20 km/hr avg.
Finally at Vinsulla (sp?) I stopped, ate and stripped off my foul weather gear and enjoyed a stiffer afternoon head breeze down the interminable flat stretches to Kamloops. Just when I thought we would perhaps get a helping tailwind back to Kokanee Way the gods grinned unfavourably and offered little respite for the final 13 km.
I pulled in @ 2:52 p.m., thankful to say the least I was done in more ways than one! My time was 33:52 for the route in definitely tougher conditions than last year.

Apparently Randy came in an hour or more before me? This is what the truckstop attendant told me when I asked him. If Randy did indeed ride through the night I think he deserves a special award, because that would have been no picnic. I have to call him and hear his tale.

So in a nutshell the 400 was hot, hot hot and the 600 was wet, wet wet.

Cheers for now,

Peter

Ride Results

June 14, 2005