Hot Permanent #18
Ride date: July 27
by Karen Smith

Gary and I rode our Permanent on Friday, July 27.

Route #18, with a Chilliwack start.
203 km
10 hrs 33

It was hot!
We started at 0502 to beat the heat, and Gary had a prior commitment for 1630 hrs.
I’m sure glad we started as early as we did, because it was quite a beautiful morning and we were finished before it got really hot.

It didn’t start feeling hot until after Yellow Barn (141 km). And you know how when you’re moving on the bike, you don’t feel the heat. It’s only when you stop that you feel it.
It seemed windy all day from all sorts of directions. Mostly a head/cross wind out to Ft Langley.
Just as we would turn a bend and think that we would now have the wind in our favour, we were wrong, on so many occasions.
We did have some tailwinds on Townshipline and South Parallel.
But when we turned at Popkum to go back towards our finish in Chilliwack, we had headwinds again and much stronger than before!
That’s when I really faded, in the last 20 km, which isn’t like me. Don’t know what was going on, but I’ll blame it on the heat…

No flats, no mechanicals.
It was interesting that neither Gary or I had anything to drink until Ft Langley, ~ 90 km into the ride.
Also of note was the significant difference in the traffic patterns at 2-3 hrs earlier than we usually ride.
Traffic on Huntington was very busy, usually there is not much there, but we seemed to have hit rush hour traffic.

I have to be doing my rides near the end of the month lately which makes it more stressful trying to fit them in when your days are dwindling.
I hope to change that in August, but I already know that I can’t ride in the first 2 weeks.
So I’m aiming for the 3rd week… not the fourth…

: )
Karen

August 3, 2018