September Flood Route
Permanent Brevet #216
Ride date: September 3, 2022
by Karen Smith

Permanent #216
Sept 3, 2022
200.6 km
10 hrs 33 min

I rode today. I rode solo.
It was a nice day, a really pretty morning, not too hot, although it started feeling really hot after 4 pm.
It was 15 degrees at the start and peaked at 27 degrees.
It was quite windy!!

Traffic was really light today. But I still can't believe how fast some people drive on 50 & 60 km/hr roads! It was more like 80-100 km/hr!
And on McGuire Rd, which is pretty narrow, I had an oncoming car pass another car while approaching me.
The passing car gave the car he was passing more room than he gave me, and came very, very close to me. I couldn't believe it!

It's interesting when you do the same ride over and over, and yet it can look quite different.
The corn is really high now and on some roads it felt like I was in a tunnel.
There is so much new pavement, it's wonderful! On some roads, the new pavement goes all the way to the edge of the road. YAY!
On others however, the new pavement stops short and they put in a soft shoulder.
I don't know why they do it that way...
Some of the pavement is so new, it hasn't been painted yet.
I came upon a number of burned out homes in Chilliwack, that I had remembered seeing on the news recently. It's quite devastating to see them in person.
It was either on McGuire or Prairie Central Rd, where I saw a group of birds, doves maybe, flying in circles and changing directions quickly. Some birds were white and some were grey.
There must have been 40-50 of them. And they just kept changing direction and flying in circles. It looked incredible, as the grey and especially white birds, flashed in the sun. Amazing!
It wasn't like a murmuration (which is supposedly starlings only). It was a definite circle. Were they playing in the thermals?... but I usually think that birds play slowly in thermals...

I had a couple of detours today. The first one was on Camp River Road. A local said the road was washed out. But I think this was left over erosion from the November floods. They have been slowly repairing sections.
I was able to ride through, but cars couldn't get through, which meant that I had less traffic. : )
My second detour was on the bike route through a school property where they are working on the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. That detour has been in place since June.
There are many locations where the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion will occur throughout Chilliwack.
There are stakes, ribbons and paint marking the spots: people's front yards, farm fields, school yards, roadways, and apparently through the Vedder River.
I was wondering what the compensation packages looked like...

Michel had food ready for me when I came back home for 2 controls.
A nice variety of rice & carrot casserole, Kefir, potato mayo salad, cinnamon bun and gatorade for my first stop.
Then tomato, basil, feta, potato salad with balsamic/maple dressing, watermelon and more gatorade for my second stop. Merci Michel! : )

As I said, it was windy, and the wind seemed to get stronger late in the afternoon. It was a bit of a tough finish with the wind, but I was happy to finish in 10:33.
I hadn't done that in a while! I've been doing more like 11 hrs or more lately.
Maybe it was because I just did my last 200 eight days ago. Usually I go 3-4 weeks (or more) between my Permanents. I lose all my fitness before the next one...
And I felt good at the end too, which is a bonus.

:)
Karen