Saturday, September 10, 2011

day 1 - Fort St John to Dawson Creek - 76 kms - Liesl's version!

What a beautiful day we had - plus 20 weather and sunshine - couldn't have asked for anything better (excerpt maybe a little less wind!) We headed out of Fort St John just after 11 am after listening to some presentations and speeches by local sponsors and a child survivor - a brave young teenager who just had a partial leg amputation earlier this year. What an inspiration she is and with such a positive outlook on life.

The wind was at our back as we headed for Taylor and the group surprisingly came together pretty quickly in two straight lines - weren't getting too close to each other's tires yet but we looked pretty good in our jerseys! We had to cross the Taylor bridge on the cement sidewalk as the bridge has a metal clad surface - just for the record - I don't know about anyone else but I was not a happy camper doing this - my knees were knocking together like crazy by the time we reached the other side and I was slightly nauseous! Thank goodness that was done - the South Taylor Hill seemed like a breeze after that!

South Taylor Hill is one of the biggest hills on Tour this year and is almost 6 km long with a steady climb and a 500m stretch of 10% grade. We all made it up and as Jenn put it - I think we did pretty good - we weren't even gasping for air and didn't sound like Darth Vader when we got to the top! Mission accomplished!

The sun was still shining as we stopped at the Farmington Fairways golf course and sat on the grass and ate a delicious lunch! The afternoon brought strong cross winds across the fields which sometimes blew some of the smaller framed bikers a foot or two off course! We had some challenges keeping the group together but am sure that will work out over the next few days. We had one minor crash today - just a scrap on the knee so nothing major! Lots of traffic but lots of friendly honking as we rolled along which always brings a smile to our faces.

We rolled into Dawson Creek about 4:30 pm and were welcomed at the Lake View Credit Union by some of our local sponsors and people from the community. We once again heard some moving speeches from cancer survivors and what Camp Goodtimes has meant to another teenager who was diagnosed with cancer 5 year ago.

For those that didn't head to bed before 10 - incredibly show of green dancing northern lights - what a treat to be able to see those again!

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