June 11: Just Short of Mayerthorpe to Drayton Valley

Day 6

Distance: 101 km
Riding Time: 3 hours 57
Average Speed: 25.6 km/h
Total Time: 4 hours 45
Total Distance: 781 km
Weather/Wind: Another south headwind today, though less of a factor than yesterday, mostly sunny with a few clouds, high of 19.
Terrain: Getting into shorter steeper hills.



Good day today all round. We had a new rider with us, as Michael Harms decided to throw down a cool 100 km on his first day on a new bike. He did pretty well too, though he looked a little bushed by the end. Rod performed admirably yet again, although he admits boredom and sleepdom a little more quickly with no company in the car. I'm surprised he's not asleep within about 5 minutes, particularly since our average speed is dropping as we progress into steeper, hillier terrain. Great hotel today, free accommodation and they wrote us encouraging letters, which I think is above and beyond. We are done our longer days, although we may press a little tomorrow to get to Caroline instead of our planned stop in Rocky Mountain House. We'll see. Tomorrow and the next day once again, we bend our flagging wills against the wind.