Day 3: 90.13 km

May 9,2012

Harrison Hotsprings (almost)- Mid Coquihalla Pass

 The third day was exhausting. I am posting now because we didnt have service last night. We started the day leaving Koffee Kettle motel at around 9 with a little climb. Then we got to bomb down an 11% grade hill into a valley. We took a little 6km detour and went to Harrison hot springs where we had breakfast. We wanted to go to the hotsprings so bad, but when we went to the resort we found out their hot springs were only for guests of the hotel and the rest of the hot spring water went to the public pool. We didn't end up going, it wasn't really worth the time just to go to a public pool. But Harrison Hotsprings (the town) is beautiful with a stunning lake! 

After leaving Harrison hotsprings we stopped at a hazelnut farm and bout hazelnuts. Super delicious! We could hear the roosters. As we got closer to Hope, I started losing Hope. The mountains were so ominous. I've never felt so small before. I was not looking forward to the pass. Finally, struggling a little with the wind we made it to Hope. Matt made it there a bit before us. On the way into Hope dad and I saw this big black thing coming out of the woods. Great a bear! And I couldn't remember where I had put my bear spray! As we got closer, I realized it was an amazingly handsome big black dog! It Dan with us for a bit then darted across the highway (terrifying) and left. I was so sad! I wanted to keep him. Then we went for lunch at subway. Thank you Deda! Your lovely gift bought my lunch! <3

I was so cold in subway! I have no idea why, I think it was because we were talking about the coquihalla summit being 2 degrees at 1pm! We debated on which route we would rather take, and decided to push on until 7 as far up as we could on the coquihalla pass. We struggled up that hill. Correction. I struggled up that hill. We were so luky to have the wind at our backs! I tried racing an empty mcdonalds fries container. It was winning for a long time. We made it 20ish km up and pulled off at Portia u-turn for a camp spot. It was a really good camp spot. Out of the wind, you could hear the traffic a bit (we were really close to the over pass) but there was a loud creek to kind of dround it out. We pitched our tents, made dinner and went to bed as it started snowing!!!! Loved it!