Today’s ride from Fort St. John to Whitecourt can be characterized by one word – rain.
After leaving southern British Columbia, rain has been my constant companion. I can only remember 2 days where it didn’t rain. Fortunately, those were the two days it took to go from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Prudhoe Bay. Those were two great days!
I left Fort St. John and it was just cloudy. It didn’t take long before the rain came. With the exception of two short periods, it rained all day. To put it bluntly, it was miserable.
I had planned on tenting in Whitecourt to save some money. I suppose I still could have, but setting up in the rain and having it rain all night after a day of riding in the rain was not something I wanted to do. This time comfort won out over saving money.
I looked around Whitecourt and picked the Ritz. No, not that chain of Ritzs. This was the Ritz Motor Inn. It looked like it would be the cheapest of the bunch of hotels I saw. Again cheap is relative. It cost $91 for the night. The bonus part was that this included a full breakfast. The room was actually quite nice.
I set out unloading all my stuff. Both my panniers leak water 🙁 I need to pack things in waterproof dry bags so they don’t get wet at the bottom. After I unpacked I soaked up the water in the panniers. There was about a cup in one and a half cup in the other. I am not sure what the problem is exactly. I inspected the one pannier and there is a bend in it that may collect water. And the silicone lining is wearing and broken in parts. When I stop for an extended period of time I will see if I can fix it. The other potential reason is that I am packing the panniers to full thereby leaving a small gap at the lid that the water leaks through. I need to see if there are other things to get rid of.
Anyways …. after a day of rain I deserved some warm comfort food. That meant lasagna in the Ritz lounge. Felt good. And it felt good to crawl into a warm bed.
Route for July 31, 2016
