Day 3 | Hope to Merritt | 113 km

After what happened yesterday, I leave camp 30 minutes earlier at 5:45. Right now it’s a comfortable temperature so I’d like to see how many kilometres I can do before it gets unbearably hot.

We begin climbing Coquihalla Pass almost immediately. After 14 km of gradual ascent, I hear a clicking sound and I’m not sure where it’s coming from. I get off to investigate and I see a big staple that’s been hitting the fender with every rotation.

I replace the tube and get back on the road, and a few kilometres later it starts getting a fair bit steeper.

After 23 km I feel a gnawing hunger so I have a granola bar while I study the map.

As the temperature climbs, so do I. I have to take frequent breaks, but I also need to make sure I don’t finish my water, much as I’d like to, because I won’t be able to get more until after the summit. From the snowshed on is particularly steep.

After a whopping 39 km of climbing I reach the summit. At that point it starts to flatten out a bit.

There’s finally a rest stop at 48 km where I can get water. Most of the tap water around here isn’t drinkable so I buy two bottles from a guy in a food truck. I remove the lid from one of my bike bottles and rest it on the saddle while I pour the water into it. The lid then falls off the bike, hits the ground and bounces underneath the truck. You can see it to the left of the front wheel.

I finish filling my bottles and decide I really don’t want to crawl under there. I look around for something I could reach it with, and the perfect branch for such a task is over by the picnic table.

After 80 km I finally get to leave Highway 5 north and follow the Coldwater Road the rest of the way to Merritt. The irony isn’t lost on me.

At the end of the exit is a Texas gate for keeping animals off the highway. It’s dangerous to bike over them so every time I see one I get off and walk. This is something we were warned about at the orientation session.

By this time I’ve run out of water again and I still have 30 km to go to get to Merritt. It doesn’t look like there’s much on this road.

I don’t even want to entertain the thought of going that far in this heat without water. Miraculously, within the next few minutes I see an RV pulled over on the other side of the road and there’s a guy outside it. I approach him and ask if there’s anywhere to get water on this road, hoping that if he says no he’ll offer me some. He does! Then his wife comes out and offers me an apple and an orange for my bike bag. I happily accept both. I thank them and continue on my way as the temperature soars.

By the 95 km mark, with 18 km to go, what little water I have left is hot. It’s still better than nothing so I’m rationing it as best I can. I see a familiar shape walk across the road not far ahead and I think to myself, “Aww what a cute dog. What’s it doing out here?”

When it starts to howl I realize it’s not a dog – it’s a coyote. It could very well be alerting the rest of the pack that it’s found lunch. I pick up the pace with whatever I’ve got left and get down the road as fast as I can.

As I approach Merritt, the terrain is looking more and more like a desert. I reach the campground shortly after 12:30.

It is 43 degrees as I type this. I’m glad tomorrow is a rest day. I’ll be spending it in the shade with lots and lots of iced tea.