Dave Hamel's Website

I had a slow start to the day, it was beginning to rain when I got up and so packing up the tent in the rain is no fun. I ate breakfast at a road side diner. French Toast is my breakfast of choice. Plenty of carbs, with just a …

Another blistering day of heat and speed. The praries, despite being a bit dull are fun to ride through with a tail wind. You can really cruise. I was able to blast through 165km in 6 and a half hours! Medicine Hat is a funny town. The information was all …

After 5 days in Calgary staying at Bonnie and Ians it was time to get on the move again. Theywere very gracious hosts to let me disrupt their lives for as long as I did. I got to meet some of their friends and their cats (Bonnie and Ian’s, not …

With my wheel in tatters I headed down to Wilson’s Bike shop to see what they could do, or even if I could limp to Banff about 60km away. Rob, the nice guy from the day before went home and pulled a 9 speed wheel off his own bike and …

What wass supposed to be a short day, from Golden to Lake Louise turns out to be a really long one. I slept in late and ate a good breakfast because I needed my stength for the climb (1600+m) The rode out of Golden is tough going with a steep …

So after the fiasco with the bear I cycled to Golden. The first sight of my nemesis…the mountains Now this was over Rogers Pass which believe it or not really isn’t that bad. Perhaps it was the fact that I was lighter because I no longer had a tent weighing …

So the previous day it turned out I failed to put my roll on sunscreen on the back of my arms leaving these clearly defined burns down the back of them. I got up early and Pushed hard again. Rather than remain in Revelstoke (my original destination) I pushed on …

I had a good time at Dad and Betty’s. It was wonderful to see them both but the time had come for me to be moving on. Dad drove me to the far edge of town, I guess he was nervous about the traffic in Kelowna being too much for …

After being woken up by Zuimei’s call (which i didn’t mind at all) I slept for a little while longer justifying it as a reward for the previous days hard work. I was on the road by 7 though not needing to pack up my gear I was able to …

Let me tell you how incredibly crushing those mountains are. They are incredibly crushing. The Hope-Princeton starts with a muscle aching 12km climb up to the Hope Slide. There is no respite from it either. I found that I simply couldn’t keep rding so I would alternate between riding and …