After riding up a pair of passes the previous day, the forth day of our tour was supposed to be a piece of cake. Sure, it still involved 100km+ of cycling but it was a supposed to be a flat road with hardly any elevation gain.

The previous evening, we even joked about being able to do this in the evening after feeling refreshed from the hot springs.

Little did we know that day four would have us cursing all throughout the day.

After waking up at 8am, we helped ourselves to some fruit, granola bars and beef jerky before heading on out.

Here's a picture of the main intersection in Radium Hot Springs. We'd be making a right turn from Hwy 93 to 95. As you can see from the vehicles on the road, it's rush hour !

Unlike the previous 2 days where we rode through Banff and Kootenay, this day would be spent outside of the National park boundaries. We'd be riding on the BC Provincial route Hwy 95.

As you can see from the picture, the shoulder isn't exactly wide. The shoulder was in fairly good shape for the first 10km but shortly after, it became pretty damn pathetic. The shoulder would eventually become irregular and offcamber with a splatter of loose gravel thrown ontop for good measure. This was really tough since it drastically reduced the glide we'd get from each pedal stroke. It also forced us to concentrate on our position on the shoulder instead of looking up at the scenery.

Ok... so you're probably saying, why didn't you just go onto the road ? Well, the next picture should answer that.

Yes ! This stretch of road was very popular with logging trucks, transport trucks, RV trucks and other trucks !

At least we were wearing our helmets.

Here's a building in the town of Spillimacheen which probably had a population of around 100. The town consisted of a general store (which was closed and boarded up), post office and a gift shop shown above.

I had a sudden craving for Pepsi and had high hopes for this town but I was out of luck.

The owner of the gift shop indicated to us that the nearest general store was 30km away in the town of Parson. However, he graciously allowed us to fill our water bottles with what he claimed was the best water in town.

Throughout the day, we encountered a total of 2 rest areas and 2 general stores, one in Edgewater and one in Parson. I was surprised at the lack of facilities but then again, this stretch of road would only require an hours drive by car.

After what seemed like an eternity, we finally reached Parson and pulled into the general store for lunch. Dave had a sandwich and I had a potato salad and Pepsi. They did have 3 pcs of fried chicken for $10 but I decided to pass. I found the salad to be awesome but maybe it was because I was so tired and hungry.

My altimeter showed us to be hovering at a constant 900m but it was obviously lying because we must have encountered at least 30 small hills this day. It'd maybe gain 15m and then drop 15m and then gain 20m and then drop 20m and so on.

To make things worse, we encountered the strongest headwind we'd ever experienced. It was so strong that it forced us to ride one or two cog rings higher than we'd normally do... or face riding backwards !

I told Dave that I'd gladly take rain over this wind and I really meant it.

Here's some more typical scenery.

And some more typical scenery.

The temperature must have hit around 25C this day. I ended up drinking around 4L of water + a bottle of Pepsi. I was really glad I brought my water filter since I ended up using it twice this day.

During the first use, I almost lost my Spy sunglasses as it fell off out of my pocket and went down into a wide culvert. Luckily for me, it was stuck on a large rock and I was able to retreive it without incident.

And some more typical scenery. The Columbia River can be seen in the distance.

After arriving in Golden at around 5pm, we let out a huge sigh of relief and rode through town to the Kicking Horse Lodge which is one of many youth hostels in town but most likely the best. Not only was it close to the Hwy 1 interchange but it was brand new and spotless.

Dave and I grabbed some dinner at a nearby pub and were amazed at how hungry we were. I polished off a steak sandwich and fries in maybe 5 minutes while Dave had a huge burger only to grab a pogo stick at a nearby 7-11 afterwards.