Day 5.  We get up, pack and head out by car to Merrit.  Lovely drive with a lunch stop in Ashcroft.  Meet the others at the hotel and get settled in.  Subway for supper. Yummmm.

Day 6.  The Douglas Lake Grasslands ride.  A beautiful ride on a mostly flat, smooth and empty for the most part, road.  This is 5a, the old road from Merritt to Kamloops.  We had a nice tail wind heading out and the weather although forecast to be wet was perfect. 

The ride was supposed to go down 5a for 25 kms. and then turn up the Douglas Lake road which climbed up into ranch country.  Max and I went ahead as we often do and missed the turn so we ended up going to the east end of Stump lake for lunch all the way on 5a.

Rolling grasslands and lakes for beautiful scenery.

Once we turned around for the trip home we discovered why it had been such easy sailing outbound.  The headwind was strong and relentless and we were struggling.  Luckily we met up with two other riders and the four of us took turns pulling the line to get home. Hard work. 

Crazy Gary went all the way to Kamloops 90 k. one way without a clear idea how to get back.  Maybe bus?  Maybe hitch hike?  Maybe ride the whole thing.  Yikes!

It turned out Gary parked his bike behind a weigh scale and took the front wheel off to get sympathy for hitch hiking.  He didn’t even get his thumb out before a fellow cyclist stopped and gave him a ride back to Merritt.  Then he drove the 180 km round trip back to Kamloops to get his bike.  But he had a beautiful ride with a big tailwind all the way.

Max and I did 108 km with 650 total elevation gain.