Day 17 - Where did summer go ???

The South Saskatchewan River

So last night tents were flying around the campground, the wind was blustery and incessant and it rained all night . Morning came and nothing had changed, talk around camp was of perhaps hiring a school bus to take riders and bikes on to the next campground . 

Myself and a few other of the thought that we were here to ride every inch of this trip no matter what set out early, and even though it was only 9 degrees and the rain would not quit, the wind was blowing in the right direction “ east “ so we were flying down the highway in the mid to high 30s and at times even maintaining 40+ for long stretches. I was cycling on my own today so I decided ( and a lot of the others also ) to just keep going to Rosetown 83 km down the road without stopping , with the tail wind I was there just after 10 and headed to the A&W for breakfast , slowly the place filled up with riders . From there we had to go south a bit and that was a treacherous 5 km ride in gusting crosswinds , it was so bad that the rain stung as it hit , and it was hard to keep the bike straight, I was only averaging 17 km/h , finally the sign for Outlook appeared and then it was east again but by then the winds had started to change direction and it wasn't as good a tail wind but all the same good progress was made . 

When I finally got into camp the skies let go again , luckily Erin had made chicken noodle soup so the few of us that were there huddled under the awning savored the hot soup until the rain stopped then hurriedly put up our tents and hung our cloths to dry before the next cloud dumped on us. Soon after the rain and wind returned and again some tents went flying , it got cool, no it got cold ! as we waited for dinner which was a fantastic Chicken Catalina ! 

The one big concern during dinner was that three of us were missing, no one had seen them after Rosetown, one Jay had called the emergency number saying he had left the other two but that did not give us any idea where they were. Finally just as we were finishing dinner Serge and Pierre-Alain rode in to cheers and applause, about a half hour later a car pulled up and delivered Jay to more cheers, he had ridden into a farm and asked for help and they were very kind and drove him to us , we now finally all relaxed knowing we were all safe and home. 

Because of the rain a lot of riders have opted to stay at the hotel in town , me, I’m staying in camp so now once again I am sitting in my tent typing away to the sound of rain falling on my tent as it fluters wildly all over the place , ironically last night with all that fluttering I had one of my best nights sleep so far. 

Total ridden today: 157.8 - average speed: 29.7 - ridding time :5.18

We are camped by the side of the South Saskatchewan River , on a good day we would be able to swim in it , today we can just look at it .

This is the longest pedestrian bridge in Canada, it's an old railway bridge that has been converted, it is called " the Sky Trail" and it's 3,000 feet tall. I could see it from the campground but because of the rain was not able to get to it.