Botha to Range Road 232, Alberta

It was raining on Saturday morning when I woke up, so I put off leaving for a little bit, then, once it had let up, cycled east from Stettler to Botha.  As it was yesterday, my time heading east was much better than coming back west.

But, I managed to average almost 26 kmph, so it was not too bad.

I rested for a bit in my hotel room and ate an early lunch before getting back on the bike and leaving Stettler to the west.  I had picked a destination--Range Road 232, about 35 km west of Stettler--which would give me exactly a metric century of riding for the day.

Once I reached it, I was not in an especially great mood, because it had been raining and the wind continued to make the going tough.

On the way back I was having more fun, although it started to really rain for about 15 minutes or so.  When the rain stopped and the sun started coming out, I was able to get some really good speed going, often in the high 30s kmph.

I was back in Stettler before 15:00.

After an ice bath, hot shower, warm food, and short nap, I jumped in the car and headed south to Drumheller.

There, in the middle of the badlands, I watched a performance of the famous opera Carmen.

Pretty cool!

Castor to Botha, Alberta

Today I resumed my cross-Alberta cycling that I began last summer.

As a reminder, I am working on connecting the Alberta/Saskatchewan border at Macklin, Saskatchewan with Saskatchewan River Crossing in Jasper National Park.  Last year, over a handful of trips, I pieced together Red Deer to Saskatchewan River Crossing and the border to Castor, Alberta, which means all I have left for this year is Castor to Red Deer (140 kilometres).

This morning I drove from Edmonton to a village called Halkirk, which is roughly halfway between Castor and another small village called Botha.  In other words, it made a good midway point to park the car, since I would be doing this route self-supported (i.e., without my dad dropping me off and picking me up!).

I began by cycling eastward to Castor around 11:30, and I did the 22 kilometres in 40 minutes, which I was pretty pleased with.  I ate lunch at the Shangri-La, where I had eaten dinner after finishing up in Castor last year.

As last year, I found one of the most striking things about the Castor area was the wind turbines (you have to look closely in this picture to appreciate how many there are!).

It was almost 13:00 when I started back westward, and in just seconds I realized why:

     a) this is such a good spot for those wind farms; and 

     b) why I had made such good time coming east!  

The wind was bad news.  It took me 65 minutes to get back to the car, and probably twice the effort, too.  I did not bother stopping and kept on towards Botha, another 24 or so kilometres west down Highway 12.

I left the beautifully named Painted Earth County and entered Stettler.

Besides the wind, the sky was also darkening now, so I was worried about a storm.  Anyway, did not much matter, because I was basically working as hard as I could and still moving really slow.

When I finally reached Botha, I had been riding for 130 minutes west since Castor--and the total time it took me to ride the same route east was only 90 minutes!  Needless to say, riding one direction was much more enjoyable than the other!

Botha is a tiny place, but has an interesting story, and some neat old buildings.  The story is about perhaps the first manned flight in Canada (1908!)--some farmers in the area had a "flying machine" that is memorialized on this highway sign and a mural on the arena.  Who would have thought!

From Botha I made quick time back to Halkirk and the car.  

Tonight I am staying Stettler, just a little ways further west from Botha.