Day 52 Milk River to Dusty and Velda’s

Can you believe it? Another beautiful day. We started off with a strong tail wind which propelled us along the asphalt so that we made the beginning of the gravel road in a little over 2 hours for 53km. Unfortunately, our high speed caused us to have a little tumble and we fetched up only 50m onto the dirt. What was not apparent was that the road had been newly graded and covered in practically spherical river stones the size of marbles. These has been ridged by the traffic which made a perfect tandem trap and we had a front wheel wash out which thumped us down pretty hard, but, we must have slowed a lot as we slid along very little, limiting skin damage to only a few square centimeters between us. It did very effectively knock all the wind out of us too, but not for very long, as my excellent memory for dialogue brought back the first 40 or so words from the opening of Four Weddings and a Funeral. Unfortunately there was absolutely no one around to appreciate my soliloquy, which was probably just as well. After a little while and some pain digging out the gravel, we straightened the handlebars and continued on our way, (Did I mention the double tot of medicinal rum to ward off shock?)

This time at a very much slower pace, we progressed for the next 30km or so, before a passing car stopped and asked if we needed any help. We told them the story and the lady of the car bandaged up my elbow which had been leaking somewhat. We never got Florence’s real name but may she have a blessed life. Just as she was finishing her ministrations, Joey and Joe, father and son ranchers, arrived on a 4 wheeler and asked if they could be of assistance. To cut a long story short, they showed us a potable well, and arranged to have us camp at one of their friends 15km up the road. Thus aided we got on our way with a lot more confidence.

The road continued to be very tricky to negotiate, imagine trying to ride over a pile of ball bearings, so the going was both tense, and slow, and we were barely able to keep up 12kph with any sense of security.

Fortunately for us the temperature was only about 27’C so while we were very tired when we made Dusty and Veldas by early afternoon, we were not in danger of heat exhaustion.

After a chat with Velda, we spent the rest of the day sitting on the porch of an old abandoned house, in the shade, drinking tea and cold well water. When Dusty came home, we were invited in to have supper cooked for us by Velda who provided us with beef sausage, potatoes a green salad. She had done a good job and nothing could have tasted better. Later, Dusty’s Dad came round and supplied ice cold beer and bottles of water. Nectar indeed. We spent the evening talking of Ranching inthe area, and that next week there will be a big celebration of all the families who have been in the area for a 100 year. Dusty is also a train buff and has a lot of books and material on the railway system in Alberta which at one time was very extensive.

Replete with good food and conversation we retired and slept like logs till morning. We were only wakened once by a choir of coyotes singing to us from close by. We send very heart-felt thanks to Joe and Joey and Velda, Dusty and Ray.

Average 16kph,

Todays climb 300m

Total Height TBD

Todays Distance 104km,

Total Distance 3614 km