Ride Summary

Distance: 68 mi / 109 km - longest day so far!
Climbing: 2073 feet / 632 m
Descending: similar
Difficulty: medium-low
Link to workout in Strava

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Albert rolled into Cranbrook last night and we had dinner together, caught up, and schemed about today. He's trying a lot harder than me to find hosts through the warmshowers.org website and had a lead on one just about 25 mi out of town, since there weren't many more along the route for the next few days. That would have been cool, but also would have left us with a really long day tomorrow to get to Radium Hot Springs...but on the third hand, it would have made the decision for us. However, since he hadn't heard back by the time we left Tim Horton's this morning, we decided to follow my original plan, which was a kinda long day to Fairmont Hot Springs instead. Speaking of, I finally tried Tim's for the first time since Texas4000; it was great and cheap especially compared to Starbucks! I would grow to adore their less-than-2-Canadian-dollar apple fritters over the course of the trip.

With 60-odd miles to roll, we did not get the early start that might have suited us best, but we still set out in good spirits, full of donuts and caffeine. I had mapped a route out of town that took a trail (turned out to look more like a dirt road, good for riding) for a mile or so. Then the route crossed the highway, and took what looked on the map like a similar trail for a couple more miles before dropping us back onto the highway for most of the rest of the day. However, that second similar-looking-on-the-computer-screen trail turned out to be intended for mountain biking: singletrack - really narrow singletrack, with lots of short punchy climbs! Fortunately not super technical, though there were a couple spots we got off to walk over some rocks. So, we gamely rode it for those couple miles until we found an escape (still not sure it was the one I had intended, but it worked!) back to the freeway at a trailhead. We all know I am fine with the underbiking, but it's a fair challenge loaded, especially pushing my >100 pound bike up up too-steep-to-ride dirt and pebbles...and Albert who likes mountain biking was still not at all ready for this, but was already laughing about it by the time we exited back to the road.

Then, we biked about 25 miles on the highway shoulder in good time, had a snack (of food we had with us) at a "closed for the season" cafe - which still had tables out front, for us to sit at. Then we biked about 30 more miles into the first real population we'd seen all day - the town of Canal Flats, population <1000 - and he spent an hour charging his battery while we snacked. We knew we had about 12 more miles, and so we finally rolled out just before 4, trying to make it to our destination before 5pm in case the RV park we wanted to camp at was closing early - which fortunately it did not (though we arrived around 4:50 so we were safe anyway...)

while it was not wednesday, it was my birthday, and the cashier was thrilled to give me 20% off of my CAD$8 snack

We got checked in without hassle, got camp setup, and Albert started us a roaring fire which kept us warm as the wind and rain came in. Finally it was raining too much to stand outside anymore so we retreated to tent to listen to it pour and thunder a bit.

warm and happy!

not a bad view...

I had initially intended to take a rest day here but there really isn't much here aside from the hot springs. So I had instead taken the extra day in Cranbrook and so today's ride was on very well rested legs and it went swimmingly despite being kinda a lot. The ride after next will be REALLY A LOT with tons of climbing, so am hoping my well-restedness carries on through what should be a pretty quick and short ride tomorrow. Then, some hot spring soaking, and sleeping in a hostel are our plans.

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