Hey yo all!
Time for a new update! Right now we are in Fernie, supposedly riding some single track... (see story further down for details). We still have a great trip in the blasting Canadian sun. It's hotter than hell!! Some hightlight stories will follow, again, in no particular order;
* Had a great day off in the Okanagan Valley. It was so good to just lay in the shade under a tree a read our books, eat cherries and just relax. Emma finished sowing the Swedish flag, so now we are once again flagging the blue and yellow off our BOB trailer. We get many coments and questions about it, and it even forces Scott to respond spontaneously to strangers who address him in Swedish :)
* A few days ago, wad a really epic day of 8 hours cycling time -- 14 hours total! Decided we would take a "short cut" over the mountains, instead of riding around them. So we arose at 5 am to try to beat some of the heat, but already it was pretty hot. Climbed over Gray's Creek pass, 1500 vertical meters over a distance of 22 km, with grades of up to 14% !! It was brutal! 40 degrees Celcious (110 F) and very little shade. The climbing time was 8 hours, with many rests along little creeks where we would plunge ourselves in the water to try to cool down, and 10 minutes later we would be all dry again! Many parts were so steep that we would have to get off our bikes and walk. But that's not much easier, pushing fully loaded bikes up loose gravel roads! Two thirds up we met a guy in his big truck, going downhill, who said "I would love to tell you that you are almost there, but you are not! Now comes the steepest part! It's too hot for this kind of stuff, you guys should turn back" That's not exactly what you wanna hear! But we made it! Scott says it's the hardest climb he has ever done, and he has done many hard climbes... Then we just had to bike another 95 km, both up and down hill! What made us keep going was the surprise that awaited at the goal...
* So the surprise was for Emma's 25th birthday the next day. A super super nice B&B in the ski resort town of Kimberly! And our first shower in two weeks! Boy did it feel good!! (well, we had washed in lakes and creeks along the way so we weren't totally stinking!) It was worth every painful pedal stroke at the end to get there. The next morning Emma woke up to a delicious pancake breakfast and a beautiful flower wreath that Scott had made (taking over the tradition from Emma's mom). We decided for a day off after our epic previous day. It was needed. The hosts were really nice so we got to borrow their porch and barbeque to make a great birthday dinner! (oh, and do some laundry :)
* To catch the days we were behind, we decided to cheat a little and took the Greyhound bus between Oliver and Christina Lake. We saved two days of riding. On the bus we met this really nice guy Jonathan, from Fernie, who invited us to come and camp in his back yard in Fernie and ride some single track on Fernie's famous trails! Right on! So five days later we showed up in Fernie. Jonathan and Melody are really nice and make us feel really welcome. They have a great backyard with lots of shade and with a view overlooking the Three Sisters (the famous mountain skyline of Fernie). Had a great barbeque last night, and another one is awaiting us tonight.
* Had a fabulous single track ride with them and their friends on the evening when we came in. It was getting a little cooler in the air, and the sun was setting behind the mountains turning the sky all pink. The trails were world class! Smooth and twisty and up and down, in and out between the trees. So awesome! The next day we set off on a full day of single track riding, just the two of us. Didn't get very far before Emma took a big digger in a super steep, loose gravel down hill. Flew over the handle bars with bike landing on top of her! Busted her knee and got quite a few big scratches. Luckily we could just roll down/limp off the hill (and saw a cool Moose on our way down), and when we got down to the road a nice girl stopped and took us to the hospital. Got an x-ray and luckily nothing was broken. Quite swollen and blue and red, but nothing serious. A few days off is good, said the doctor. It feels much better today, so hopefully we can ride north tomorrow.
* During a great section along the Kettle Valley Railway, we passed through a 1 km long tunnel that was pitch black and refreshingly cool. Again, the temps that day were over 35 C (100 F) so it felt great. Headlamps were mandatory.
* We camped one night at a lake that was rec'd by Jonathan - it was famous among locals because it had great cliffs to jump off into the turquoise (and deep) water. It was a great little place, but it did require a B.O.B. portage to get up the steep hiking trail. Once there, we met some other locals that were camping out and one had brought fireworks and the other had brought a twirling baton with fire on the end, so we got treated to a free "fire" show (yeah, given the fire danger, I'm guessing the Ranger wouldn't have approved it ...)
* We took our first ferry, crossing over Kootenay Lake - an extremely long and skinny lake that runs north-south in BC. The ferry was at 9.40 pm and we had a great sunset on the way over, enjoying the nice cool evening temps. That night we camped alongside the ferry terminal on a little hidden sandy beach that we found through the woods.
* Next up: Canadian Rockies. This is our most anticipated part of the trip. It includes the off-road Great Divide Route to Banff, then through Lake Louise, and the famous Icefield Parkway up to Jasper. We plan to stop for some hiking, swimming, and hopefully get our hands on some whitewater kayaks for some paddling. We will end this section in about 10 days in Prince George where we will catch the train out to the Coast at Prince Rupert (where we'll get the ferry to the Queen Charlotte Islands).
thanks for all the comments on the website, they are really fun to read ! Please keep them coming! Sorry we don't have time to respond to them all.
We're having trouble with pics, please enjoy the ones we did manage to get up under gallery "cycling bc 2"!
Take care and be safe, and we will try to do the same!
Emma and Scott
