Day 3. Mostly flat?!!

According to Google maps anyway…

8/21/24. Creston BC to Crawford Bay BC

Stats: 48 mi. AIS: 4:29. 10.6mph. 2529 elevation

The rain started at 5am. We thought it was suppose to quit by 6am but it got heavier at 6am. So we settled in nice and warm and comfy in our sleeping bags. At 7am there was still no sign of letup… what to do? At about 8am it was letting up for 20 minutes so we started to pack up our panniers. We had just finished this when it started raining hard again. I evacuated to the tent that was still set up and I guess Jim headed up to the bathrooms. After sitting through thunder and lightning for awhile I headed out to find Jim. We took refuge in the laundry room. It was dry, comfortable AND had a table! Yeah! We can have breakfast in the laundry room and wait out the rain. So we went back to our tent area packed up our bicycles and brought them up to the laundry room. We made coffee and banana bread breakfast.

We made the decision to rain suit up and get started. Temp was 58*…Morning was flying by. Rain jackets, leg warmers and gloves. Then we returned to pack up the tent. Years ago we started packing a heavy duty garbage bag in our tent for wet tent occasions just like this. The whole works goes in the bag until we can dry it out.

We set off at 10:30am… 2.5 hours later than usual. Looking at 47 miles to Crawford Bay. No sooner than we started and the rain quit and blue sky sunshine started. The road was pretty wet and town traffic was busy to begin. No sooner than leaving town we stated climbing “moderate” hills. After hill #1 it was time to strip off all the raingear. Just a wind shell was warm enough.

We had moderate hills for several kilometers. One particularly fast descent had Jim’s bike doing the “death wobbles”. He stopped at a safe spot and tried to figure out the issue. His decision was the hasty pannier packing and the right/left weight was lopsided. At first it didn’t solve the issue but after a few more hills he decided it was the wet tent that was top heavy on the rear pannier! After that rearrangement it was smooth sailing!

Our highway had a great smooth surface but very small shoulder if any in some places. We were riding high above the Kootenay Lake almost all day. The highway was literally cut into the mountains with big trees and granite walls on our right shoulder. To the left and several hundred feet down was the lake. Google changed from moderate hills after the first 10 miles to “mostly flat”. This is where I questioned the terminology. It was a description in the bicycle mode but I don’t consider it flat when I have to use my granny ring (I have a triple chain ring) to climb almost every hill! The traffic wasn’t terribly busy and every single vehicle that had to pass us gave us plenty of room or slowed down until they could pass. There wasn’t much truck traffic so that helped alot too! We are still amazed at how courteous ALL the drivers were!

We stopped for snacks a couple of times but found a general store with a nice picnic table and deck for lunch at about 2:30 pm. It was warm and sunny (not hot) and a good place to dry the tent out.

Had our usual tortilla with hummus, avocado, tomato and cucumber sandwich. Supplemented with Doritos (yum!) and a Pepsi for a caffeine jolt for the remaining 19 miles. (Figure 2 hours or so)

We rolled into our RV tent site just a little after 5 pm. This camp is in the woods so it’s full of cedar and pine trees. Our clothes we washed out will not dry tonight. We walked down the road and found a good place to eat. Ate and walked back just before it got dark!

Felt pretty good today after such a late start. Weather was very comfortable for riding. It sure is a beautiful ride so far. Tomorrow we catch a free ferry to the other side of Kootenay Lake. There’s a really nice hot springs not far up the road from the ferry crossing. We’ve been there once in the winter. Looking forward to a summer visit. Ainsworth Hot Springs. Shorter ride to Kaslo tomorrow.

Things I thought about today…

Thing 1 and Thing 2: I have often thought we should have jerseys or signs on the back of our bike that say “Thing 1 and Thing 2”. Particularly on roads like today with so many curves and blind spots. It seems to me if I saw a bicyclist with such a label (either 1 or 2) that I would naturally know there’s another bicyclist ahead. What do you think? Of course I’m assuming that every driver read Dr Seuss as a child)

Gap Riding: I have mentioned this on past rides but it’s something we consciously do now on winding curvy narrow roads. We stay in sight of one another but don’t ride close behind each other. For a few reasons… safety. It’s easier for cars to leapfrog around one bike at a time when they pass us. It’s also helps to see cars coming from behind. If the other bike is close you mostly see them. And for the back cyclist you can see objects and obstacles to avoid. Which leads to Thing 1/2 again😊

Kootenai…Kootenay. So many ways to spell the same river. I have tried to pay attention to the local spelling. In the USA the river is spelled with an “i” at the end but when the river crossed the border to Canada it’s an “ay”. Assuming it goes with the local indigenous spelling. Where we’re from there’s Absaroka, Absorkee, Apsalooka and maybe more.