We left in
the morning to find that the road from cabin had turned into really, really bad
mud. We should have pushed through to
Elkford the night before.
This day
was slow going. It rained most of the
day. We did see a moose on the road and
overall tried to keep our spirits up. Our
stops were too long but we were working on it.
Elkford – We
got a break in the rain and in town made a quick stop at an intersection convenience
store for food to go. Fording Road leaving Elkford had 2.5 miles of steep, paved
climbing. While we stopped for a break
at a pullout, Cabelas man came by. He
said he was having knee trouble. We did
not see him again but heard he did not finish this year’s race.
Sparwood – Still
pissing rain. We stopped for coffee and
fries at a fast food place just to warm up and re-group then pushed on looking
for soup. At the sandwich shop recommended,
we arrived to find our friend the German had eaten the last of the soup. Oh, yeah.
We loved him. We ended up at some
hotel café where in addition to soup, we got some precious computer time in the
lobby.
Coal miners
frequented the hotel café to eat and wait for their shift van. It was interesting to eavesdrop on their
conversations about their daily life and aspirations – like trying to get on at
a different mine. And they all smoked.
 |
| Coal mine |
Fed and dry
and with the rain momentarily stopped we left Sparwood and the GDMBR (Great Divide Mountain Bike Route
We continued
south through Hosmer to Fernie where we totally splurged for a room at a lovely
Best Western. Things we would learn to
value; it was next to grocery store and a restaurant. We did a ton of bike cleaning and felt very
bad about leaving so much mud in such a nice room, though we did our best to
clean up after ourselves. Then began the
ritual eat, shop, pack, sleep.
Note: This
was the first time to find hard boiled eggs in a grocery store. A valuable find we would always look for after
that.
Alarm set
for 5:30 am .
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