Canada - Day 12 - Cranbrook to near Gray Creek Pass

 50.3 miles, 3920’ climbing, deer and 2 garter snakes

After a decent breakfast at the Day’s Inn, we rolled out of town and onto a paved bike path. Eventually we turned onto a wide gravel road and then another one, slowly pedaling up to St Mary Lake which had an impressive outflow into the St Mary River. We missed the provincial park and most of the lakeside was private land. We stopped by the only access point for lunch and chatted with a local on an e-bike. She told us that mountain caribou were mostly up on ridges, but we could potentially see mountain goats or moose. We saw neither.

We were stopped by a young man in a pickup and later a man on an ATV asking if we were going over the pass. Some motorcycles went by and didn’t return, so that’s another sign that people are getting thru though the road is officially closed.

We camped near an old avalanche hut in a spot recommended by the man on the ATV. We can tackle the pass in the morning. Wildflowers were great today. The road grade was very reasonable, and the rushing creeks/rivers beautiful.

Canada - Day 11 - Lake Koocanusa to Cranbrook

 36.5 miles, 2290’ climbing, deer

Late last night, after we had retired to our tent, some folks drove down to our camp site and parked about 20 meters away. I went over and called hello to make sure they had seen us and wouldn’t run over our tent, and they had seen our bikes. I went back to our tent. They turned on their stereo with a thumping bass, for hours. Sarah  fantasized about confronting them, telling them off, spraying them with bear spray, but in the end there was no confrontation, just some lost sleep. Otherwise it was a perfect lake view camp site.

In the morning there were some beautiful colors over the lake. We had a pleasant pedal through the woods to a small community, then we hopped on the 40 km Chief Isador trails to Cranbrook. Part was flat rail trails, but the main part was glorious singletrack through the woods, flowy and not too hard for a loaded gravel bike. We crossed some small bridges, some meadows, curved around hill sides. It was a pleasure. 

We had a stiff headwind on the last several miles on a flat rail trail into Cranbrook. Seems like a popular mountain bike town. Northstar Bicycle Co pumped our tires with a floor pump, so much nicer than our little hand pump. We had a good burger downtown after resupplying. Tomorrow we plan to go towards Gray Creek Pass. There’ has been community discussion on whether the pass is open after last weeks snow, but we heard a positive report today and will give it a try. We’re hoping to see a friend in Nelson in a couple days. It’s hard to plan a timeline in unknown parts!

Canada - Day 10 - Fernie to Lake Koocanusa

 48 miles, 1781’ climbing, deer and elk

Rolling out of Fernie, our trail was blocked for work, so we jumped on the Great Divide route for an easy ride into Elko. It’s the 2nd day in a row where we’ve had a lot of sunshine. 

We met a northbound (NOBO) divide rider who was near the end of his journey from the Mexican border. He looked like he was travelling light.

Stopping for lunch at the Dairy Bar in Elko, we met 2 riders coming from Vancouver who’ve been travelling for two years: the UK, Europe, Turkey, South Asia, SE Asia, Australia, now Canada and the US to New York, next South America. We talked gear a little. Regrettably we didn’t get their names or social media info. Inspiring! They let us know that there’s still snow on Gray’s Pass and we compared alternates. Some bikepackers got thru with a long push in the snow a couple weeks ago, but the snow last week may have closed it. As we were talking, a SOBO divide rider also stopped, cyclists keeping the Dairy Bar busy.

The next segment of our ride took us down a two track filled with small orange and black butterflies that would fly up in a cloud as we passed. Tricky to photograph, but captivating. 

After Lake Baynes and crossing Lake Koocanusa on a bridge, we stopped at the marina store for ice cream and a soda. All the local vacationers seemed to stop in as did a group of road bikers. After leaving, we ran into Roy (Ottawa?) and Stephane (Quebec) riding our route in the opposite direction from us from Victoria, both riding as far as they can get before the snow falls. They started a couple of day apart and seem to be riding together now. We had a good conversation about fun singletrack near Canbrook, Gray’s Pass conditions and bypass, and good breakfasts (the bakery in Seult or Holt, must research).

Soon we continued riding through the woods near the lake, crown land so dispersed camping is allowed. The forest since Elko is much dryer than before Elko, not unlike some Arizona forest. We found a great place to camp with a lake view.

Canada - Day 9 - Elkford to Fernie

 49.5 miles, 1952’ climbing, deer, elk

At the recommendation of a couple northbound GNBR riders, we rode a mile down to Mel’s Diner. An unassuming place with the fantastic aroma of home baked goods, we met Mel herself, super friendly. The breakfast was amazing, five stars, and Mel was great too.

We pedaled the mile back to our route where we knew we’d be going up the big hill east of town. We were pleased to leave the pavement for trail quickly, but it was a hard climb with loaded bikes. We persevered up switchbacks and were rewarded with a ride through the deep forest and flowy descent. At that point, 8ish miles in, we realized we were only about a mile south of our campsite, and an optional route would have bypassed the entire hill climb. 🤪

The Elk Valley trail to Sparwood is fairly new, we think, based on something posted recently on Facebook. Parts were good two track, parts were obscure, bumpy trails that we could barely see. Definitely it will be better once more bikes have been on it. We passed Sulphur Springs which were more the color of Mountain Dew than green Jello, but the smell was indeed sulphur. It burbled a little. 

We surprised a few deer and elk which disappeared into underbrush that seemed impassable. Eventually we arrived in Sparwood and had lunch at Tim Horton’s. It was getting late, so we cruised into Fernie on pavement with a good headwind. We arrived at our hotel in time to get dinner and go watch the Edmonton Oilers win game 6 in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was a good day.

Canada - Day 8 - Boulton Creek Campground to Elkford

 55 miles, 3524’ climbing, a lot of descending, a couple deer, ~20 elk, and some horses that didn’t want to share the road

We got up late because of the cold, and we rolled out of camp on a paved bike trail for a few miles. The first hill towards Elk Pass was around a 17% grade, which warmed us up quickly. We stayed on trails this year instead of coming up under the power lines. There was snow and mud, and it was pretty in the trees. 

We reached the pass at the border of the province of British Columbia. It was a swift descent. This is our third time over the famously bear-dense Elk Pass and our third time not seeing any bears. We did meet two guys headed south on the great divide, day 2 for them. We bypassed each other a couple times then didn’t see them again. At one point we saw ~20 elk off to one side, and we saw a couple deer.

The ride south is long with rolling hills, and we had a lot of memories of prior trips through the area. For the 3rd year in a row we met a herd of seemingly feral horses standing in the road, looking irritable and disinclined to let us pass easily. They were shod and some wore bells, so they must belong to somebody.

We met two guys who were on our same route, the GNBR, headed the opposite way. They started in Victoria and were 4 weeks into their journey. Just as we were looking for the turnoff to the dreaded Koko Claims, part of the Tour Divide race route, a solo rider caught up to us. It was Nick Legan, doing an ITT (individual time trial) on the GDMBR route. He had started in Banff this morning, and was cheerful and fun to chat with for a few minutes.

Last year we came north from Elkford on the dirt road. Two years ago we went south over the hideous Koko Claims in rain and snow. This year we turned off on singletrack. It looked brand new and barely travelled. We considered vailing to the road, but once we pushed up a hill we were on a marvelous track through the forest, lasting 4-5 miles all the way to Elkford. About half way along it was more heavily travelled and flowy with banked turns — a great way to finish the day. We grabbed a campsite near the river in town, got a beer & burger for dinner, met other bike travelers, and relaxed.

Canada - Day 7 - Canmore to Bolton Creek Campground

 48.3 miles, 4600’ climbing, 3 separate groups of bighorn sheep, some deer, another wolf possibly

Before leaving our fancy Canmore hotel (hot tubs, laundry, fluffy white robes to lounge in), we had coffee, croissants, and fresh fruit purchased the night before. It was 5 miles up hill to rejoin the route, some steep trail and then a road that had an average grade of 9-11% for a mile or two. What a way to wake up!

Near the reservoir at the top of the climb we saw two separate groups of bighorn sheep. One group had two lambs, one very small, but they all crossed the road and leapt over the guard rail, the little ones kicking off the top.

Soon we arrived at Spray Lakes. Coming in on the Tour Divide route was a group of 6 touring cyclists. They joked that they had been 7 the day before, but they hadn’t brought enough food, so one made the ultimate sacrifice. They also said everybody in their party had taken a fall the day before. Ouch! We hope to see them again, but we separated as they took the road and we got on the High Rockies Trail next to the lake shore.

After about 2 miles we crossed the road to where the trail continues. It was very beautiful and also more strenuous than the road, with lots of dips and rises through the forest. Some snow was on the ground, but the trail was pretty perfect, not like the muddy, wet, snowy mess we rode on two years ago. 

After a couple hours, we moved to the road to cover some ground a little faster. It wasn’t nearly as washboarded as in the past. We saw a rider coming at us and stopped to chat, quickly identifying him as the “Fuck Yeah Guy” who is riding the full GNBR all the way to Newfoundland from Victoria. For whatever reason he has chosen the trail name of the Fuck Yeah Guy, he has recently been in Tucson so it was cool to make that connection.  He was funny and enthusiastic. We exchanged stickers and photos and trail  impressions, then parted ways. It got colder and some corn snow came down on us.

Ed and I got back on the High Rockies Trail, seeing a few hikers near the suspension bridge, enjoying flowy singletrack that even has some banked turns. Definitely this is the best riding we’ve had so far!

Soon we descended to Peter Lougheed park. Our trail became a paved bikeway for several miles, and we didn’t see a soul. We got a campsite at the registration area and a coke. The park isn’t nearly as busy as on our last visits, with lots of empty camp sites. We settled in to our site and had had chili mac burritos for dinner, a favorite.

After dinner we walked our campground loop to see if the group of cyclists we saw earlier today were camped here (nope). Only two other campsites are taken, both RVs. As we got to the end of our walk, we saw a large dog-like animal trotting towards us on the shoulder of the road. It was large, beige, and moved like a fluffy dog. We stood still waiting for it to go past, but it disappeared into the woods. Seemed too large to be a coyote. Did we just see another wolf?

Did we mention it’s cold?

Canada - Day 6 - Banff to Canmore via Spray Lakes

30.6 miles, 2316’ climbing, 🐺1 wolf, some deer, no bears

It was cold, and there was still snow on the ground when we woke up. Tents were wet.  We packed up as best we could, no real hurry. Matt planned to go north,  and we planned to a check the weather, and take a short ride south on the GNBR so we could thoroughly dry our gear out. We decided to see the cave hot springs in Banff before leaving town, but we found it was closed for the week when we arrived. Instead we took a slow pedal up to Sundance canyon on a paved trail by the river. Lo and behold, we spotted a wolf across the water. He retreated when he saw us, but we got a good look and a decent pic. Back in Banff we had an early lunch, then headed up the GNBR towards Spray Lakes. In spite of all the rain, the trail was in great condition with only shallow puddles to cross. About 4 miles from town, our route joined the tour divide route which we traversed the last two years, and it brought back a lot of memories of those events. In 12 miles, we saw 4 mountain bikers and a few hikers, it really felt like we were alone. 

Eventually we reached the cutoff to Canmore where we admired a beautiful reservoir before making the quick descent to town. I think we’re at a lower elevation than Banff, do we didn’t gain many route miles on our ride today. Also it’s a huge climb back to the trail.

Our hotel in Canmore is pretty nice. We chatted with a couple from Toronto in the hot tub, then walked to the market to get groceries. Back in our room, we ate dinner while cheering on the Oilers in the Stanley Cup finals (like the locals). We washed every item of clothing we have, so that will be nice on the next couple days.