Day 11, Waterton Lakes to Fernie, Fernie to Eureka

Pay no attention to this map; it is our original and no-abandoned route

We left Waterton Lakes early in Das Car, headed for Fernie on a beautiful cloudless morning.  Tooling along at 110 kph is so easy in a car, and kind of boring.  We made it to Fernine before 0730 and after grabbing a cup of coffee and some food for the road, we went straight to the ski station where we’d stashed Das Bike.  

I would like to ski Fernie next winter

Arm of Kootenai Lake that borders Hwy 93 into the US

We got into our riding kit quickly, made arrangements for the car to be returned to the rental place in town, and headed back up where we’d come from a few days earlier.

A brisk tailwind helped a lot and whenever we get a tailwind we cross our fingers and hope that it doesn’t back.  It didn’t, and we made it to the junction at Elko to turn south toward the US border crossing at Roosville.  There are no signs at the Customs station telling bikes how to proceed, so we just jumped in line with the cars.  I guess it gave the folks in the cars something to talk about.  But the guy at Customs was great, far more interested in our itinerary than where we’d been and where we are from.  We cleared quickly and found a back road into Eureka.

Canada / US border at Roosville.  We're near as big as a car, might as well act like one

Eureka is an old town that has seen better days.  We did have a nice late afternoon snack at Jax Diner, and  the B&B we are staying in is great (the “hostess” left after we arrived – we are the only people in the big house).  That’s OK.  We plan to get an early start and get to Whitefish by lunch, and more importantly, before the hottest part of the day.

Eureka, Montana

Our home for the night.

And finally, our beer for the night.  Since we can't ride Going to the Sun, we might as well drink it!

Cheers!

Onward toward Yellowstone.  A demain.

Day 10, Waterton Lakes Rest Day

Dinner last night was a great curry pizza at the local pizza joint.  Chicken, onion, sweet potato, spinach and curry sauce.  Unusual, but very good.  Add beer to the menu, too, and it was a nice dinner.

A great curry pizza

Moon from the Waterton townsite, post pizza

Today is an unscheduled rest day, which we’ve decided that while it wasn’t planned, we really need.  Not that we lounged around the pool on our day off (there isn’t one here in Waterton).  Instead, we are did several hikes.  The first was to Cameron Lake at early thirty – we wanted to see wildlife and the best times are early morning and late evening.  Nothing.  But the lake is gorgeous and there are good hikes around it.  The signs say that the lake has the highest snowfall in the area owing to the peculiarities of the mountains and it was quite cold at that hour.

Early morning at Cameron Lake

Back at the townsite we rode the beautiful boat that runs from Waterton Lakes to Goat Haunt, which is in the US.  The boat is a 1927 fantail with twin screws that reminds me a lot of the Ranger 10 that we had so much fun on (hey, Steve and Shirley!).  The boat is called the International and it takes a leisurely 1 hour cruise due south down the lake, across the Canada / US border to Goat Haunt, which is a US port of entry that has 2 people there.  Since it is accessible only by boat, there isn’t a lot of cross-border traffic!  Why the US Customs has a border crossing there at all is a good question.  Typically, when you re-enter Canada from Goat Haunt to Waterton the Canadians could care less.

The boat ride is fun as they narrate along the way, explaining the geology and natural history. We saw a good sized black bear along the eastern shore and the boat pulled right up along side; the bear did not seem to notice since there were lots of berries to much on.

Black bear along shore of Waterton Lake, munching berries

At the US /Canada border the trees are all cut in about a 10 meter swatch.

I wonder why they would bother to do that?  Protecting the homeland perhaps against illegals trying to dash across.  I feel safer.

Clear cut along Canada / US border...maybe a fence would be better?

We also went close by to see some unique geological formations, including a chevron fold that is apparently much admired by geologists.

A chevron fold

We disembarked at Goat Haunt and headed through customs and then up toward Kootenai Lakes.  Most people stay on the boat, but there are boats about every 4 hours and we planned in catching the return trip later in the day.  

US Customs at Goat Haunt

Kootenai Lakes is about 3 miles from the dock at Goat Haunt and is said to be the best moose area.  The hike was beautiful with several alpine meadows, but no animals.  

Kootenai Lake

When we got to the lake we bumped into a Nat’l Parks Ranger and she said that there is a cow and a yearling calf around, and that we should keep our eyes open.  We traversed part way around the lake, saw a good size black bear on the opposite shore, but unfortunately no moose (although we did see some fresh tracks and lots of fresh bear scat).

The beavers have been busy...

We had a nice lunch at the lake and then headed back for the boat trip back to Waterton.  The weather is glorious, although the wind still rips down the fetch of the lake.  I talked to the captain and he said that the daily average wind speed is 22 to 25 mph.  That’s every day of the year.  I bet that it is really cold in the winter when the lake freezes over toward the end of December.  The park actually closes in mid-November, but there is a skeleton crew who live in town (ala The Shining), and they are in charge of organizing back country skiers into the park boundaries.  The kids who live in town go to school at Pincher Creek, which is about 60 km away.

Doug chaatting up Captain Tom 

This butterfly hitched a ride on our day bag all the way from Goat Haunt to Waterton Lakes

Tomorrow we leave Waterton early for Fernie, climb back on Das Bike and head to the US through Roosville and down to Eureka, Montana.  From there we ride south through Whitefish to Columbia Falls, then on the Bozeman and Yellowstone.  We are looking forward to all of that.  Hot weather is forecast.

Day 10, Retitled: Fernie to Waterton Lakes, AB

Slow and intermittent internet here in Waterton Lakes, so the same for posts.  The map above doesn't really apply to this post, but it shows some of it.  We'll be back on course in a few days.

We drove Das Car today from Fernie to Waterton Lakes today.  It felt odd, driving.  But we covered the distance that we would have ridden in 6 hours in a bit less than 2, and that included stops for coffee and other necessities.  From Fernie we climbed into the Crowsnest Pass area and there is some beautiful country.  One fascinating location is called “Frank Slide.”  It is an enormous rock slide that broke loose in1903 due to mining activity and obliterated the town of Frank, and most of it inhabitants.  It is amazing how much of the mountain crashed across the valley, with boulders the size of RVs.  There are also numerous coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass area.  They’ve destroyed entire mountains.

It takes big trucks to take down mountains

Soon enough we dropped down onto the Alberta prairies.  What a difference!  Flat as far as the eye can see, with a variety of different types of crops; grass, wheat, alfalfa, etc.  But we could see the Rockies off to the south all along.  There were signs along the highway that warned of high winds, and there were lots of wind farms.  The wind was blowing westerly at about 40 kph.  Both of us decided that we are glad to be in Das Car rather than Das Bike.  It is funny, we drive in our cars and never notice things like wind and rain.  If the wind is in front of us, we step on the gas and speed up to 60, 70 and never think about it.  But on a bike, a slight shift in the wind or its direction is a big deal, and if the wind is in your face, it makes life difficult.  And rain causes multiple stops for clothing changes to make life more comfortable.  That’s part of the fun of riding I guess.

We turned south at Pincher Creek and headed toward the park.  A sign for a bison viewing area convinced us to take a detour to check it out.  We drove over a few cattle guards and were able to see a couple of bison.  Most were snoozing in the warm sunshine, but one big male was wandering around.  They’re huge!

Big bull bison

Because Das Car is so fast, we made it to the Waterton National Park in no time, much earlier than our motel would be ready, so we headed up a side road to the Red Rock Canyon.  The road was pretty quiet at that time of the morning with little traffic.  We came around a corner and there beside the road was a Grizzly bear cub.  He was munching on some berries and we stopped immediately and tried to get some photos.  He stood up when he saw the car and checked us out.  We knew that mama must be nearby, and as soon as we had a photo he took off like a rocket.  Cool!

Grizzly bear cub

The Red Rock Canyon was a good diversion and on the way back to the village we saw a black bear and several mountain goats. 

Mountain Goats

Prince of Wales Hotel

The wind is crazy here.  It blows so hard and never lets up, confirming that for the next day we’d rather be driving than riding.

The biggest reason to be at Waterton Lakes is the hiking, and we took a short hike up the Bear’s Hump, which is about 300 meters above the lake.  There is a good view down to the village and the lakes.

Bear's Hump

The “Prince of Wales” hotel, which you will recognize from the photos, is interesting and historic but aging without much grace.  We checked into our hotel and walked up to the area where it is located on a windswept bluff overlooking the lake.  It feels very isolated.  The village is far more inviting, but the hotel is worth looking at for its historic value.

Prince of Wales Hotel

Beer

Today we're taking a ferry to Goat Haunt (which actually is in the US) and will hike to some alpine lakes.

Day 8, Wasa to Fernie, BC

In view of the fire in Glacier Nat’l Park we had to make a decision about which way to go, plan A or plan B.  Plan A was enter the US on the east side of the park and ride the Going to the Sun road.  The road is closed as I type this, but they say that they’re getting a handle on the fire.  Still, no predictions and our schedule put us riding the road on Thursday.  Plan B: enter the US on the west side of the park and ride south to the west entrance to Glacier and intersect with our original route.

We went with plan B, reluctantly.  But that required quite a bit of re-routing and figuring out where we are going, where we are staying.  We think that we have it figured out.  See below.

We had a fairly long day on the bike today but it was dry and, kind of warm after the sun poked through the clouds, so it was a great ride day.  We left our rabbit friend at Wasa Lake Motel at 0700 and headed south, following the Kootenay River.  

He's really big and fat!

When we got to Fort Steele, we had a long descent and were screaming downhill when the navigator-in-chief (Lorie) said that the GPS says “Off course!”.  By the time we stopped we were at the bottom of a long, steep hill.  We checked the GPS and our maps, and it looks like we just flew by our turn to the left.  Dang!  More map checking and we decided that the best thing to do was to continue on our current route, then take another road to intersect with our planned route (and turn off the GPS so it stops beeping at us!).

Fort Steele BC -- we missed our turn while checking out the town

The best weather so far, and beautiful country

The Kootenay River (flows south, the Columbia flows north) 

The detour was actually really pretty and both of us thought that if you closed your eyes then opened them up, you would think that you are in Central Oregon: pines, alfalfa fields, farms and forested hills.  It is really beautiful.  And lots of white tail deer that acted like deer ought to: they ran as soon as they heard us coming.  In fairly quick order we reconnected with our original route and continued toward Fernie.  We stopped at Jaffrey, a small town along the way and had coffee at First Perk, a great little diner there.  It was a welcome stop and we chatted with a group of cross country mountain bikers who were just finishing a trip.

Onward to Fernie and the temperature rose nearly to 24 degrees or so – it was just the first time of this trip that we’ve ridden without arm and leg warmers.  We started following the Elk River, which flows into the Kooteney and which must be good fishing judging by the number of drift boats.

The Elk River

Made it to Fernie

But as we got closer to our destination the thunderclouds started building, warning us to not get complacent.  We are staying at the Fernie Alpine Resort, which is the base to the ski area (which is one of the best anywhere! – you need to ski here because there is tons of territory and vertical and never a crowd).  But the place we are staying is a few km up a pretty steep hill.  It seems like that is a common theme for our end of ride.  Anyway, we got almost to the lodge when the rain started, but not enough to get us soaked.

Our room is uber big and fancy – check it out:

Our abode

Yeah, that's Das Bike in the fancy room (don't tell the owner!)

Nice

We just beat the thunderstorm by a few minutes!

We got showered and cleaned up, then started implementing Plan b.  Here’s the short story:

1. ·      We rented a car at “rent a wreck” in Fernie (call it “Das Car”);
2. ·      We are stashing Das Bike in the owners closet in the lodge at the ski area;
3. ·      We are driving to Waterton Lakes Nat’l Park (back in Alberta), which is just across the border from Glacier Nat’l Park;
4. ·      We’ll stay at Waterton Lakes for 2 nights, then drive back to Fernie at early – thirty on Thursday;
5. ·      We trade Das Car for Das Bike, then ride down the west side of Glacier to Eureka, Montana (crossing the border at Roosville).

That all works in theory, so we’ll see how it works on the ground.  We had some help from some really great people in re-doing the plan, especially the woman who runs the rent-a-wreck in Fernie, who went above and beyond to help us figure it out.

Oh, I should mention that our navigation problem today added about 10 km to our ride (total of about 120 km) but cut nearly 350 meters of climbing.  I think that the wrong route was the right route!.  And we’re cooking dinner tonight, too!

Day 7, Fairmont Hot Springs to Wasa, BC

Kind of a lumpy ride today, but not too long.

Weather and scenery are the main themes of this year’s ride, so far at least.  We took several trips to the hot pool last night because it was so nice, and we got a great sleep.  We have a fairly short ride today of 80 km, so we juggled the desire to sleep in a bit, and the weather forecast that called for increasing winds on our nose in the afternoon and increased chances of rain.  We split the difference and left Fairmont Hot Springs at about 0900.

Leaving Fairmont Hot Springs

Cliffs above the Columbia River

We started out along the Columbia River, which at this point flows north.  Then, on the south end of Columbia Lake, we followed the Kootenay River, which flows out of the lake in a southerly direction.  It is a bit confusing but I guess it all works out if you have a map in hand.

We got some good photos of Columbia Lake, which some say is the headwaters of the Columbia River and the Kootenay River (at least this version of the Kootenay).

The Columbia River flows north out of the Columbia Lake

The wind forecast was spot on and by noon we were battling a pretty strong headwind.  Ouch!  With all of our panniers, the wind slows us a lot.  But we made it to Wasa Lake Provincial Park with only a few rain showers along the way.  We were mostly dry, and that is new!  We saw quite a few raptors today, mostly osprey.

Osprey nest

We are staying at a funky but cute and cheap motel near Wasa Lake, run by a very friendly German couple who think we are daff.  Lorie finished her book a few nights ago, and we saw a small “library” on our way into the motel, so we rode back and found a noon book to take.  We’ll leave another book next time we are in the area.  We also rode to the local pub down the road and had a beer.  The locals were having a Sunday afternoon poker game and the proprietors wanted to hear all about our ride so far.  A good afternoon.

Our home for the night

The local lending library

Lorie took all their money at the local's poker game

The local pub

We’ve spend a lot of time re-routing the next several days.  It sounds like they’ve made some progress on the fire at Glacier, but we pulled the plug on riding down the east side of the park.  The Going to the Sun road is the only way from east to west; it is currently closed and who knows if it will be open in 4 days.  If we gambled wrong and it is closed, then we’d really be in a mess since we’d need to detour about 250 miles.  So we decided to ride to Fernie tomorrow as planned, then try to get to Waterton Lakes National Park (the Canadian version of Glacier National Park), and the head back to Fernie and down to the Flathead Lake region on the west side of Glacier – we will cross the border at Roosville.  From there we continue south to the Whitefish and will try to get up the west entrance to the Going to the Sun Road.  After that, we’ll be kind of back on route and schedule.

And, the weather forecast is looking better after tomorrow.  Tomorrow might be a bit rank, but Tuesday forward should be almost summery!

Day 6, Vermilion Crossing to Fairmont Hot Springs, BC

We awoke from a great sleep in our little cabin.  The weather is cold with low-hanging clouds, but no rain.  Breakfast at 0800 is a bit later than we normally leave, but we decided to take some time and fill up before we ride.  Glad we did, as the breakfast was really good.  There was coffee and tea and all that stuff, plus oatmeal, egg dishes, quiches, fresh bread and fruit, pastries and home made chocolate chip muffins.  We ate our fill and enjoyed every bite.

But onward and again, today, upward.  We headed south on Hwy. 93, following the Kootenay River toward the Sinclair Pass.  The clouds looked threatening, but so far so good.

Leaving Vermilion Crossing

The road is gradually downhill for the first 45 km and there are many kms of wildlife fencing being built.

Keeping the bears off the highway

The weather called for increasing rain and thundershowers as the day wears on, and a headwind out of the southwest and gusting to 40 kph.  Ouch.  It was calm when we started, though, and a reasonable temperature.  Still, since the clouds were threatening we had full rain gear on.

The wind stayed calm until we hit the base of the pass, which pitched up at a hurtful but manageable angle.  The wind started to blow fairly hard, but at our slow pace it made little difference.  We topped out and took a sharp turn west through a cut through the high mountains.  

Approaching the top of Sinclair Pass

The wind happily backed us over the top, but the rain came in torrents.  I’m not sure that I’ve seen it rain harder – monsoon-like.  The temperature was still pretty reasonable and we were not cold, but the wind went right around onto our nose and blew with a vengeance.  The descent was steep and twisty and with the rain and wind it was quite an adventure!

We made quick time to the base of the west side of the Kootenay Range and a small resort village of Radium Hot Springs.  There are lots of hot springs in the area and this is one of the most popular.  We were absolutely as wet as we could be, so we stopped at the first coffee shop we saw to dry out a bit and see if the weather relents.  We ate poutine.  It is really kind of weird, but does the job when you're in a bad way.  

More poutine

Architectural oddity in Radium Hot Springs

The weather did clear a bit after about 30 minutes so we headed out, turning left to go south toward the day’s destination, Fairmont Hot Springs, one of the many springs in the area.  It was another 45 km away. 

This part of the road follows the Columbia River.  We were surprised by the change in vegetation – here the land was dotted with farms and pine trees that reminded us of central Oregon.  

That's the Columbia River down there...

But the rain came back in buckets and the road that we were on had a too-narrow shoulder under these conditions, which made the ride a little nervous.  Fortunately, the predicted southwest wind was a strong northeast wind that was at our back.  Wind aided and slightly downhill we covered 45 km in just over an hour.  Not bad.

Arriving at the village of Fairmont Hot Springs, we followed the signs to the “resort” that will be home for the night.  Argh!  It is up the steep hill toward the ski station.  Still the rain persisted but up we went, painfully.

The "hot pool" really is hot

The resort is pretty fancy, kind of Salishan-like, and even though they were apparently busy with multiple weddings, they were gracious and let us store Das Bike, dripping wet, in their offices.  We wasted no time getting into the “hot pool,” which has unfiltered and untreated water from the springs.  The water is about 40 degrees and sparkling clear without any sulfur smell.  It felt great.

There are some great views to the southwest when the clouds clear.  Again, the Columbia River:

Columbia River

Next, to the pub.  The prices here are much less than in the National Parks.  That’s because the vendors in the parks need to pay a percentage to the park system for maintenance of the parks.  That seems to be a pretty good justification for the higher prices. 

We are continuing to watch the fire in Glacier and are working on some alternative routes.  Nothing is decided yet and we have a few days to see what happens.