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!