Day 14; June 13; 101Km; 363m Vertical; Average speed fantastic

Pincher Creek to Lethbridge. What a ride. This has to be dedicated to Achim. Chain to the right Maenner und gib ihm. Average speed to Fort Macleod over 49km was 33.3kmh. Boy o boy what a strong tail wind can do. Tim B did want to stop for some reason (take a leak/photo, I dunno) but I told him at this speed no way.
We were due to stay with David & Sonia in Lethbridge so David had decided to cycle the 50km to Fort Macleod to meet us. Well, he had a lot tougher time getting there against the wind than we did with the wind. We beat him there by about an hour and a half and were ready for a third cuppa tea when he staggered in to the A&W (that’s like a MacDonalds to you Europeans but a different company). After a suitable period of recuperation for David we rolled slowly through town viewing the historical locations like the oldest theatre (that’s theater to Canadians) in Alberta and the Fort where the Mounties established there western outpost back in 18something. After this bit of sightseeing we left for Lethbridge, did a few photo stops along the way and still had an average of 28.8kph over the 101km. Eat your heart out you guys in Cologne.
We successfully closed out the day with Sonja and David and neighbours Charlie and Mike down at Pop’s Pub where we emptied two 60oz pitchers and three 100oz towers. Hey Bob we drank ‘em dry of Rickards Red so we had to switch to Molson Canadian for the last tower. Good going huh.

Day 13; June 12; 121KM, 860M vertical

Fernie to Pincher Creek. After doing laundry and shopping for more cold weather gear, we left Fernie at 11:46. The day started with warm sunny weather and a tail wind as we followed the Crowsnest trail for our last day in British Columbia. We headed up the last section to the crowsnest pass and went over the continental divide (and the BC/Alberta border) at 3 PM. From now on it’s all downhill. At this point we expected bad weather but the sun continued to shine and the wind continued from the west . We had great weather all day. We saw more mountains today than the last 12 days in BC.
As we descended to Pincher creek we passed the Frank Slide where the mountain side broke off and slid into the town killing 70 people. We stopped at the memorial but even 1KM down the road the rocks still surround the highway.

Day 12; June 11; 99km; 522M vertical climb

We got on the road at 11:00 while the sun was shining and the temp was 15°C. The nice weather lasted 30 min and then the temperature dropped as the day went on. 30km before Fernie the weather turned miserable with heavy rain and the wind in our faces. We put our heads down and pedelled faster to got to Fernie before the snow started. For the first time in 4 days we got to town before the stores closed and went right to the sports store to buy some cold weather gear. Now it should get warmer!
Road Conditions: The roads in BC are good (far better than Quebec). We are travelling the Crowsnest Highway and it has a nice shoulder for cyclists to ride on. Sadly after Creston they started putting a rumble strip on the side of the road. Unfortunately the installer wasn’t sober and it also wanders a bit. It makes life very difficult for the cyclists since we have to ride on the Highway or in the gravel. I say remove the rumble strip and hand out free coffee.
Another sad fact is the number of roadside markers we have seen for deceased motorists. When we stop to look at the markers it is usually easy to guess how the accidents happened.

Day 11 June 10 108km: 5 C; 802M vertical climb

After a rough previous day we had a late start when we left the motel at 11:00. (Checkout time and the cleaning staff was waiting). We went across the road to the Laundromat and used the dryer before we finally hit the road at 11:40. It was raining and cool, so we only got 15km down the road before we stopped for brunch and tons of coffee. Today the road was relatively level and we had a nice tailwind, but the rain followed us for the first 60 km. We did not get snowed on, but the hills around us were sprinkled with white. After a tea stop in Moyie we actually travelled 30km on dry roads before the rain started up again just before our destination Cranbrook. Once more we had to check into the motel dripping wet and register with frozen hands.

Day 10 June 9; 126km; 1 C; 2117 M vertical climb

Ee bye gum. ‘ecky thump. Worra day. Leave Castlegar at 8.20 and start a 17km 744m climb in the rain over Bombi Summit. A nice cool descent over 9km and a fairly level 14km to Salmo. As wer wuz cold and wet we needed a Laundromat which took some finding’ cos it wer disguised as a derelict shed. We quick stripped off most of the wet clobber, chucked it in the dryer and then sat around half naked for the next half hour. Well that kept the local housewives away for a while. We got the now dry gear back on and tried to leave but Mr B. discovered he had a flat tyre so back into the laundry with a toolkit and front wheel to keep the now present housewife company while we fixed the puncture. Said problem solved and we shot off round t’ local caff fer a good ‘ot cuppa tea.. Then we ‘ad to get serious again. A 14km fairly level run to a junction and then the 23km and 1250m climb over Kootenay Pass. Now that should have been exciting but somebody who is in charge ’round here decided the heavens should open 5 minutes from the top. The said person in charge also decided to drop the temperature to 0.9C thus turning the rain to snow. Fortunately, there was a log cabin where we could change into dry kit for the descent. The 30km and 1244m descent was done on roads streaming with water at between 1 and 4 degrees. We wuz soaked and frozen within seconds. Apart from that we “ad a good day. Mines a pint. Cheers.

Day 9 102KM; 1362M vertical height

Another day, another pass. We started with a gentle downhill for 20 km to Christina Lake. We breakfasted on White Onion soup and a burger. It was probably a mistake since we never felt peppy the rest of the day. We climbed from Christina Lake steadily for 31 km. At times the grade was 9% and at times it dropped to 3%. It was 4:10 before we crested Paulson Pass and started downhill. It was downhill the rest of the day. With very little peddling we coasted 37km into Castlegar by 5:30. The weather again surprised us. We had a bright sunny day until the summit and then we got rained on. The temperature dropped from 22°C to 12°C on the downhill. The roads were wet and the fog over the wet roads was chilling. By the time we got to Castlegar we needed for a warm hotel room for the night.