June 28, 2016
Metaline Falls, WA - Nelson, BC: A bear a day keeps the cyclist alert.
Jacinto floated the idea of us all riding together today to cross the border. That sounded like a good idea. Until he suggested we delay our departure to his time, 9 AM. Eh, not so much. Oren and I like to get going and beat the traffic. I also like to beat the heat. That isn't a priority for Oren or Jacinto. I like to get to town early to have time to finish the journal before dinner. Jacinto says what's the use of getting to town early. Then we just go for lunch and spend more money. If we get to town late, it saves money because we only buy dinner.
You can see we have different cycling styles. It's a good thing we agreed to disagree. We ride our own rides and meet at the motel later. Even though it seemed like a good idea to cross the border together, neither of us cared to adjust our departure time. So.
Jacinto's tire had air, just in case you were wondering. There's three bike shops in Nelson. One is only a block from the hostel. He's going to look for a tire. Jim Fitch is delivering a folding tire in Barierre - but that is a week away through some remote territory.
Oren and I were off at 7:15. Oren was still in the granny gear from the climb yesterday. That was the perfect gear for the climb. We had about another half mile to go. It wasn't bad, but it was a rough wake up call for the legs.
Traffic all day today was light, especially the section on 20/31 at the beginning of the day. Even after we got on major highway 6 we had a very nice shoulder. No rumble strips or uneven sections. Just nice, smooth pavement. Yes!
Blue skies, mountain scenery, light traffic. Wash, rinse, repeat. The past three days on the Selkirk Loop have been ideal cycling. Spoon - you are ignoring me, but you need to ride this.
the border crossing was 11 miles from the motel. Oren and I took several photos and then waited on the white line for the light to turn green from red. We waited and waited. Heck. Are they playing jokes with us? Or do they not know we are here? Finally the light turned green. We pulled up together and handed over our passports. He asked where we came from and where was our car. He asked several times where was the car. How long would we be in Canada. Any weapons, or bear spray, pepper spray, etc. The crossing was fairly quick and painless.
We saw a bear lumber across the road just a few miles from the crossing. We are in Canada!
Salmo was at mile 25. Oren wanted to see what happens if you try to use American money in Canada. He went in a convenience store and bought his favorite Starbucks iced drink. He came back out - no problem. The change came in Canadian currency. I went in and used a $20. bill to buy a V-8. I made money on that deal. I paid $20. and got back $21. - yes, I know the exchange rate made the difference, but it is fun to say I made money. BTW, the V-8 was $1.85 CAD, which is about the same numbers, if not the same value as a V-8 in USD.
Today was a short day in miles and climbing. It's the last one on the Selkirk Loop - now we are heading into less populated country and will be climbing.
Today was excellent cycling. The scenery couldn't be beat. The weather was perfect. It was all perfect. Aren't I boring? I need to think of different terms of perfection.
I was surprised when Oren told me we had four more miles to the summit and then downhill to town. Oh? That profile didn't look like it had a summit. Yep - Apex Summit. Then a lovely six mile run to town. The whole way I kept wondering if we were going to pay for the screaming downhill by having to climb back out tomorrow.
We are at the Dancing Bear Inn and Hostel. It is very conveniently located. We did have to go through a major road interchange. I am happy it wasn't rush hour as we negotiated it. The hostel was perhaps two blocks away.
We pulled in, the lobby was empty and the window closed. Check in time is 4 PM. It was now 1 PM. Darn, darn. But we were lucky - a man entered just then and asked if we wanted to check in. Yes please! $69. CAD for a private room. The Best Western is literally next door, $179 CAD for a typical hotel experience. Our bicycles are in the basement, which is actually ground level as the hostel is built on a hill. The private rooms are upstairs, so we have to climb stairs. Shoes off at the front door. No cups for drinking water. A sink is in the room, but the showers and toilets are separate. Oren claims to not be whiny. Jacinto admits he's whiny. If you want to save money, this is how you do it. Otherwise, I can definitely pick more expensive places. We have one more hostel coming up - $63. or the other choice in town is $150. I told Jacinto we can change the reservation. The part I don't like is not having access to the bike to unload and load back up. I wouldn't want to stay at a hostel every night. But I don't mind some inconvenience on occasion. In Yaak we had a $30. bed. There we had to go down a floor to use the bathroom. At least here it is on the same floor.
The guys are gone buying a pop and scoping out a place for dinner and the tire shop.
I wonder if Nelson is Canada's answer to Glenwood Springs? Baker Street is a happening place with panhandlers of all sorts. Oren says they look like draft dodgers, but that was 50 years ago. It does give you an idea though. Glenwood has it's own problem with the homeless.There are plenty of hip types walking around also. There are several yoga studios on Baker Street and a natural foods store.
There is also a bicycle shop a half block away that carries Schwalbe tires. Have you ever been to a shop that carries them? Open Road in Missoula carried a large stock of Compass tires, but no Schwalbes. With Missoula being the home of ACA, you'd think Open Road would be in tune with the touring community. They had Jacinto's favorite tire in stock in his size. A Marathon Plus in a 26x1.75. The delima now is does he replace the problem tire on the back, or does he hope the gorilla tape boot does the job? The nail holes are from last year and aren't getting larger. Perhaps the recent flats are for ordinary reasons and not related to the holes. Certainly there's enough tread on the tire for another five years.
Jim Fitch is bringing us a folding tire next week. Between now and then we will be covering lots of empty territory where having some sort of spare tire is a good idea when you have a troublesome tire. I could tell Mr. Mañana was willing to take his chances, but I talked him into buying some sort of tire. I was leaning toward the Vittoria at half the price (and weight). The salesman said that one didn't have enough rubber to make the trip. It seemed to me that was an exaggeration. End of story is Jacinto is giving the flat - less tire one more chance at being flat - less. Talk about being loyal!
We ate a good Chinese restaurant where everything was extra. Tea, rice, hot sauce, were all extras. But it was good and it was nice to eat veggies.
We stopped at the natural foods store for breakfast items. I bought yogurt to supplement my instant oatmeal. How did I end up with instant? I should have brought my oatmeal from home as usual. They had a nice little baked goods counter. Jacinto bought a tart, Oren bought his favorite carrot cake. They had some raw carrot cake that was all ingredients I could eat - primary sweetener was dates. I bought that. It was good in an interesting way, as soon as I abandoned the idea of carrot cake as I knew it.
It's about time to get rolling this morning, so I need to cut this short. The short version of the evening is we roasted. We are on the top floor. There is a swamp cooler in the hallway that was turned off far too early. Jacinto did go downstairs and score a fan from the office. That kept us just on the edge of tolerable for the night. Sometimes I was on the wrong side of the edge. I feel very sorry for those who did not have a fan. When I got up this morning feeling very not rested, I would have paid the extra $100. to stay at the Best Western with air conditioning. I presume they had air conditioning. We have one more hostel in Kananaskis. Perhaps we will be changing that reservation. Jacinto says to leave it as is, but don't make more hostel reservations in the future. Maybe we are getting to stuck in the mud to deal with a little inconvenience.
OK - time to ride. It's going to be a long day today. Hot, big miles, and big climbs. There should be big scenery also. I'm going to get ice for my water at the first chance. No ice here. I bet the Best Western has ice.
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Today's ride: 52 miles (84 km)
Total: 472 miles (760 km)
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