July 18, 2016
Radium Hot Springs - Canal Flats, BC: One of the best days of the trip. Why? Sunshine all day!
These 40 mile days are easy to get used to. We scheduled a leisurely 10 AM departure. I did sleep in, but not enough. We were twiddling our thumbs. I finally texted Jim and asked if we could leave earlier. 9:45 and we were down the road. It was a shorts kind of day. When it is cold, I wear everything I have and my dry bags are very empty with nothing extra to pad the computer. When it's a warm day, there is plenty of extra clothing for padding. Genny and I are hoping that our rain gear stays tucked away the remainder of the trip.
I've been doing extra reading on crazyguy since changing the routing. I hadn't researched this piece of the trip. I took Jim's lodging list and went for it. He does have ridewithgps profiles, but it is nice to personally know what we are getting in to.
A journal I read last night said the ride out of town was tough, the author had walked a mile due to the grade, no shoulder, and too much traffic. Doesn't that sound like a nice way to start the day? We were halfway up the hill before I remembered about the walking thing. Hmmm. Maybe being on tour all summer toughens the legs up. I was doing just fine on this climb.
You would think we had never been exposed to sunshine. Genny and I commented over and over again how nice it is to see the mountains, how blue the sky was, etc. I do believe we had a few too many gloomy days.
We had agreed to take the west side of the lake at Invermere. There were several turns involved, but 13th Avenue turns into Westside Dr, which is a lovely, lovely 20 mile diversion from the highway. We saw a number of day riders, but no loaded tourists. The road surface left much to be desired. With the lack of traffic, we had no issues threading our way between the potholes and patches. This road gets two thumbs up. Take it!
By taking the turn at Invermere, we bypassed Fairmont Hot Springs. Wayne Estes had encouraged me to bypass the big hot springs and go to the free Indian hot springs up the hill. No, can't do that either - here I am over on a quiet road looking WAY down at Fairmont hot springs.
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Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 1,374 miles (2,211 km)
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