Day 5

September 21, 2023

Crescent Valley to the C&W rail-Trail.

It was a cold morning. My Garmin watch measured 5.9”C. Woke up and broke camp by 8:30 which was a record for us. We have become notoriously late risers in our retirement.

We pushed bikes back into the municipal park to a picnic table in the sun and had breakfast. As we were packing up, a young man and his very old dog passed by. The dog was quite excited when he saw our bikes and clearly wanted to join us. His human explained that the dog had gone on many bike trips when he was younger, but he was 15 years old now. That was too old to run behind a bike or go much further than a short walk around the muni-park. It was quite a poignant encounter, and a reminder that the sands of time were running out for all of us.

Afterward we cycled along paved country lanes, past bucolic farms and beautiful houses. There was a small amount of up and down, but the hills were mercifully short.

Eventually we ended up in Castlegar. Compared to all the quaint villages we had passed, Castlegar was noisy, dirty, and busy. We were glad to leave it behind.

The C&W rail trail is the thick red line. Coloured dots along the trail are the historical stations. Castlegar upper right.

Which turned out to be more difficult than expected. There was a single sign pointing to the start point of our next rail-trail (the Columbia & Western), followed by at least a dozen very official signs warning of immediate prosecution, private property, no trespassing allowed, etc. We ignored them all, and finally arrived at the trailhead.It was getting late, but there were no good campsites so we started up the trail.

We knew from online descriptions that this section climbed relentlessly for many (50+) kilometres, although the grade never exceeded 2%.

This map shows the trail grades. We coming from Castlegar, on the right. We will camp tomorrow at Farron Station, the high high point.

Eventually we found a good campsite about 10 km up the trail, and camped right beside the road. Unfortunately the ground sloped a bit so we had to terraform a flat tent pad, using our ultra-lightweight titanium cat-hole shovel.

There was a shortage of good camping spots and we were too tired to keep going.

Today's ride: 42 km (26 miles)
Total: 177 km (110 miles)

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