The weather stayed warm, and we ended up killing some time during the middle of the day in and around the lovely town of Grand Forks.

The weather had gotten fairly warm by this part of the trip. We biked up the east side of Kootenay Lake and then took the free ferry from Kootenay Bay to Balfour, BC. The next 3 hours or so were spent on a picnic table in the shade watching the drama unfold as people congregated while waiting to take the ferry the other direction. We stopped and ate dinner in Nelson, probably the most happening spot we’d seen since Fernie.

Leaving mineral lake was a bit of an adventure, but once we were back on the main road the biking was relatively easy. Several people had told us that the route to take was to go north from Creston along Kootenay Lake and take the free ferry across. This apparently avoided a big pass with about 30 miles of continuous uphill.

Kootenay Lake is enormous, and you knew that since you had to follow the lakeshore for awhile you wouldn’t have to do any serious uphill. We ended up camping right on the lake, although having a campfire was no longer an option due to a fire ban.

After Fernie the biking was downhill the entire day. After facing days of headwinds and mountain passes, staying above 20mph for hours at a time was glorious. It was possibly the first day where we thought going east to west was a good decision. I think these were the only 6 pictures I took that day.

The next morning we biked through the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass still battling a strong, constant headwind. We stopped at their visitor center and were lured in by the free internet and comfortable chairs. The problem was we had an excellent view of the wind thrashing the trees outside and were extremely unexcited about leaving our cozy spot to battle it.

There was talk of staying the night at the visitor center, or possibly (gasp) trying to get a ride. After several hours of napping and reading all the great literature on activities in Alberta we put on our coats and gloves and ventured back into the fray.

There was more headwind for about 4 miles, then we saw a sign saying we were in British Columbia, followed by a stretch of downhill. Almost at the exact second we saw the sign, the horrendous wind that had been making biking so unpleasant for the last 2 days stopped completely, never to return. It was remarkable.

We stopped and had a picnic, and made many remarks of the wonderful stillness. Needless to say we had developed an immediate fondness for British Columbia.

We didn’t heed the local’s warning about getting an early start, and ended up rolling out at about 11am, partly because I noticed my first (and only) flat of the trip right before we were about to leave.

Highway 6 went north briefly, and then we turned and headed west on the road that would eventually take us to Vancouver, highway 3. This was unfortunate because the mountains were to the west of us and the wind was coming out from them headed directly east. Once we turned onto highway 3 we had a constant headwind of maybe 20 to 30 mph, which makes a huge difference when you are biking. The traffic was pretty heinous at this point as well, which combined to produce our least-pleasant day of biking for the trip.

After a few hours of this madness it was time for lunch. We stopped at the Bellevue Inn to eat our food and drink their beer. After an hour or so the storm came in and horizontal rain made sure we weren’t going anywhere. As a result we ended up hanging out with what likely constituted about half the town of Bellevue.

There was Larry, whose name was on a plaque as the 2-time (and only recipient) of the local award for bullshit. He was working hard on his 3rd. His friend Frank ended up telling me about good places to strike it rich panning for gold in Washington. Junior was there with his wife and bought us all a round. By the evening the weather had cleared and we received the crucial local info about a good place to pitch the tent right down the road.

Our second day took us across the border in Alberta, Canada. Pincher Creek seemed like a pleasant enough town, but the hundreds of windmills surrounding it were an ominous sign. We were warned by some locals to get an early start the next day to avoid the infamous Chinook Winds, which Wikipedia claims have been responsible for derailing trains.

In July Jeff, Andy, and I biked from West Glacier, Montana to Vancouver, British Columbia. The whole trip was about 900 miles and it took exactly 2 weeks.

Our first day we biked through Glacier National Park on the Going to the Sun Road, it was quite an epic start.

The best freestyle kayakers in the United States were in Missoula last week for the US National Team Team Trials. Click on the picture below to see more.

See the results here

For the July 4th weekend we put our bikes on the car and drove 2 hours west to ride the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, 75 miles of paved pathway closed to all motorized vehicles. While riding I was constantly thinking, “Why can’t we have more paths like this?”

Our first day there we did two separate rides, from where we were staying at the lovely Blue Anchor RV park in Osburn, Idaho to the eastern end of the trail in Mullan, about 23 miles roundtrip. In the evening we drove to the Medimont Trailhead and biked to Harrison, on Lake Coeur d’Alene, a ride of similar length.

Update: This hike was 13 miles long and after all was said and done I think Mom may have been the least tired.

Yesterday I met Steve at 5:30am and we drove down to Blodgett Canyon to climb the southwest face of Nez Perce Spire. Rock Climbing Montana says it is 8 pitches, 5.10. It is definitely the tallest climb I have ever done.

The pitch length and difficulty of our route varied quite a lot from the guidebook’s. However, it was freeing not knowing exactly how hard what you were climbing was or how long you should go before setting up the next belay. Big ups to Steve for leading all the hard stuff.

I had a bit of a scare on the first pitch, taking a 20 foot lead fall/slide on a slabby section (apparently there was some slack in the rope, none of my pieces popped), and was both grateful and proud of myself to be caught by a #3 stopper I had put in a fairly shallow crack. (A piece of metal a little smaller than a jellybean with some metal wire attached to it.)

The sun was out and we didn’t have any other major incidents, and were back to the car around 7:30pm.