Touring the Rockies — Three

Saturday

Yesterday it snowed lightly at Logan Pass. We flew down the east side to keep dry; and the storm followed us. When we reached Saint Mary Lake the wind was howling, so we flew on. Today the wind has calmed down.

We left Many Glacier Campground headed for Waterton Lakes today. I’d ridden this road before. It was downhill that direction, and I could make the turns better than cars, so I passed the slower ones. I didn’t pass any going back up today. 😀

There was some wind all day, but when we got to Waterton Lakes it became a gale. We gave up on our plan to camp in the park, and rode a few miles north to camp at Waterton Springs Campground. The wind was blowing so hard at first that it blew us uphill without pedaling. The wind was coming at a tricky angle. My Windsurfing experience helped me stay upright.

In the afternoon we hired a shuttle bus to take us into Waterton Lakes Townsite. It was was strangely nice in in there, with surprisingly little wind. The winds at Waterton are legendary though. The hotel was blown off its foundation during construction. I imagine they used bigger bolts after they got it back in place.

We wandered through the tourist attractions on main street, and then had pizza. After that, some of us hiked to a striking overlook, and on to the Prince of Wales Hotel. We had high tea there, which was quite grand. Then we shuttled back to our campground.

Sunday

We rode to Blairmore, Alberta, which is six miles from Crowsnest Pass. That’s near Frank, Alberta, which was nearly wiped out by the mining-induced Frank Side.

We faced 20 mph winds on the last 15 miles. We formed two pacelines, which helped, but it was dicey because few of the riders had experience with pacelines. We made it to Blairmore without any crashes though.

Blairmore was big enough to have an IGA (modest grocery store), and we planned to have  rotisserie chicken for dinner. They didn’t have any left though. According to my notes, we had deli beans, and kaiser roll sandwiches instead. Tomorrow it’s up and over Crowsnest Pass for a day off in Fernie, BC.

Monday & Tuesday

It was much more pleasant going over Crowsnest Pass than it was in the drizzle two years ago. Fernie used to be a coal mining town, but it’s now a ski mecca. It’s surrounded by peaks of the Rocky Mountains. We camped at a ski resort. My notes say the best feature there was the washrooms. The ground sloped too much, and I kept sliding downhill as I slept.

We had lunch on our way to Fernie in Sparwood, BC. We ate in a park that features the “Biggest Dump Truck” in the world. Sparwood was also a mining town in its heyday. Like Fernie, everything was neat and tidy in Sparwood.

We had breakfast at “Rip & Richard.” I had corned beef hash made from scratch, with brick-oven-baked whole wheat bread. (They could have put in a bit more corned beef, eh?) We also took advantage of the laundromat in town.

Most of us roamed around Fernie for a while after that. We visited a bicycle shop that featured (duh!) mountain bikes. I bought a bassworm (sort of a tubular rubber band) to snug up my rear shifting cable. They even loaned me an allen wrench to install it with. No more fiddling around when changing gears.