August 31, 2021
Day 5 - Ram-Wigwam to Finish at Fernie
WAFA - Wigwam Alternate to the Flathead Alternate
Even though this was designed to be a very short 6 day tour, like all of our trips, we do make things up and change as we go. In this sense we are consistent
Over supper last night both K and I agreed that the camping in the remote Flathead Alternate area was very good but the cycling ranged from ok to tedious and the scenery was not that great given we were in tree tunnels most of the time, or looking at the trail/road surface 2-5 m in front of our bikes to avoid potholes or boulders!
I had a look at the maps after dinner and saw that we could take a straight shot North about 45 km to Fernie tomorrow rather than do about the same distance south with a big climb, and even bigger descent, over Galton pass that would still leave us with another ~80 km day to get back to Fernie through the more built up, and flatter, Kootenay valley.
Neither Kirsten or I were very thrilled about the 1000+ m decent from Galton pass, assuming that the road conditions would be similar to what we had on Cabin pass. When I floated the idea of a revision to the plan (i.e. bail-out to Fernie today) with Kirsten over breakfast there was a unanimous decision to head north.
It turned out to be a very good ride with much better road conditions in general, and great mountain views as we worked our way back into the higher Rockies. Even better, there was a strong south wind that is was at our back today and would’ve been right in our faces had we gone south to Galton pass.
It was another day without any other cyclists, but to no surprise, as we got into the Kootenay valley and closer to Fernie there were more vehicles. Not that they posed an issue … one very 10 minutes or so and full of people heading out hiking or fishing.
We finished up with a visit with our friend Magni (one of several friends we have who split their time between Calgary and Fernie) who very kindly let us get showered and then fed us a great lunch and a trip end beer. Our final Fernie thanks goes out to Ted B, who kindly drove one of our vehicles down here on the weekend so we had a way of getting back home. Thanks Magni and Ted.
With the gear stuffed in the car and the bikes left at Ted’s to be picked up another time (no rack for the car we had!), we had a beautiful ride back to Canmore on the iconic Hwy 22, aka the Cowboy Trail, and then we retraced our route from our June bike trip from Longview back to Canmore over Highwood pass. No pics from this section …. ‘Cause this is a biking blog, not a road trip one. Classic Rockies weather though. Clear sky and 22 °C at Longview, 80 km’s later 3 °C and sleet as we crested Highwood pass!
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SOTD - Don't Give Up, Peter Gabriel live with Paula Cole.
Well, we did, at least on the Flathead Alternate route. The thought of rough 1000 + m of downhill on Galton pass vs a straight shot to Fernie with no major passes was an easy decision!
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Today's ride: 46 km (29 miles)
Total: 302 km (188 miles)
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3 years ago