Kaslo to Summit Lake

May 27, 2023

Fun on the trails

Despite the great location, it was not a great sleep for any of us in the municipal campground - it just wasn't quite as idyllic as last night's white noise from the Lardeau River. We woke to sun and a pretty strong breeze, and no dew on tents.

We had a great breakfast of fruit, eggs, and bacon. Shortly after breakfast, our friend Carolyn joined us. She had driven from New Denver this morning. She'll ride with us for the 50 km to New Denver, and her husband Sylvain will ride here and then pick up their vehicle. Given the opportunity to shuttle our panniers, we all took it. No purists among us!

We left Kaslo around 9:45 am, and had the steepest hill of the day right off the bat. In the upper part of town, we had planned to stop at a place rumoured to have great croissants and coffee, but it was closed today. Oh well, we'd all had a full breakfast already.

Next stop was at a covered pedestrian bridge for a view of the raging Kaslo River, which we’d follow uphill for the next 30 km. Beyond the hill that's right in Kaslo, it was easy climbing - never too steep. At the top, we stopped at Fish Lake for a snack and a peak at the unsuccessful toadlet diversion project. Carolyn explained her 'toad ambassador' activities and the movements of the western toad - they like to cross roads en masse, with predicable results, so there are numerous initiatives underway to divert them into culverts and under bridges. Then we happened to see one lonely toad in the lake.

Taking a break at Fish Lake, and getting the lowdown on toads from Carolyn.

Then it was downhill to New Denver. We said goodbye to Carolyn on her road bike at the start of the Galena Trail at Three Forks, since she continued on the pavement. It was a great rail trail all the way to New Denver, with a fabulous single-person cable car to get across Carpenter Creek at Alamo siding. There is still lots of remaining evidence of an old mining/milling operation near there - I suppose there were no reclamation bonds posted in the old days. After crossing the creek, there was more great easy rail trail down to New Denver, and yet another lake - Slocan Lake.

They made the Galena trailhead easy to find.

Rick locked and loaded for a cable car ride across Carpenter Creek. It's rigged up so that a solo cyclist or hiker could get themselves across.

The creek is raging. But the cable car is solid.

By the time we were down at town level, it was super hot. We stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few grocery items for tonight, and some late lunch items.

Then to the liquor store to pick up one beer each for later - no need to carry a huge amount of extra weight :-). We went to Carolyn and Sylvain’s to pick up our bags, eat our lunch, and rehydrate in the shade, and they kindly offered to drive our bags up to our final destination at Summit Lake. Yahoo. I guess we could've had two beers each!

Departing for Summit Lake, we felt a few welcome rain showers, but nothing warranting a jacket. There is another super-nice rail trail all the way from New Denver to Hills at the north end of Slocan Lake. That left us only 15 km to ride on the highway at the end of the day. We enjoyed the great shoulder. And best of all, a strong tail wind pushed us to our destination at Summit Lake provincial park, arriving around 5:30 pm and joining Carolyn and Sylvain for a cold drink and chips. After they left, we cooked ourselves another fine dinner.

We walked around campsite and talked to a keen fishermen who told us that he extracts stomach contents from live fish to see what they’re eating. Tiny flies right now, apparently. I didn't know this was a thing - but google tells me I can buy a fish stomach pumper for about $25. It looks like a tiny turkey baster.

Back on the highway towards Summit Lake, riding a big wide shoulder.

Not many wildlife sightings today, other than a couple of white-tailed deer. There was lots of bear poop on the Galena trail north of New Denver, though, so we still didn't want to tempt Yogi and his friends. We hoped the park had storage bins for food. It didn't, but a nice parks guy took our food bag to store indoors overnight.

Today's ride: 81 km (50 miles)
Total: 229 km (142 miles)

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