July 19, 2016
Canal Flats - Cranbrook, BC: Ta Ta Creek and dirt roads get a thumbs up from me!
Is it pitiful if I am happy to have a headwind all day? Who would think I would ever say that? Maybe not so much happy to have a headwind, but SO happy to be warm and dry that I didn't care if we had a headwind. Warm and dry is much appreciated.
Backing up - it was such an unpleasant experience with the grouchy waitress last night that we all agreed to eat something from the store rather than go back to the restaurant. Jacinto had been carrying a can of Stagg's Chili for a couple of weeks. I ate that with yogurt for dessert. Yum. It wasn't quite as good as my salmon dinner in Jasper.
The original plan was to chance the restaurant again in the morning for a real breakfast to be fortified for the day.
I don't know what got into Jacinto, but he offered to ride with me today. ??? He keeps telling me I am faster than I think and he isn't as fast as I think. At least he was willing to give it a try. We had had major negotiations on what road to take today. Oren wanted to take 95 the whole way. I had found a back road route, 95A (toward Kimberly), then Ranch Road south to Mission, and Cranbrook. The problem was seven miles of dirt through an indian reservation. Taking the google guy for a walk, it didn't look like a bad road and it would give us about half of our route today on back roads. Jim and Genny were in, Oren was most definitely out. No dirt for him. Nothing doing. After all of that going around, Jacinto offered to be my escort for the day. He also offered to get up early. I don't know where this is coming from, but I should take it.
The offer meant I wasn't going to the restaurant for a hot breakfast. I did have oatmeal and milk. Jacinto offered me chicken. I don't usually eat chicken for breakfast, but what the heck. He had a hamburger and ribs. When you are bicycling, it's all fuel!
We had instant coffee and creamer in our kitchen. Genny had sugar. Jacinto was able to have coffee with his breakfast. The others were gone, and we left at 8:15. It appeared they were ahead of us, we couldn't see the bicycles at the restaurant.
I had forgotten all about the signs for road construction. 16 kilometers. See how laid back I am getting? Previously I never would have forgotten a potential problem. We had beautiful new pavement for several miles. Then we came upon stopped traffic and a flagman. He said it would be a ten minute wait, then please cross over and ride on the new pavement on the other side of the road.
Lovely! Fresh new pavement for miles. Plus the construction was holding up traffic so it came by in clumps. The view was fabulous all around. The road was flat to slightly rolling for miles and miles. Blue sky with just enough clouds to be picturesque. The only annoyance was a headwind. I didn't care - I was too busy being happy.
We saw one group of four loaded tourists - front panniers only. Two couples. One man called hello with a definite Canadian accent.
Mile 26 was the turn for 95A. Jacinto had been slightly behind me all morning. We had seen the others' tire tracks several times. I had seen them pulling on to the road from a rest area, but hadn't caught up. We got behind again when we stopped at the turn. I told Jacinto to wait for me at the next turn, mile 33.6 for Ranch Road.
We passed quickly through Ta Ta Creek. At one time there had been a little store but it was closed now. A woman parked in front called to me that my bike was cool. That put a smile on my face. Ta Ta Ranch is for sale, if you are interested.
Jacinto stopped for a snack at the turn to Ranch Road. I made a pee stop, discretely behind a fence. Or so I thought. I was just giving the full view and here came two women on horses. Darn. At least they were women . . . they didn't say anything. I waved.
Off we went. The road changes names several times, but we just needed to keep heading south. The view through here was excellent. Green meadows, tall ponderosa pines, and mountains. It even seemed the wind died down.
In no time at all we were to the dirt section. We stopped several times for photos. We had only a couple of vehicles pass us the entire seven miles. The surface wasn't as nice as the dirt road from Squilax. It was a bit washboard in areas. About halfway through there was a sign 'grading equipment' and a road grader working on the road. After we started riding on the graded parts, some of it was a bit soft and I had my front wheel turn on me a couple of times.
Overall we were off the main highway for half of the distance and it was well worth the route change. The dirt road was a nice change of pace and only seven miles long, so the surface condition wasn't that much of an issue. I might not have been as happy doing 50 miles of that quality of dirt. According to the weather forecast, and also what we could see looking down the road from Canal Flats, Cranbrook was getting some serious rain last night. However, the dirt was very dry. Either it didn't rain there, or they have excellent drainage.
At mile 43 we reached the pavement again. Shortly we were in the town of Mission, which was on Indian land. There was a big casino with a full parking lot right next to the interesting looking old Mission building that is now a hotel resort. I hope Jim took a photo of it. Jacinto didn't.
We had just a few miles to town. I had read in another CG journal that Cranbrook is not bicycle friendly and local cyclists ride on the sidewalk. I don't like bicycling in big towns in general, towns that aren't bicycle friendly certainly aren't on my list of happy places.
By changing the route to the back roads, Jim thought we would be coming in a more direct way to our lodging. When we crossed the highway, Mission Road changed to Theatre Road. We took a left on McPHee to Walmart and made our way to the Econo Lodge. It is a large U shaped, two story motel. There wasn't a single car in the parking lot. That made me nervous. The price was right, it includes a hot breakfast, and the rooms are fine. I don't know why they don't have any other customers. It's rather odd and a bit unsettling.
We were in town by 1:30 PM. Jacinto and I have been missing going to the movie theater and eating movie popcorn. There is a theatre right across the street. That's where we spent our afternoon - watching a stupid comedy (Mike and Dave - don't waste your money). The popcorn wasn't even good. A disappointment - but still good to go to a movie. The others can't understand why we've been wanting to go to the movie the entire trip. I guess that's what happens from growing up in the movie theatre business - we like going to the movies! Even if it's a stupid comedy. We paid $20. CAD for two tickets, a big popcorn, and a big drink. That seems very cheap for a first run movie. At least we didn't waste much money.
This is our last full day in Canada. We are trying to spend all of our Canadian dollars. We've paid cash for the last couple of nights and have $60 left for dinner tonight. That's a bit much. We might have to go to the store and buy extra snacks.
Tomorrow is another day we have options to get off of the main road for a good portion of the day. It's a 66 miler with 2,300 of climbing. Basically, we are done with climbing this trip. Just some rolling things to keep it interesting.
We are going to dinner at some place the others have found. That will be the first we've talked to them all day. I'm interested to see if Jim and Genny enjoyed the side trip also. Oren went on the main road.
Update - we went to a Ukranian buffet for dinner. It had sausage and sauerkraut and cabbage rolls - those were the two things I would say were Ukranian. Borscht soup. It was $14.95, a pretty cheap meal for the area. We didn't eat much. I don't know if that day wasn't difficult enough, or if the food wasn't our style.
Jacinto went to Walmart to buy Voltaren cream that Genny said was prescription in the USA, but OTC here. He came back with two giant bags of food we will have to carry. The irony is that he picked so many items out that he was $4.00 short of having enough Canadian money to pay for it and had to use the credit card. He has over $20. in Canadian coins. I would have been spending that money a long time ago. Not Jacinto! He just gathers all sorts of heavy things up. Like the two pounds of pistachios he just bought . . . I asked for dried fruit, so he bought two bags of dried apricots. No problem, just throw it in the pannier.
We have a hot breakfast included in the morning. Breakfast starts at 7 AM. Getting out of town looks busy. Cranbrook is a big town, certainly not little Canal Flats.
Weather says 0% chance of rain, high of 80 degrees, and SW wind peaking at 13 mph. You can't win them all.
Today's ride: 50 miles (80 km)
Total: 1,424 miles (2,292 km)
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