July 19, 2023
In Radium: Old Coach Road
The fire situation has worsened significantly over the last 24 hours, and the air in town seems decidedly unhealthy this morning. It even feels somewhat questionable in our room. Biking anywhere nearby today and probably tomorrow suddenly looks out of the question, and we’re talking about hiding in our room all day when it occurs to us that maybe we can cancel one or both of the next two nights of our stay under the circumstances.
I head down to the front desk to broach the subject with the man on the morning shift. He has to talk to his manager and we have to call Booking.com, but it all gets a favorable outcome and an hour later I’m hauling the bikes and gear down the 21 stairs to load them into the car. We’re going to Radium Hot Springs, extending our two days already booked there by another two.
It’s an easy drive to Radium, more or less a straight shot north for two hours. The smoke worsens for the first five or ten miles as we approach the fire, but after that the skies gradually clear and we enjoy a scenic, easy drive. Our room isn’t available until after noon, so before checking in we stop for lunch at an upscale golf course restaurant in Invermere for our main meal of the day.
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Rachael of course heads out to the store and laundromat immediately after we arrive, and returns burdened down with a backpack full of food for the next four days and clean clothes, and maybe a little sorry we didn’t take the car on such a hot day. After that though we sit around our apartment, appreciating the good A/C and making plans for the coming days.
By late afternoon it’s cooled down enough for us to get out for a walk. We settle on the Old Coach Greenway, a gravel road paralleling the highway for about six miles south of town that’s been upgraded to a biking and hiking trail. The road is a historic road, created in 1920 at the beginning of the automobile era as a scenic motor vehicle route from Banff to Mindermere.
We drive to the south end of the trail, park the car, and then walk north back toward Radium. The plan is that Rachael will walk back to our motel while I’ll go partway and then return to retrieve the car.
It’s quite a scenic walk, following the bench lands above the Columbia River that flows a few hundred feet below. You can seldom see the river itself from the trail, but all along there are side trails that loop out to the edge of the shelf and provide stunning views of the river, wetland# nd mountains beyond.
We’re both quite tired and hot by the end - especially Rachael, because the trail steepens and gets really dusty at the end when it climbs into town. We’re both glad we went, and glad to be done.
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Hi Bill!
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Keep it up! Maybe others will start to chime in as well. I run out of time.
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