Day 9, June 28th, Fruitvale to Creston

We got going at 9:30 this morning. The first 20 kilometers of the ride was fantastic. It was slightly downhill for the most part, with a light headwind. We stopped in Salmo for a coffee and something to eat. It was getting pretty hot by then. We continued on, full of food and caffeine for the Kootenay Summit.

It wasn’t long before we began the assent. I was going through 3 bottles of water an hour-roughly 1.5 litre. The heat was getting intense. There was no wind or shade from the trees. Vanessa’s computer on her bike read +40 degrees on the highway. We took a bit of time out of the sun and sat in the shade. There was a small waterfall that we went under and drenched out clothes in. It was the best feeling that you could have imagined. Something that I wont soon forget. I soaked and old t-shirt and wore it around my neck until the summit. We finally reached the summit, approximately 70k from our last campsite, at 1774 metres.

A sign at the summit read that the next 35k were downhill. I had my brakes on for almost all this time. It was here that I realized my back rim is rubbing on my brakes. I’m going to have to adjust my spokes tomorrow morning.

We arrive in Creston at around 6:30pm. We found a fairly decent campsite. We’ve been really lucky to find campsites considering the long weekend.