Day 8, June 27th, Christina Lake to Fruitvale

We got up fairly early today because of these giant crows that lived in the tree by our tents. Brett decided to take another day off, which is probably a good thing. He is perpetually stretching and icing his knee. Hopefully it pays off. He’s in good spirits considering, which I admire.

The first bit of the ride was fairly easy. Flat, with some down hill sections. We then began the journey to the Nancy Greene submit on Mount Paulson. It was just over 1500 meters in elevation. It was a difficult ride at times, but the weather was perfect. Not too hot or cold.

Vanessa hot a couple flats behind me so I didn’t see the van for awhile. I ended up running out of water, so I stopped at a rest area. There was a water tap with a sign that read “boil before drinking.” Some guy saw me and offered a couple liters of water, which I took gratefully. He was up from Rossland with his son for the day. He knew Jeremy Girard, who is currently the student rep. on the Board of Governors at the U of L. Small world.

It was downhill all the way to Rossland and Trail. We were going as fast as traffic in town. I received the “bird” for the first time in Trail. I politely smiled and waved. After riding for over 6 hours, defending any other gesture I could have made, would have been a difficult task J. At the other side of Trail, we stopped at the Wal-mart and replaced the camping stove. We then began the climb of a large hill that would bring us to Montrose and our destination, Fruitvale.


We ended up in this campsite off the beaten track. They only charged us $12.00 for the night. It looked like it would have been a sweet campsite 15-20 years ago, but was now run down. Actually, it looked like one of those places a group of teens find in movies after they go the wrong way. I’m going to bed early tonight to get a good nights rest before the Kootenay Summit tomorrow.