Day 5?

I did not post our travels from Fernie to what turned out to be Eureka, MT. I wrote one, and it was great. Probably a mix of Shakespeare and Hemingway, to be honest. Actually, if you’ve read my posts, you know I”m not being honest. So before updating the past few days, I’ll recall the trip from Fernie. But when I went to post the update to the blog page, it disappeared. Completely. I was a bit tired, angry that I didn’t copy the text before posting, and not ready to do this again with my finger-typing. So I’ll try to recreate this in much shorter prose. Fernie turned out to be a really great little town. An old mining town that now seems to be outdoor activity central for this part of BC. Patty’s HS friends took us into town where we found multiple bike shops, including one that had a part to an obscure water bladder that is only made in the UK. There were lots of outdoor options including cycling, hiking, and both types of skiing. Very cool. At the same time, it’s not (yet?) overgrown and commercial. We cannot say enough thanks to these friends for their hospitality and of course
the pizza, beer, hot shower and warm bed. Their house was fantastic, and we enjoyed every minute of the time we spent. Thank you! We got out of Fernie in the morning, after stopping at Big Bang Bagels and picking up lunch. Off we went to as far as we could make it that day. We were not very optimistic as the past few days have not yielded many miles each. However, the trip out of Fernie was good, and we made it to Elko (another Elk name, of course) where the map had shown a place to eat. That place, and the only commercial building we saw in town, was a little ice cream place, so we naturally stopped for shakes and waffles fries. The next part of the trip took us off the highway for a little while going around Baynes Lake, which seemed to be a place where everyone bought land and dragged a travel trailer. The lake seemed nice, and I bet it likely just opened up to people buying around there, or at least that’s what I’m thinking. The route then pushed us back onto the highway, so we actually made really good time. We were heading quickly toward Roosville, MT and the US border. Before we knew it we were back in the states and traveling towards Eureka. Eureka was not an “I found it!” moment, it seemed like a Montana kind of place. Lots of folks in pickup trucks and dusty old places. Eureka also featured 2 motels, the better reviewed one was full, so we went to the other the Ksanka Inn. It was attached to the convenience store and the Subway shop. But a hotel is a hotel and we bought. The internet connection in the hotel, where there was very poor cell reception, apparently consisted of one residential router placed in the convenience store, because it was almost impossible to connect and we got kicked off constantly. that’s where I wrote my manifesto, to have it uploaded and disappeared at the same time. So the next day we set out from Eureka, up into the mountains. We were going to have to go through 2 passes, the Whitefish Pass and the Red Meadows Pass. The road going there was actually paved, so the beginning of the climb was pretty good. Then it transitioned to a pretty good gravel road as it got steeper, and then at the end was a couple mile climb where we had to go up about 1,000 feet and the road was much rockier. But we made without too much trouble - I was amazed that Jerry, with his A-fib issue, was doing a great job. We spent the rest of the morning losing a lot of the elevation we climbed, from about 5,500 feet to about 3700. Jerry said that this was the bigger of the two, so we felt pretty good. We stopped at a campsite for a place to have some lunch, and ate half of our Subway sandwich - anyone reading my posts from three years ago knows I am not a fan of Subway sandwiches. Off we went, toward the other, supposedly smaller peak. But at lunch we looked at the map and found out that the other one, Red Meadow Pass, was at about 6,500 feet, and we had been rolling downhill for a few hours. Oops. So we went off in dread of the second peak. Ominously, we just kept creeping upwards, slowly, waiting for the worst. It came. The road got rocky, and very, very steep. We were pushing up 8-10% grades at the end, trying to put another 1,400 feet within a couple of miles. I started rewarding myself with a rest for every 100 feet I climbed. I have no idea how Jerry was making it. Typically he was behind, but slowly he made his way up, sometimes passing me while I rested. The final few hundred feet were absolutely gut-wrenching, and now it also looked like it was going to rain.
I stopped right near the top and waited for Jerry to arrive. It took a very long time, and I wondered if I should just go to the campsite we were staying at tonight, a few hundred yards beyond the peak. I waited for Jerry and we rode in together. Just as we got to the camp, the winds started picking up and I pulled the tent out with added speed. We were putting up poles and then trying to pull the fly over the tent as it was ready to sail away. So we held onto to one end and pushed the other into the poles just as the rain began. Jerry ran for his down jacket and i had nothing buy my raincoat as we ducked into the tent as the downpour began. The temperature dropped so fast that we were stuck inside the tent , no possible way to get to the bikes. Jerry was pretty comfortable but I couldn’t stop shivering. At least we were dry. It rained that hard for the better part of an hour, followed by a thin drizzle that didn’t want to stop. Finally we got out of the tent and started to unload. I was covered in road dust and ready to get in the Red Meadows lake, but so cold I couldn’t fathom it. Finally I took the plunge, washed up my disgustingly smelly and dusty clothes, and went back for every bit of clothing I had. We ended up eating the rest of our sandwiches, because we were desperate, and tried one of the freeze dried meals I had brought. We boiled water, made hot coffee, and put the hot water in the freeze dried bag of chicken Alfredo. 10 minutes later, we had a really good hot meal, that likely wasn’t a 2 person meal it advertised. But definitely pretty good. WE will be picking up more of these meals if and when possible. We blew up the air mattresses, pulled out the down bags, and slept very comfortably.
The morning came and apparently it had rained some more, since everything out of the tent was wet, including our clothes on the line.. We pulled on very wet clothing, shivering, but they dry pretty quickly on your body, so eventually it was okay. The day started out the opposite of the way the day ended, and we rode downhill for miles, quickly getting into Whitefish, MT, passing by Whitefish Lake, which reminded me of Lake Tahoe with all of the huge homes built on the lake. Most looked like they were built within the past 10 years. We stopped at the Piggyback, a barbecue restaurant, which was a good call. Lunch was really good, and a waitress suggested the Whitefish Lake State Park as a place to stay, and it had showers, electricity, and water. Since I had packed my tent wet, and I worried about that, this was a good excuse for me to put it up and let it dry out. We put up the tent, went for the showers and sinks for clothes washing, and it rained again, while the sun was out. The tent got soaked again, but for most of the day it got sunny again. We went into Whitefish to get a prescription refill for Jerry’s A-fib at the local Walgreens. After that we went to town and rode around, looking for adventure stores etc.. but we didn’t find much of them. Whitefish has absolutely exploded in growth over the past few years, and there was a traffic jam of SUVs and oversized pickup trucks. Not the kind on a farm, the very fancy kind that will likely never see work. We went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner, but apparently we hadn’t ridden enough today, so we couldn’t eat much of anything, so we saved half for breakfast tomorrow. We’re headed for parts unknown, with few, if any supporting businesses like stores or anything. It will be a very interesting couple of days as there will be no motels or services or anything. Right now I’m charging up everything possible, we’ll load up on water and food, and head out. I will likely not be able to post for a few days as connections will likely be impossible, not just troublesome like Eureka and the Ksanka Inn. We ran into a few of the people tonight at our campsite who were also at the Red Meadows campsite last night. We reminisced about the rainstorm and learned where everyone was headed. They did it over some vodka drinks, so the stories got better than happened yesterday. It looks like everyone is heading off in different directions, so likely the last we’ll see of them. Farewell new friends from Vermont and DC. Happy Trails…

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