Castlegar to Kaslo (Mirror Lake)

July 4, 2015    

Castlegar to Kaslo (Mirror Lake)

Today’s ride was definitely one of the best rides on the trip.   It wasn’t too hilly.  It wasn’t too long. It wasn’t windy.  It wasn’t too hot, or at least the majority of the trip wasn’t.  It was incredibly beautiful.  Kind of one of those Goldie Locks kind of rides I guess. The day is was really hazy as there are a lot of forest fires burning  due to the extreme heat wave the province is experiencing.    There is a province wide ban on camp fire and burning of any kind.  It didn’t really smell smokey until later  in the day when the wind picked up.  The ride was actually 109 kms and had 1300 meters of climbing.  All of the climbs were short and although there were a couple which were in 7-10% range, most were in the 1-3% range, and they were all under a 10 kms so they went by quickly. 

We were following the Kootney river until we got to Balfour and then we followed the Kootney Lake North to Kaslo.  We had picnic at Balfour just up from the ferry dock which takes cars across the lake.  We were all at picnic wondering where Earnie was when he rolled in with a broken spoke.  He said his derailer hit the spoke when he down shifted but I am not sure how that would happen.  I think his spoke just broke as this is a brand new bike and one spoke was probably over tight or faulty.  Julie loaded  Earnie and his bike onto the van and drove him back to Nelson which was 40 kms back.  The rest of us continued north to Kaslo.  It was only 35 kms so we didn’t need support for such a short distance.  We just made sure our water bottles were full and we were off.

We got into camp and decided to ride into Kaslo which was another 5 kms for  something cold to drink and maybe something to eat.  About half way in Jos got a call from Julie saying she was in camp.  Earnie had gotten his wheel fixed in 15 minutes at the Nelson bike shop and decided to ride the last 35 kms into camp. 

The high light of the day for me was seeing an eagles nest on top of a railway bridge just off of the highway.  The eagles were both in the nest as I rolled up one took off and the other one stayed along with the two chicks.  I took a couple of pictures and the eagle put on a good show for me. 

Pizza tonight in Kaslo  --  Yummy

Terry