Cranbrook - Creston 2026

 Cranbrook - Creston 2926

US Border to Wyndel

June 20, 2026

Today was the last ride day of the tour, so everyone was looking for a great finish.  We certainly had the day for it. Beautiful blues skies, hardly a breath of wind and perfect ride temperatures.   We have done the south loop, north loop and the west loop a couple of times so we decided to ride south to the US border and then north to Wyndel and back to camp.  This would give us a 45 kms round trip.  

We were off down to the US border along Hwy 21.  I was surprised at how much traffic there was for a Saturday morning.  This road has been pretty quiet, but today there were a lot more vehicles.  I think we must have gotten passed 10 times in the 40 minutes it took us to get there.  Ok still not a lot of traffic.  On the return ride there were a couple of signs I had not seen so I stopped for a photo.  The one celebrating Canada and the one welcoming you to Creston.   

Back in Creston we headed north to Wyndel and the Canco gas station which sells chocolate milk along with gas, guns, ammunition, fishing tackle, beer and a whole lot more.  I settled for the chocolate milk.  It really hit the spot as the temperature was climbing towards 25 C.   

Ken and I took a detour down the Duck Lake road to see where it went but while is was the smoothest road any where around Creston there was only about 1.5 kms before the pavement ran out.  Drat.

Ed and Julie are headed home at the crack of stupid tomorrow as Ed as doctor appointments he needs to get to.  I am going to head home my self as I have been told that a huge Father's Day celebration is being planned.  Ken is going to hang around Sunday and head home Monday.  

We have loved staying at Scotties here in Creston.  The weather has been ideal.  The rides have been wonderful.  Company fantastic.  What a great tour.  

Terry 

Cranbrook - Creston 2026

Cranbrook - Creston 2026

Westside out and back

June 19, 2026

This morning started out at about 15 C at 6:00 am and kept getting warmer as the day went on.  We rolled out at 9:30 and it was all ready plenty warm. We were headed for the west side of Creston where the wildlife preserve is.  We were going to ride down to the end of the road on the west side then back up and around to the wildlife preserve but rather than continuing on to the highway and back to camp we were going to double back to the first road and there up avoid the second bridge on the highway.  However that isn't quite what happened.  Once we did the first leg of the out and back we started down the second leg but found a new leg which was off of the wildlife leg off to the south along an upper bench.  I is always fun to do a little exploring.  

On the way there are a couple of eagle nests up on some old poles.  As we approached one we could see an eagle and I was getting my camera out to get a picture when the eagle flew off.   Drat missed the shot!  However another eagle was coming in to replace the one which had just left.  I was quite lucky and got a couple of pictures; one of the eagle approaching the nest and one landing on the nest.  

The new leg was a quite a nice ride with some good rollers and some great views of the valley. I will have to write a new Garmin route to exploit this route.   

On the way back Ken and Ed rode off to do a out and back to the border to garner a few extra kms.  Julie and I rode into town and Julie bought me an ice cream.  After a hot ride nothing is better than Ice cream.  

It was a pretty good ride covering 46 kms and averaging 20 kms/hr.   

What a great day.

Terry 

 

Cranbrook - Creston 2026

 Cranbrook - Creston 2026

Creston Winery Tour

June 18, 2026

Today was the day we were going to do the winery tour.  The Wynnwood winery out in Wynndel which we visited last year has closed so that left us with three wineries to visit,  Red Bird, Baillie-Grohman, and Skimerhorn.  

The wineries did not open until  11:00 am so it was a lazy morning but we put our time to good use and went to the main street bakery for coffee and pastries.  My cinnamon bun was about 6" square and was absolutely fantastic. Shopping for supper groceries followed so that left the rest of the day free.

It was only about 3 kms up the road to Red Bird.  It is owned by Sharron and Remi Cardinal (I guess that is where the name came from).  Sharron was hosting the wine tasting and she was an excellent hostess.  Her knowledge of the wines which they produce was great.  They have also started a line of ciders but the wine was really the star.  They had three whites, a rose, and one red.  They were all excellent.

Only a few kms down the road was Baillie-Grohman.  It is a much bigger operation and the tasting was a lot more business like.  They had three white wines and a red.  The wines were all good but none of them stood out.  But I am not a wine tasting specialist and with this cold my taste is really off.  

Skimerhorn was the last place and it was right next to Baillie-Grohman.  They have an absolutely beautiful deck which over looks the Kootenay valley.  They have a good menu of food so we ordered a couple of plates of treats.  They had three whites, a rose and a red.  I thought their Pinot was very good.  The red was a Foch and was really heavy.  It would be good with big rare steak.  Sitting on the patio enjoying the view was a piece of heaven.

Having completed the wine tasting we wobbled back to the campsite.  A short ride day at only 10 kms but a really memorable day.   

In my totally humble opinion Red Bird was the absolute stand out best of the three.  Best over all tasting experience, and by far the best wine.   Their Atelier Red was a total knock out.  

Terry    

 

Cranbrook -Creston 2026

 Cranbrook - Creston 2026

Creston brewery tour/ Rest day

June 17, 2026

Brewery tour:

After the bike ride we headed across the street to the Kokanee Brewery.  It is actually the Columbia Brewery which is owned by Labatt Brewing which is in turn owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.   They produce a wide variety of beers under different labels but the most famous is Kokanee.  Kokanee was first brewed in 1959 when the Columbia Brewery was built.  However it really got going with the highly successful ad campaign which featured the BC. sasquatch.  The basic brewery which was constructed in 1959 still forms the back bone of the operation.  Most of the larger vessels are still in use and only a couple of the copper kettles have been replaced.  There have been a lot of modifications and upgrades over the years. The facility is fully automated and a couple of operators control everything from a control room.  The canning line is the most recent facility upgrade.  It can process 1.5 million can a day.  It is really quite fascinating to watch the cans flying along the line.  After the tour we returned to the tasting room to try out some of different beers.  The tour guide was the same fellow who did the tour when we were here last year.  We had a lot of fun sampling the different beers.  

Rest day in Creston: 

I have been suffering from this horrid cold for the last couple of weeks and it just doesn't seem to be getting better.  Although the nasal congestion is a lot better, but the sore throat lingers on.  The effects of this cold have exaggerated by not getting a good nights sleep and hard days on the bike.  This morning I just felt awful so I decided to take a rest day.  Ken, Ed and Julie rode off and I laid down for a nap.  I don't think I was down for more than a minute before I was fast asleep.   I slept for 2.5 hours. I awoke feeling 100% better.  Julie arrived back and we went shopping for groceries.  The afternoon was spent relaxing in the sun and sucking down root beer.  It is totally amazing how much better a 2.5 hr nap and a bunch of root beer can make you feel.

Terry  

 

Cranbrook - Creston 2026

 Cranbrook- Creston 2026

Creston Wildlife Preserve

June 16, 2026

It looked like it was going to be a warm day today so we had not planned a really big ride.   We thought that it would be a good idea to ride across the valley and tour the Wildlife Preserve.  The out and back to the Wildlife Preserve was on  28 kms so we added a few by riding a road which heads south along the Kootenay river.  This is a really nice ride as it is deal flat across the flood plain of the river and because it dead ends with only a few farms along the way there is almost no traffic.  Although it is getting pretty rutted and the pavement is badly in need of repair;

On the way back we stopped at the wildlife preserve and took a walking tour.  The spring migration is long past and the fall migration is not for several months as a result there were no big flocks to see.  The big observation tower has been repaired from when we were here in June of 2025 so we had to climb it. The view of the wetlands from 3 stories up was magnificent.  I can only imagine the view from the tower when thousands of birds are coming in on a migration.  We did see a couple of logs in one of the ponds which had a lot of painted blue turtles on it, several red wing black birds and several eagles riding the thermals. 

Coming back across the valley we had a very nice tail wind.  They are working on the Kootenay Pass so all the cars were bunched up on the highway.  This made the trip across the bridge easy as we just waited until the cars had left and the we cruised across the big bridge.  

The short ride turned out to be just over 45 kms so it was very nice.  

We are off to tour the Kokanee brewery this afternoon.  I will try and make a special post with pictures on that but we will see how it goes with the post tour sampling.  

Terry 

Cranbrook - Creston 2026

 Cranbrook - Creston 2026

Creston South Loop

June 15, 2026

I felt just awful this morning when I got up.  This cold is really hanging on.  I am totally congested and have a terrible barky cough.  I was awake at 4:45 am coughing uncontrollably so I used some Dristan nasal mist and went and sat in the car.  Lying down just makes the congestion worse.  Next thing I knew Ken was banging on the car window as it was time for breakfast. 

Today we were going to ride the south loop and then continue out to do the north loop.   It is 10 kms south along hwy 21 to the US border but I stopped to take a picture of a fisherman on the Goat River.  It looked like a great day and place to be fishing.   The Port Hill Road has a 3 kms climb from the border up to the plateau above the river valley.  I was wheezing and coughing by the time I made the top of the hill.  Not being able to breath is a real handicap when you are riding a standard bike (non-Electric).  The route we took was a little different than the one we did a couple of days ago so it was nice to see some new scenery.  

By time we got to the turn on Hwy 3 to head for the north loop I knew I had had enough so Julie and I turned back to camp and Ken and Ed rode on to do the north loop.

After a shower Julie and I headed off to buy groceries for tonight's supper.  I was also on the hunt for some more cold and Flu medicine.  I wound up with a big bottle of Benylin and a box of NeoCitaran .

Hopefully a big dose of this stuff will help.

While today wasn't a big ride day at only 31.1 kms I was glad to have made it as far as I did.

Terry 

Cranbrook - Creston 2026

 Cranbrook -Creston 2026

Creston Arrow Creek Loop

June 14, 2026

This morning was only 11 C when we got up but it was warming up quite quickly and by 9:30 when we headed off it was already 18 C,   

We were going to ride the Arrow Creek Loop which follows the Arrow Creek road east of town.   So we headed east on highway 3 east to the Arrow Creek Road.  You have to make a left turn across the highway which is not always easy to do.  However as we were fairly early and it was a Sunday there was no traffic and the turn was not a problem.   From the highway the Arrow Creek Road makes a bunch of lefts and rights past a bunch of rural acreages.  Some of them are ultra modern exclusive homes right of the pages of the best architecture magazines and some are hillbilly classic.  A lot of them have unique pieces in the drive way proclaiming the address.  Once you leave the highway it is a steady climb all the way to the summit of the road.  At the summit is a cut into the vertically bedded leaverite.  At one point I was thinking this would make a heck of an out and back as it is down hill all the way back to Scotties Campground in Creston.  However it is only 13.9 kms out so it would be kind of short ride. 

From the summit of the Arrow Creek road it is a wickedly steep down hill to Hwy 3a.  Hwy 3 runs east of town and 3A runs north from town so you have cut the corner off by taking the Arrow Creek Road.  We road north on the 3A to the Wynndel Canco where we had a little break before heading home on hwy 21 which runs straight south to the US border.  

Julie  fixed some brats in beer and onions for lunch.  They were absolutely wonderful.

While it was only a 35.8 kms ride  today it was a lot of fun and the weather was jut perfect.  

I am not sure what we are having for supper but my bets are that it will end with something chocolate. 

What a great day

Terry 

Cranbrook - Creston 2026

 Cranbrook - Creston 2026

Creston South Loop

June 13, 2026

The weather here in Creston is about 6 C warmer in the mornings and 10 C warmer in the afternoons.  Today we had a high of 22 C which is just about perfect. Oddly enough we are having an afternoon cloud burst.  Weather channel gave it a 20% chance and it looks like we got picked as the place for the little blast of rain.  

As it was already 14C by 9:30 am, so we headed off on the southern loop here at Creston.  The southern loop takes you south to the US boarder via Hwy 21. Just before you get to the boarder you turn up Port Hill Road.  It is a 5 km climb up a canyon to the valley which is south of Creston.  The area is primarily rolling farm land, the majority of it is hay fields.  As you get closer to Creston the hay fields give way to cherry orchards.  I had hoped that cherries might be ready which would be about 3 weeks early but they are just little green lumps at this point.       

The south loop is a really pleasant ride with lots of turns and ups and downs. Once you get past Port Hill road all of the climbs are quite short.  However there is one climb which is only about 500 meters long but is 16%.  It has always been a grind to get over it but this year I was only able to get about 450 meters up before I had to walk.  Getting old or just out of shape?   

After we rolled back into camp Ed and Julie took little Wrigley out for a short walk so that she could do her business while Ken and I feed the mosquitos.  They seem to be very aggressive this year.  Back on our bikes we rolled down town to the bakery for lunch.  The treats in the bakery are extraordinary.  

Ken has agreed to do salmon on the barbeque this evening so I slid up to Save On and picked up a very nice looking salmon fillet.  And a chocolate desert.  

Not the biggest ride but a very satisfying ride of 36 kms today.

What a great day. 

Terry