Rockies IV June 19 South Creston and West side of Kootenay RIver

Rockies IV

June 19, 202

South Creston and West side of the Kootenay River

As usual our 7:30 am breakfast of cereal and coffee was finished and cleaned up by just after 7:00.  Ken T said his knee was sore which isn’t all that surprising as we have been riding pretty hard and Ken is not on his usual bike.  As a result, he was going to take a day off and go for a walk around town. 

As I set to pump up my tires I broke the little nut off the top of the valve stem.  This mean that I either rode my bike with broken valve stem at what ever pressure the tire was at or change the tube.  I elected to change the tube but Ken C and Barry had to wait for me.  In my haste to get the tube fixed I rode off without my phone.  Ten years ago, not having a phone was normal and you never thought anything of it.  However, not having the phone made me feel like there was something missing or wrong and what if I needed my phone. How things have changed.

The first part of the ride was down to the south of Creston, which is this absolutely stunning rolling farm land.  There are lots of orchards and smaller acreages.  The orchards seem to be predominately cherry orchards and are the trees ever loaded.  It looks the cherries are a couple weeks from being ready.   I absolutely love this part of the Creston area.

The second part of the ride was across the Kootenay river to the west side.  The river basin is a large flat area.  On the east side it is much more rolling where the valley butts up against the mountains.  On the west side it is totally flat.  A large part of it is given over to crops with a smaller corner reserved for the wildlife wetlands preserve.  Riding south from the highway we were into a fairly stiff head wind but as it was pretty flat, we made good time.  Although, it was supposedly a potato growing area, all I saw was corn.  Actually, I did see an elk and a couple of different osprey nests with ospreys. 

On the way back north to the highway we went past the Kootenay Wildlife preserve.  There we got off our bikes and walked the board walk to see the area.  Barry said he saw a snake but I didn’t see any wildlife. It is on a migration route so we were probably at the wrong time of year.  It is kind of sad that more resources are not put into preserving these habitats.

Back on the bikes and it was a 10 kms ride back to camp.   The last 800 meters into camp is easily 15% so a really tough grind right at the end.  We ended the day with 70 kms. 

What a great day to be out ridding. 

Terry