Rockies IV June 20 South Loop and Glass Bottle house

 

Rockies IV

June 20, 2025

          South Loop and Glass Bottle House

The weather forecast for to day had the rain starting at about 2:00 pm so we thought that we would go ride the South loop which runs from the campground south to the US-Canada border and loops back north to the highway east of town.  When we reached the highway we were then going to turn east to go ride the Arrow Creek loop which winds into the hills north of town. 

As we headed south towards the border we could see the clouds building over the hills to the south and west.  At the border we turned up Port Hill Road.  It is a long grind of about 8 kms with grades hitting 12%.  Maybe we are getting fitter as it didn’t seem as tough as it did a few days ago.  The back roads are so nice to ride as there is almost no traffic and the pavement is in such great shape.   It did not take long to get back to the highway east of town. We were told that the little store at the corner sells the best ice cream in the valley so Ken T.  went in and got some.  His knee was a little sore so he was going to call it a day and head back to camp.   Ken C, Barry and myself headed for the Arrow Creek loop. 

We had only gotten about 5 kms down the road toward the Arrow Creek turn when we were hit with the first drops of rain.  I pulled over to find out what the consensus was on continuing.  There was no discussion lets go back to the campground.  Ken was still enjoying his ice cream when we rolled past. 

Back at camp we decided that we would head back out to the Wynnwood winery by car to pick up a few bottles of wine.   From the winery we would then drive out to the Glass Bottle House which is about 30 Kms north of Creston. 

The Glass Bottle House was constructed in 1952-53, by David Brown who was in the funeral business in Saskatchewan. The house is constructed of 600,000 empty embalming fluid bottles.  Each bottle is approximately 3 inches square and 10 inches tall.  They were laid on their side with the neck facing in and were mortared together.  The house is shaped like a three leafed clover with a living room, bedroom and kitchen. The house has a wonderful location on a high cliff over looking Kootenay Lake.

Today the house and surrounding gardens are a roads side tourist attraction and is the winter home of for the son.  Mr. Brown was also a collector of garden gnomes, so the grounds have a lot of gnomes which are lovingly maintained and receive annual painting to keep them looking fresh and happy.    

The weather forecast is calling for up to 75 mm of rain over the next few days so we are going to call it a wrap and head home tomorrow. 

We have over 650 kms of riding in and everyone is pretty happy with the trip.  Tonight we are off to a wrap up supper and will discuss Rockies V.

Terry