Day 4 Fernie, British Colombia

Greetings all from Fernie! Anyone with a subscription to a Skiing magazine should know about Fernie. Anyway, just arrived in town around noon. Been an interesting last couple of days.

Started off three days ago riding from Canmore into Banff and from there to a campsite near the Lower Kananaskis Lakes. 75 miles the first day was not the plan but it became the plan when I realized how remote of country I was in. Bears, cougars, and all kinds of other wilderness terrorists running around out there. Ran into three folks touring the same route bound for Whitefish, I camped with them the first night and they left out earlier in the morning than I did. Great folks, Americans from Fernie/Bend Oregon...I think they are on the trail about 6-8 hours ahead of me.

Camped the second night after crossing over the first Divide Crossing at Elk Pass, which became real remote real fast, so I pushed it till just outside Elkford, British Colombia. I camped along the Elk River after yapping with some local fisherman that evening. Woke up to bear tracks in the dirt around my tent and more on the road up the way. Nice.

Got some good breakfast grub and talked to some bikers up from Sparwood about bears and the local scene in Elkford that morning. Ran into two road bikers heading up to the coal mine outside of Elkford and talked to them for awhile. They invited me to stay at their place in Fernie yesterday evening but I unfortunately didn't have the gas to push the headwind all the way into Fernie last night so I stayed in Sparwood. It was here I met the Worlds Largest Truck. Pictures to follow...I am having issues trying to get Picasa to upload from this borrowed computer.

Plan to push on from here to Elko tonight and the border tomorrow evening, stopping in Eureka, MT to prep for the first big Montana section.

All else is well, bike is good, I am healthy and happy. My MP3 player quit two days ago, so I guess I'll have to deal with my mind until I can try to revive it in Whitefish.

Thanks Meg, Ali, Tex, Jairo, and others for the encouranging emails. I will reply soon when I get to an evening stopping point. Happy Birthday (yesterday) to Dallas Dewayne.

Off for some grub.