Bicycle Tours

From: Blairmore, Alberta
To: Fernie, British Columbia
Mileage: 50




Easiest 50 miles on the trip, we will see? The only two challenges on our ride today were the Chinook winds and the truck/camper traffic. We remained on Route 3 today, which has nice shoulders on the Alberta side, and questionable but safe shoulders on the B.C. side. This must be the easiest pass in the Rockies. (Dad we think we found the first tunnel) We were expecting the road to climb. anytime, around every corner, and yes we had some climbing but not like any of the mountain passes we've ever seen before!

The lady at the Pincher Creek information booth yesterday said that as soon as we crossed the continental divide the headwinds would cease, we think she was messing with us, cause the lady at the next info booth said "well where do you think those winds are coming from?"

Ready to test all wind theories we went over the Continental Divide and crossed the B.C. border, but there was no road sign marking the Continental Divide and the wind didn't stop! Crownest Pass is around 4450 feet in elevation, but there is no road sign. There were road signs for logging trucks, we saw 3, however at least 30 pig/cattle trucks passed us and left our clothes smelling a tad bit like a barnyard! We saw road signs for elk in the road, but didn't see any. We saw road signs for Rocky Mountain sheep, but did not see any.

We did see bluebirds and we were surrounded by the Canadian Rockies and lakes the whole day, so all those road signs (or lack of signs) really didn't matter very much And if not for the headwinds today, we would have probably been going too fast because it was downhill or flat for 97 percent of today. Boy will we pay for this day!

After 25 miles, we stopped in Sparwood B.C. for our second breakfast and to take SeeMore's picture next to the largest truck in the world. This is coal-mining country; it was coal mining country 100 years ago.

We arrived in Fernie (also a coal mining town) around 1:30 pm, we are not sure what is ahead of us and we are pretty tired of the truck/camper traffic so we stopped for the day. We spent the afternoon riding all over Fernie (population 5000). Fernie has mountain bike trails all over the place, nice parks, a quaint downtown, kids riding bikes safely in the streets, and a Boston pizza? Surrounded by mountains, the only drawbacks we see is that route 3 runs through the middle and (we are guessing) it is probably a tad bit cold in the winter.