Western Dreamz TripLog
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Tuesday July 13, 2004 - "Quagmire's Hyperextended Knee"
Our campsite last night was interesting.. It was the GOlden municipal campground which was a bit sardine-like. We basically shared a single campsite (with 2 firepits) with a couple from Nelson who confirmed the rumours about how good nelson is. They were stopping in Golden for rafting, then moving on to the Calgary Stampede. It turns out they had booked through the same rafting company as us, however they were doing the half-day, while we were going all out for the full day. We started at 9:30, and got suited up with a wetsuit, neoprene booties and a spray jacket. We all got loaded on a school bus and shipped to the "put-in" up the Kicking Horse River (about 30 minutes by bus) during which we got the safety speech from one of the guides (a guy from quebec with a very depardieu haircut). Basically the deal is, if the boat tips, hold onto the boat. If you lose the boat, swim back to the boat. If you cant swim back to the boat, swim to shore. It was all pretty common sense. Our first run was about an hour on the water, maybe a bit less and was not too bad. There were some decent rapids and we got wet enough to be happy. Luckily it was hot and sunny out since the water was only 4 degrees (hence the wetsuits). At the end of the run we hauled the boats out and got some good feeding done. Lunch started with finger foods (vegetables, chips, dip, drinks etc) and climaxed with steak (done-to-taste), finishing with fruit and cookies. Not bad at all. Full of food, we hopped on the bus to the next put-in for the lower rapids. Here, we had to walk down an access road for CP rail (or CN or whichever one is still in business), and at the bottom we had to carry the boat across the tracks to the water. When we started lifting a train came so we had to wait (giving us more time to digest and also time to ask the guide about people losing their steak lunch into the river during the afternoon run -- and it has happened in case you were also wondering). THe afternoon run was a bit wilder than the morning, and at one point we got to jump overboard and ride a small rapid with only our lifejackets to hold us up. It was quite wet and cold. Oh... also in the afternoon we were joined by a guide in training who looked (I can't even make this up) like Quagmire (from the family guy for anyone who doesn't know that show like the back of their hand [like we do]). When he jumped in during that run, he hyperextended his knee or something while trying to do some sort of swan dive, putting himself out of commission for the rest of the run. Near the end of the run we were given an opportunity to jump up from the boat and grab a bridge and swing on it, but we were all either too lazy or scared of hyperextending something. THe day ended earlier than we thought.. not much after 2pm. When we got back we were fed some beer, which was a nice touch. The whole operation was very laid back, with young employees. It reminded me a lot of the sailing school atmosphere. The rafting was not quite as wild as we'd hoped. There was never any chance of flipping the boat, and we didn't even have to perform the "Get Down" safety maneuvre (which involoved a lot less dancing than it sounds like). Overall it was a great day though, and we even got to see some bighorn sheep and mountain goats actually chillin' on the side of the mountain. Oh and the best part was at the end when some girl tried to pick up Quagmire with: "You look familiar, where are you from?" and in my head I said "The Family Guy". Best joke ever. Since we finished so early, we trucked it to Fernie, where we stayed at Mount Fernie Provincial Park (site 30 .. very nice by the way).
Wednesday July 14, 2004 - "Brave, Brave, Brave Sir Robin"
This morning we rode a couple trails in the park area which were not too shabby. One of these trails gave us our first bear siting away from the road. We totally schooled him with our dangerousness though. When danger reared it's ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled. After our relatively short ride we chilled and waited for Rachel, who was also Fernie-bound today. When she arrived we tried another trail which led us up, up, up to the top of the skihill right from the campground. It was pretty convenient except for the UP part of the ENTIRE THING. THe bonus was that we got to ride some of the ski hill's trails for free, and do a bit of exploring. We hit a couple really fun trails and decided that tomorrow we'd pay the $30 for a lift ticket and explore some more.
Thursday July 15, 2004 - "Like a Yo-Yo"
We got started today at about 10am, and suited up for a day of biking. We decided to ride along the road a few kilometres to the ski lodge, so that we could ride Gorby back to the site for lunch (Gorby being the trail we rode up for an hour yesterday). We timed it perfectly, being ready to run 5 minutes before the lift opened (this was all luck as we figured the lift actually opened an hour earlier than it did so in reality we were an hour late, but whatever). Fernie's runs were a really good time. For anyone wanting to ride there, we all heartily recommend "Far Out", "Honey Bee" and "Power Carve" for all the diehard XC riders out there. Luck (again) had it that the lifts were open until 7 instead of 5 on Thursdays, meaning we could afford a liesurely lunch back at the campsite followed by a few more runs in the evening. All in all it was a great day for riding, and we fully earned our evening of beer and campfire afterward. Don't tell the Camp Counsellor (aka: Park Warden) but I took one big piece of wood from the forest and cut it up for firewood which is a no-no. But we only needed a little extra and didn't want to buy another bucket of wood, so it's not our fault.
Friday July 16, 2004 - "Enough with the damn festivals already"
Today we had our first Starbuck's coffee (thanks to the Fernie Ski Resort's coffee shop), found our first internet access point in days, and headed out to Nelson (the promised land). The drive to Nelson was great... up and down and VERY SUNNY. We dirtbagged it in the car (shirtless and mildly sunburned). Nelson is a great looking town. The downtown area is near the water, and most of the houses are built up the side of the mountain, with the streets running at very extreme angles. I can only imagine what winter driving would be like. Rocky mentioned that the landscape reminded him of Bermuda, and I'm sure the heat today helped with the comparison. Luckily (according to the tourist office) or unluckily (according to campsite availability) we arrived at the beginning of their streetfest. The entire main street was shut down for music and busking. Not wanting to miss out on a campsite, we trekked out about 20 minutes to Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, where we were jammed into the overflow campground with a bunch of RVs. It was basically a paved lot with wide parking spots and a numbered picnic tabble to denote each site. We put the tent up in the grassy park area and hit the beach. The beach there was actually really good. During the entire drive from Nelson, we could see that the shores of the lake were littered with sandy beaches, and this was probably one of the biggest. The sand was really nice, and the water was shallow for a long time with a mostly sandy bottom. Sandbanks spread out and you could walk out a couple hundred feet in some parts and only be knee deep. This was the first real swim we've had on the entire trip. After swimming we had our first shower since Kelowna (STINKY) and headed into town. We stopped and saw one annoying busker who took about 20 minutes to get his show started, pausing every 30 seconds to get audience cheers and to remind people to pay him afterwards. In the end he stood on a rope and juggled fire for about 15 seconds. We immediately left, successfully avoiding a final guilt trip laid on in order to get money out of the audience. The street fest was like most... a lot of booths trying to sell you crap (crafts, jewelry, henna, etc) but it was interesting nonetheless. There was no sign of any music going on so I think the focus was street performance. I'm sure all of these people will be in Dundas whenever they have their busking-fest (probably August but I don't really know). With a hankerin' for pizza, we searched for a good place, only to find "Medi's" with a convenience store quality rack of rotating crappy pizza. Oh how I miss Amato's! A few blocks later though, we followed some well placed signs to an out-of-the-way shop with some really great pizza. It was called "Thor's", and appeared to be named after a dog. Thor the dog. Our conclusion was that Nelson looked like a great place with very chilled-out and down to earth inhabitants... and an awesome lake with a big orange bridge to boot.
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