Canada - Day 11 - Lake Koocanusa to Cranbrook

 36.5 miles, 2290’ climbing, deer

Late last night, after we had retired to our tent, some folks drove down to our camp site and parked about 20 meters away. I went over and called hello to make sure they had seen us and wouldn’t run over our tent, and they had seen our bikes. I went back to our tent. They turned on their stereo with a thumping bass, for hours. Sarah  fantasized about confronting them, telling them off, spraying them with bear spray, but in the end there was no confrontation, just some lost sleep. Otherwise it was a perfect lake view camp site.

In the morning there were some beautiful colors over the lake. We had a pleasant pedal through the woods to a small community, then we hopped on the 40 km Chief Isador trails to Cranbrook. Part was flat rail trails, but the main part was glorious singletrack through the woods, flowy and not too hard for a loaded gravel bike. We crossed some small bridges, some meadows, curved around hill sides. It was a pleasure. 

We had a stiff headwind on the last several miles on a flat rail trail into Cranbrook. Seems like a popular mountain bike town. Northstar Bicycle Co pumped our tires with a floor pump, so much nicer than our little hand pump. We had a good burger downtown after resupplying. Tomorrow we plan to go towards Gray Creek Pass. There’ has been community discussion on whether the pass is open after last weeks snow, but we heard a positive report today and will give it a try. We’re hoping to see a friend in Nelson in a couple days. It’s hard to plan a timeline in unknown parts!