Canada - Day 8 - Boulton Creek Campground to Elkford

 55 miles, 3524’ climbing, a lot of descending, a couple deer, ~20 elk, and some horses that didn’t want to share the road

We got up late because of the cold, and we rolled out of camp on a paved bike trail for a few miles. The first hill towards Elk Pass was around a 17% grade, which warmed us up quickly. We stayed on trails this year instead of coming up under the power lines. There was snow and mud, and it was pretty in the trees. 

We reached the pass at the border of the province of British Columbia. It was a swift descent. This is our third time over the famously bear-dense Elk Pass and our third time not seeing any bears. We did meet two guys headed south on the great divide, day 2 for them. We bypassed each other a couple times then didn’t see them again. At one point we saw ~20 elk off to one side, and we saw a couple deer.

The ride south is long with rolling hills, and we had a lot of memories of prior trips through the area. For the 3rd year in a row we met a herd of seemingly feral horses standing in the road, looking irritable and disinclined to let us pass easily. They were shod and some wore bells, so they must belong to somebody.

We met two guys who were on our same route, the GNBR, headed the opposite way. They started in Victoria and were 4 weeks into their journey. Just as we were looking for the turnoff to the dreaded Koko Claims, part of the Tour Divide race route, a solo rider caught up to us. It was Nick Legan, doing an ITT (individual time trial) on the GDMBR route. He had started in Banff this morning, and was cheerful and fun to chat with for a few minutes.

Last year we came north from Elkford on the dirt road. Two years ago we went south over the hideous Koko Claims in rain and snow. This year we turned off on singletrack. It looked brand new and barely travelled. We considered vailing to the road, but once we pushed up a hill we were on a marvelous track through the forest, lasting 4-5 miles all the way to Elkford. About half way along it was more heavily travelled and flowy with banked turns — a great way to finish the day. We grabbed a campsite near the river in town, got a beer & burger for dinner, met other bike travelers, and relaxed.