Canada - Day 9 - Elkford to Fernie

 49.5 miles, 1952’ climbing, deer, elk

At the recommendation of a couple northbound GNBR riders, we rode a mile down to Mel’s Diner. An unassuming place with the fantastic aroma of home baked goods, we met Mel herself, super friendly. The breakfast was amazing, five stars, and Mel was great too.

We pedaled the mile back to our route where we knew we’d be going up the big hill east of town. We were pleased to leave the pavement for trail quickly, but it was a hard climb with loaded bikes. We persevered up switchbacks and were rewarded with a ride through the deep forest and flowy descent. At that point, 8ish miles in, we realized we were only about a mile south of our campsite, and an optional route would have bypassed the entire hill climb. 🤪

The Elk Valley trail to Sparwood is fairly new, we think, based on something posted recently on Facebook. Parts were good two track, parts were obscure, bumpy trails that we could barely see. Definitely it will be better once more bikes have been on it. We passed Sulphur Springs which were more the color of Mountain Dew than green Jello, but the smell was indeed sulphur. It burbled a little. 

We surprised a few deer and elk which disappeared into underbrush that seemed impassable. Eventually we arrived in Sparwood and had lunch at Tim Horton’s. It was getting late, so we cruised into Fernie on pavement with a good headwind. We arrived at our hotel in time to get dinner and go watch the Edmonton Oilers win game 6 in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was a good day.