Day 10 June 6 Cranbrook to Fernie 100 k

The route we took bends like a U with a southern leg, an eastward leg and a northward leg. Smooth flat roads to start the day. In most places, BC mainatins great roads for cycling with wide paved shoulders and the first part of the day was spent enjoying that. A very easy pleasant ride through ranchlands;large open expanses of grasslands mixed with heavily treed and mountainous terrain. When we turned eastward strong headwsinds slowed us and made cycling a lot of work. Ww stopped for a coffee and date square at Elko and after that road conditons changed dramatically. The bike lane was badly broken up or covered in loose gravel for most of the rest of the ride. The rumble strip, which was part of the bike lane, was wide and really jarring to cross. None-the-less, we were forced to ride on the main road surface until overtaken by cars or trucks at which point we ducked onto the "bike" lane across the rumble strip. Luckily the headwind across the eastward section abated on the northern leg. Tug managed to pick up a staple just 3k from Fernie and since we both needed some gear tuning done, we decided I would go ahead to the bike shop to see if someone could pick him and the bike up. At the bike shop, a young fellow, Matt, volunteered to go over to his house to get his track and off we went to get Tug. We couldn't find him and realized that someone else (Dale) might have taken pity on him amd picked him up as he walked along pushing his bike. Sure enough he was at the Straight Line Bycycle shop and Chris had already dropped what he was doing to get the tire and gears working. Chris also fixed my gear shifting problem too, all for no charge! Fernie is quite a community of cyclists and a great bike shop! Luice, who was running the shop gave us directions to her friends hotel, Snow Valley, where we decided to stay given the forecast of nasty weather. Tug and I had planned to meet family from Calgary somewhere south of the city, but decided that a down day would not hurt especially with the cold, wet weather coming so we planned visits and an off day for June 7. Ten days out of Vancouver, 1054 k, looking forward to the prairies and getting together with family!