Day 4 of the GDMBR: a hot and windy ride to Fernie, BC

We left our campsite in Elkford around 07:30 to get breakfast in a pizzeria. After a very hearty breakfast we hit the road and it turned out to be paved for about 1/4 mile then singletrack with hairpin curves and very steep slopes. It was hard, exciting and dangerous if you happened to be towing a trailer… OSHA would definitely not allow trailers on such trails in the US! We covered 1.4 miles in the first 45 minutes or so- at that rate it was going to take us exactly 24 hours to reach our planned destination of Fernie, about 45 miles away. We eventually got on some old logging roads and really started picking up speed. Oh yeah, we also rode into a 20+ mph wind ALL DAY. We made it to Sparwood for a late lunch and there decided to forgo more singletracks to get to our hostel in Fernie 20-25 miles away, at a reasonable time. Again, beautiful scenery and some fun, challenging riding. The Bobs do great on any kind of road but singltracks, especially with tight turns, are just not very rideable for us…As promised, John’s trail name is Johnny D, aka Johnny pisco. I go by Buck Steele. Daily totals: 45 miles and almost 2,000′ of climbing- all in the morning.

The singletracks on which we started our day; It started nice enough:But quickly deteriorated to rough slashes:Then we saw a rough logging road- and took it- in spite of this humorous warning sign (notice the snowmobile rider):We also passed a spring with hydrogen sulphide gas bubbling to the surface: John riding over the Elk River and the two of us in front of a mining truck in Sparwood:Some pretty scenery on the ride: