Day 4--Part Two--Doesn't Quad Mean Four?

Before I get on with the rest of the day in this, the second part, here's a few photos from the first part.

Elk River from our campsite

Our little free home!

The view from my tent.

MC ready to go again

On to the rest of the day. We left Elkford and almost immediately began a 2.4 mile climb. At least it was pavement, not that I'm that much faster. At the top, it was sunny and sort of warm. We all shed some layers. Here's a photo of Derik actually having removed the base layer he hadn't taken off since Banff.

Giving it a good airing!

From here we were on the alternate for the washed out Fording Rd. Remember, Chuck told us this was the way to go. "It's a quad track", says he. "Well, that doesn't sound too bad", says we. First it was a dirt road that wasn't bad at all. Then, we got to the "quad track". I always thought "quad" meant four. Maybe not in Canada, because this was definitely not a quad track. It was singletrack. It was very steep singletrack! It took all three of us to push MC up to the top. Even Derik finally had to walk! Even at the top, I didn't feel confident that I could ride. I decided not crashing was a better choice. I did ride some of the easy stuff, but it was scary! Finally we came to a road. Derik, thinking we were supposed to stay on the singletrack, had gone ahead. Connor thought we needed to go on the road to get to another gravel road (according to the directions). He was right, so he went after Derik, and they came back.

The top of the very steep part.

Lily Lake

A small section of rideable singletrack (for me anyway)

From there the road was much better. We met a couple that we're going north. There names were Aaron and Chondra. They're from Salida, CO, and said we should look them up when we go through. They said to ask at the bike shop, Absolute Bikes. Cool, we'll do that!

Continuing on, I saw this up ahead.

What is that??? Bear???

No, just a cow (for just a second there did you think it was a bear?)

We met another couple from England, Peter and Georgia, also going north. We talked with them for awhile, then it started to hail. We took off before we started to freeze. But, then it stopped a little ways down the road.

We crossed the Fording River.

From there, we only had a bit more gravel, then it was pavement all the way to Sparwood where we got groceries, did laundry, and are camped at a private campground that is cheaper than the provincial parks, and has free showers and wifi!

Tomorrow we head through the Flathead Valley aka Grizzly Alley!