Day 14

41.8 miles and climbed 1000ft

This sign in Fernie pretty much sums it up for Erin (and replace coffee with tea and that is Mike).

This is Mike writing again.  Erin and I set an alarm this morning so we could go to 9:00am daily Mass in Fernie. The Catholic Church is just a few blocks down the road from our B&B (as are two other churches). As I type this, I'm wondering: 9:00am is kind of a late daily Mass time, isn't it?

Anyway, daily Mass is short as usual, and Erin and I make it back to our B&B for our 9:30am breakfast time. There we enjoy eggs Benedict, fresh fruit, juice, coffee and tea. Yum!  Patrick, one of the B&B owners, has also kindly offered to drive us up near the ski lodge in Fernie so we can see an old growth forest of cottonwood and cedar trees up to 800 years old -- amazing!

Patrick truly went out out his way to show us the forest as we would not have been able to climb the steep gravel roads on our particular bikes. During the winter, these roads are actually closed with the only way up to the ski lodge being a Snowcat (seen below).

I also want to have my shifting cables on my bike checked before we leave Fernie. During the ride in to Fernie yesterday, my chain began to slip on the rear cassette every once in a while when I got out of the saddle and pushed harder than normal on the pedals. So, I'd like to nip that problem in the bud before it becomes worse and there's no place better than Fernie to get this done -- I've never seen so many mountain bikers all around and for a town of less than five thousand people, it supports no less than three bike shops. Very cool. 

During the hour we have to kill while the mechanic takes a look at my bike, Erin and I walk Fernie's historic downtown, get a tasty bite to eat, and Erin unexpectedly discovers a candy shop selling her favorite bonbon candies. She's quite happy below. 

Anyway, we finally roll out of Fernie around 2pm. We have some climbing to do, but thankfully, we have less miles to do than typical (about 40) to get to Coleman. Along the way, we pass thru a coal mining town called Sparwood where we encounter the world's largest truck, the Titan 33-19. It is enormous (see Erin by the wheels).

We eventually pass thru the Crowsnest along the highway and get to Coleman, our final destination for the day. Dinner is at a plain small town diner, but we clear our heaping plates and then walk across the street to check out the local pub at the Grand Union Hotel. That might be a bit of a misnomer, but we enjoy listening to Tres Hombres while Erin takes her tomato juice cravings to another level, mixing tomato juice with a beer (which seems to be a fairly popular concoction up here in Canada).

We were pretty much the audience at Grand Union.

For a finale, Erin and I hit the hot tub back at our B&B.