Day 15: HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!🎉🍁

Estimated 47.5 miles

We spent the night in Coleman on the Crowsnest Pass which was really fortunate because the entire Canada Day celebration for the towns on the pass was here!  It is also the 100 anniversary of Coleman becoming incorporated. 

We woke up to a lovely breakfast of apple cinnamon rolls and waffles with fresh fruit. Two couples from Holland were also staying at the B&B so we enjoyed chatting with them and got some good laughs about how they should be the ones on the bike and we should be in the car. 

We then biked downtown to watch the parade. It was a pretty neat small town parade.  The fire trucks were spraying the crowd, there was lots of candy, and quite a big crowd. At the end the bugle corps performed as well. 

Enjoying the parade. 

A crow in a nest in honor of Crowsnest Pass. 

A huge stuffed bear. 

Picking up candy!

Our candy stash!

Then back to the B&B to pack up before heading up to the highway to do laundry. We really needed to do some. Mike was out of shirts and socks. I lent him some, however the ones I gave to him were clean unlike what he lent me a few days ago. 😉. I went for a walk and snagged some Canadian flags to decorate our bikes as we ride today. 

Upon leaving town a backpacker talked to us who was also doing laundry. He asked where we were biking from, and once we told him he said something along the lines of, "oh wow, you all are legit!"  Gotta love when you get street credit from a backpacker!

We finally started our journey at about 2pm.  Our latest start yet!  We knew we would be passing through some towns fairly quickly where we would need to get lunch, before a long haul of no amenities. So even though it seemed absurd to stop so soon we did. As well, there was a storm looming off to our right so it was nice to pause in case it decided to unleash. We ended up at an A&W. A&Ws in Canada are nothing like the ones in the US. Their menu is so confusing. You can get a mama, papa, teen, buddy burger but no where does it tell you the differences in these burgers!

We got back on our bikes and biked by 'Frank's Slide' which was suppose to have a really neat interpretive center but based on our late start and the weather we decided to pass and just read the information at the roadside pull off. This was Canada's deadliest rockslide killing 70 people and wiping out a town. It took place at night when the coal mines were operating. It was so crazy to see the huge boulders left so far from the base of the mountain. This picture doesn't really do it justice as far as the magnitude of rock, but you start to get the idea. 

The boulders were piled far and wide on both sides of the road. 

Today we were in the foothills of the Rockies, and don't underestimate foothills. It was super windy and a constant up and down. Flats were pretty rare today. It was gorgeous though. I loved it!  There was so much livestock out in the fields.  Livestock really find bikers interesting. Most of the cows and horses would pause grazing to glance at us. One group of horses even galloped over a hill to come check us out.  We got rained on a bit today, nothing hard but enough to make you worry about chaffing. Luckily it didn't last too long. The cloud cover today was refreshing as well. 

I loved this area. It is where the prairie meets the mountains. It sure made this prairie girl happy. 

We finally arrived in Pincher Creek and found a restaurant that was open for dinner.  We were a little worried since it was Canada Day that places would be closed.

Mike enjoyed his fortune, not knowing it would really come true in a different form than expected tomorrow. 

Then we biked on for our final 10 miles before arriving at our B&B for the evening. The hills did not let up. We saw several deer as the sun was getting close to setting.

Mike was getting creative with his photos. 

We finally arrived at Corner Mountain Inn and Wellness Center around 9pm, much later than we would have liked but that's how the day went. Janet gave us a warm welcome and we got cleaned up and settled. Mike was so excited to find a bowl of cherries in our room and I appreciated the candy bowl!  We watched the sun set on the front porch and met the other guests who were staying for the evening. We sat and chatted for a good while enjoying beer, wine, and delicious peanut butter cookies.  We also got to meet Gracie, Janet's dog who was so well trained and a ball of energy. We closed out the evening by trying to go on the back porch to see the full moon, but we couldn't because of the clouds. Instead all we heard was howling coyotes...quite eerie. 

A sunset jump in front of Corner Mountain Inn.  However, this is when I realized my Achilles isn't healed. It started cracking a lot and I realized its inflamed, but at least it doesn't hurt!  Mike massaged it for a while knowing the next two days would be long days of tough riding.