3 - Fernie Fun

We awoke on what was now day 3 in our cozy little apartment and began the slow gathering of our belongings. It still wasn’t hot out, but it also hadn’t snowed another 10 cm overnight. Our lovely friend and host, Josh, had left for work already that morning so our departure was made a bit interesting. In order to lock the door to his place we elected to climb off the balcony and jump down; I imagine if anyone saw us they would have called the police.

Our departure should have been simple enough after we stopped at the Chinook Centre and I purchased the little tablet/ultrabook I’m currently typing on. It was a purchase I had meant to make before leaving, but then decided I would wait to save some taxes in Alberta. Anyway, it should have been simple, but after trying to adjust my chain in the underground parking, we found it was completely shot. Well shit, it’s day 2 of riding and I already need to replace my chain. Turns out I didn’t have another few thousand miles of life left on it.

I limped the bike over to Blackfoot Motorsports where I forked out for a new chain and a chain breaker tool that neither of us had, and proceeded to change it in the parking lot out front. That chain breaker pushed the rivets out like buttah! One of the mechanics there was nice enough to let us use his torque wrench for the rear axle as well.

With the new chain, Mitzi was a dream to ride again and we pointed south. Colin was leading this leg and we managed to miss the exit we wanted so I pulled over onto the shoulder before it was long gone. There was a ditch a couple hundred feet across between us and the exit we wanted, so when I saw a break in the traffic I cut across it. As I came up the other side, aiming between the wooden posts that lined the road I saw a sight that terrified me but had no time to do anything about. There was a thick steel cable run between all the posts that I hadn’t seen blended into the color of the asphalt and before I knew anything it clotheslined my forks between the wheel and high fender. WAM! I got very intimate with my tank as the bike slammed to a stop and toppled over tangled in the cable. Shaking myself out and picking up Mitzi I couldn’t help but think what an idiot I was.

Finally having made it out of the city we rode a couple hundred miles along the great number 22 and then the Crowsnest Pass towards Fernie. As we descended into the valley for the last 60 miles or so the snow began to disappear and the temperature rose pleasantly. We were greeted in the by our good friend Kevin as we rolled into town and promptly had beers in hand.

We spent the next three days hanging out in Fernie with friends, both new and old. Kevin took us on some killer rides up logging roads to summits, a rope swing over a lake, and waterfalls. He rides a DR-Z400E that he just bought back in the spring - that bike is wicked.

This was a platform to hang glide off of. I can only imagine how awesome that would be.

We found a little incline to snap some climbing shots. Colin on his KLR

Kevin on his DR-Z

Me on my KLR

Colin on the DR-Z

Me on the DR-Z

Here was a little waterfall we climbed down to on that ride

I climbed up behind the waterfall to shoot Kevin below

We played disc golf with a big group one evening, drank beers, enjoyed some of BC’s own, played forest for a night, rode some killer bike trails, and drank some more beers. Kevin loves to cook and so do both Colin and I, so we made meals ourselves every day. We did sushi one night with some salmon he had been given from a recent trip to the coast and it was phenomenal. Even as I woke up at 4 in the morning and puked my guts out, it was still worth it. Apparently we had given ourselves a bout of food poisoning. Well, Kevin and I anyway, Colin seemed unaffected.

The sushi and tempura we made

I was playing with my camera when we went out to play forest and had some fun with the streetlights

Honey and Duke were the best cuddlers around

Fernie is the coolest place I’ve lived and I visit anytime I can. I’ll end up there again one day, but until then, the fairly regular visits will have to suffice. I’m a bit scared of not having a winter snowboarding season this year; I think I’ll go through a pretty bad withdrawal. Or maybe I’ll be too distracted by beaches and jungles and mountains down south and won’t even think of home. I doubt it, though.