Nelson, British Columbia, Canada

Nelson, British Columbia, Canada is our goal for the day.  STeve and I load up the bike and continue our journey on Hwy. 93 through Kootenay National Park.  Rain and fog is with us most of the day dampening not only us, but reducing our visibility of the soaring mountains peaks and sending the wildlife to who knows where.

The major highlight of the day for me was that I finally made it to Lake Louise in Banff National Park.   For 10 years I have been, as my husband says, nagging him about how we did not make it here when our bike broke down in Banff on a previous trip to Canada.  Now I am here!  The weather, quite frankly, sucked...cold and drizzly.  So if you are familiar with “National Lampoon’s Family Vacation”, we did the same thing...we parked the bike, walked over to the water’s edge, took a photo, and left.  The photo does not even come close to portray the stunning beauty of this glacier lake.  I am a little worse for wear, definite helmet head looking like the “Michelin” man in my oversized leather jacket with shoulder armor and front pockets stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey!  But we made it!  For that I am very excited!  Thanks, STeve.

The rain continues pouring as we make our way through Canadian Glacier National Park (which most exits and view areas were still closed due to snow) to Revelstoke where we take a break for me to warm up with coffee and change into dry socks and waterproof my riding boots with plastic bags over my feet.  Even though conditions were not the best for me, the scenery is breathtaking.    Now that I am dry and warm, we make our way to the Shelter Bay Ferry.

Steve on the ferry boat.

The weather starts to clear and it’s not long until we reach Nelson, B.C., located on Kootenay Lake and check into our hotel.  Here are some views from our room.

My hometown paper, ‘THE MONITOR’, has a section where people send in photos of themselves on their vacations “reading” the newspaper.  Here is my contribution.

To me, Nelson is the Santa Cruz, CA of British Columbia:  A quaint waterside town, a hippy town, great restaurants and bars, lots of hemp, natural fiber, outdoor recreation stores, and the occasional whiff of weed as one walks down the sidewalk.  Below are pictures of downtown Nelson, taken on a morning hike up Pulpit Rock Trail which is on the mountain ridge across the lake from the hotel and town.

Nelson, B.C.

Marcia, Sue and Me

All around this area of British Columbia are many hot springs with resorts.  On one of our day rides up to Kaslo over to New Denver, we take a soak at Ainsworth Hot Springs.    http://www.hotnaturally.com/index.php  This resort has a cave where the water comes out of the rock at 114’ F - great for a steam sauna soak!  Beside the cave is the large lounging pool which has temps above 90F!  To really take your breath away (literally) and close up your pores, jump into the 55’F plunge pool.  We all took that plunge!  

Me and Steve

Here is a view of Kootenay Lake on our way up to Kaslo.

Also around the area of Nelson are several hydroelectric dams.  The water was cold and very swift!

Looking upstream to dam

Looking downstream at top of falls.

STeve and Me

After spending six days in Nelson riding and visiting with our friends of WeSTOC, it is time to head out of town.  Along the way we stop by this rest area waterfall to wait out a rain shower.

30+ft water fall

Next join My Mountain Green as we pass through Alberta.