The day was a cool and overcast day, just right for biking. The sun was out a bit, so we put on the sun block lotion. Of course, as an aging man, I now have to put some on the top of my head as well; how ungracious! The territory was now up and down, as we have come to expect. A very gradual uphill for many kilometres, followed b y the long and exciting downhill into Grand Forks.
But I'm ahead of myself on this story. We stopped along the way in the town of
Greenwood, an old mining town (copper, mostly) from the late 1800's. Apparently, they had been doing so well back then that they even had a 1,000 seat opera house at the turn of the 20th century. And now there are many older buildings, quite nicely preserved. And most of them for sale. Barry says that this is one town that you could come into and offer a price for the whole place. There is even a Fort Greenwood (we didn't stop).
Then it was on to Grand Forks. I had decided to buy a better road map than I ha, for carrying with the bike. You would think this would be relatively easy. And the town of Grand Forks is, well, grander, than many we had been through. So it seemed a likely place. But there seems to be a dearth of cartographers in the area, or something. We stopped at a hardware store, a bookstore, a drugstore, and a fishing store. We finally gave up. There were fancy map books which show you detail you don't need, but would need a trailer to carry the book with you. And there were some regular maps which covered several provinces at once. But nothing to be found in between these. So I did without, and we pedalled on.
Grand Forks is also known for the Doukhobor influence. Some 8000 of these people came from Russia in the late 1800's, settling first in Saskatchewan. They then moved to this part of BC, bringing with them amazing farming ability, good community, and wonderful borscht. We even saw a place with "borscht to go". Unfortunately, our bikes are not equipped with cup holders, so we had to pass it up.
We went on to Christina Lake, where Nancy had out-done herself. She had for us a room off the highway, with two double beds and a partition down the centre so we could have some privacy. With a bathroom and kitchenette, and an outside barbecue and table and chairs. We were set. Since we had the barbecue, she had gotten some steaks to cook, which we happily did after the required afternoon nap.
We also met another couple (Kevin and Carrie) who were from Ottawa, and were riding across Canada on a tandem bike, along with their 16 year old son Harrison (on his own bike). The were five days out of Vancouver, planning to do about 150 km per day, and so far managing this. We of course decided we hated them, but invited them over later for a drink and conversation. Turns out they were going about the same direction as we were, so we have agreed to meet them again in Castlegar.
Barry and I had looked at the maps, and knew we had a 1050 metre climb the next day, so we headed to bed early.
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