Well holy toleetoes. Its been a while, hey?
Our apologies for the delay. Internet access has been hard to come by for some time. But finally.. here's your next installment of the Kootenay NFTR!
We've made it as far as Cranbrook. And holy crap have a lot of things happened since our last post, and the fateful climb up Anarchist's Summit.
Let's start from the top. After caressing the sweet sweet slopes of Anarchist Mountain, we decended down to the loverly town of Grand Forks, where we had our mid-tour retreat. Our retreat was centred around breaking away from our ridebikes-sleep-eat-perform-repeat routine, and focusing on how well our group was working together as an Otesha touring team. The farm was run by a wonderful woman named Mihaela, and featured countless energy-and-environment-saving ideas in its design, including composting toilettes, south-facing windows for maximum sun exposure, and solar panels. On one evening at the farm, received an awesome gift from an awesome friend of ours, Donald. He happened to bake us a pair of VEGAN, LOCALLY-PICKED HUCKLE-BERRY PIES! Holy crow what a nice guy. On a similar night at Mihaela's farm, she was kind enough to share with us some circle-dancing rituals, which were magical in their own accord, let alone the spiritual significance of them.
After leaving Grand Forks, our next destination was Christina Lake, where we had a lovely performance on a beach, nearby a sand-castle building competition. That night, we slept on a baseball diamond, next door to a community hall hosting a wedding. And what could be better than attending a wedding, you might ask? FREE HOT CREPES, in the morning! (Hot crepes are only one small example of the counltess food donations we have recieved.)
The next day, our destination was Castlegar, which involved climbing the steepest, and highest hill of our entire trip! Paulson's Summit had an elevation of around 1550m, and after cresting the hill riders were rewarded with saltery 30km. long section of down-hill. Some members of our tour opted for a scenic route around the peak, along the Trans-Canada Trail, which involed passing through a 1km long tunnel. Unfortunately due to rough trail conditions, beautiful scenery, and an extra 10km or so of distance, the "alternate route" crew crusied into town roughly 4 hours later than everyone else, almost causing us to miss our performance at the Community Church!
After staying at the Katimavik house in Castlegar, we cruised NE to Nelson, possibly one of the coolest cities in BC. Amongst Mate' Cafes, sweat-shop-free clothing stores, and vegan pastries, we gave our utmost in a sunny afternoon performance in a public market. We performed again the next night, in a skatepark, for all those who dared to watch our awesome play. Nelson is truely an awesome town, with a wonderful community radio station, called the Kootenay Radio Co-op. They intereveiwed many members of our team, three of which were interviewed live on the air on a morning news cast!
From Nelson we town-hoped to Harrop-Proctor, where we toured a Community Forestry Operation. That night whilst camping on a nice family's property, we were hit by our first heavy rains of our trip. That night, and over the next 24 hours, we were hit by not one.. not two, but six (count 'em!) seperate roving thunder-and-lightening storms.
The next day we were off to Creston, our longest ride to date, totalling 97kms. While dodging storm after roving, pummelling rain storm, many of our tour members spotted black bears! After Creston, and Yahk, we've finally arrived in Cranbrook, where we'll perform at a community centre for a host of youngsters tomorrow night. And what could make Cranbook any cooler, than being able to stay with the parents of one of the Sunshine Coast tour members?! We'll say hi to your family for you, Joel.
Thanks for listen an readin' y'all.
Peace and Zesty Soy-Cheese,
Tyler, Stacey and the rest of the Kootenay Tour.
Above: Bruiser (left), Muk-luk (right). This is Muk-luk's third time running in the lead position, EVER, and she did amazing. Running lead demands intelligence, maturity, and the ability to focus on one's job when there are other things going on around (mainly behind) them. Muk-luk is two years old, and has come a long ways from the skiddish and fearful dog she was at the beginning of the season. If I guide trips here next here, I hope to train Muk-luk to be an expedition leader.
