We were setting up our tents, feeling a little tentative because we were setting up in front of the camp ground, though not directly in front of somebody's tent site. I learned that we were NOT in front of somebody's tent site because I had to ride through one to find out. With all this skill I was mastering, I rode up a ramp between some cement barriers to discover that I was in somebody's front yard. Lest I be confused with some badass biker, I apologized profusely as I sheepishly worked my way down onto the beach to get away. That is onto the SAND beach. My riding companions will know what I speak but for the uninitiated, riding in sand is only slightly worse than riding on a sheet of ice covered in oil. I am immediately swerving all over the place doing everything I can to keep the bike upright but remain looking "cool" in front of the elderly couple whose tent site I had just invaded and to whom I had apologized profusely. It was all of ten feet to the hard packed but I felt like I had been all over the beach.
I am gathering driftwood for a nice fire and a fellow approaches Phil. I hear, from a distance, "is there a problem?" Oh oh. Phil did tell me somebody might die but I thought he meant on the trail. It's Dale and he wants to know if Phil has a problem because he greeted Phil and Phil didn't respond. Yikes, Dale is a little sensitive! Fortunately, there is no problem and Phil just says he didn't hear Dale. So they have already made up but it is Dale's cue to tell Phil that HE used to ride and as a result, was hard of hearing. I'm pretty sure it wasn't BS because he certainly knew more about bikes than me, which I realized after about a half hour of Dale talking without taking a breath. We also learned a lot of other things, too, like Dale's girlfriend Laurie works in the hospitality industry and she was there for a few days but had to go back to work and is quite independent and doesn't say much when she has traveled some and Dale has to coax it out of her and that a bear walked through her tent site and Dale is afraid of bears and takes eight levels of protection including ROAD FLARES if has to battle a bear up close. We concluded that Laurie may be Dale's girlfriend but Dale is probably not Laurie's boyfriend. Laurie may not know Dale exists or if she does, that he talks about her that way. She might have a restraining order against him. Oh, we also learned from Dale that a coyote and a wolf bred in New Brunswick and the offspring were killers and had migrated all the way to western Canada.
But Dale is in fact harmless, though he is making it difficult to get our work done. On the other hand, he generously brings down some chopped, split wood for our fire, though I suspect that was so he could ask to join us.
We also met Warren, who turned out to be a sort-of colleague of mine in Nelson. Like a distant cousin from a far-off land. Warren is a wealth of knowledge because he is from the area and spends a lot of time in the back country. He told us that the powerline trail, with one possible exception, is the toughest trail in the area. Not sure how big is The Area, but I'm sure it's MASSIVE. Maybe he meant all of Canada. He also gives us some guidance on another trail on our agenda.
The best thing about the Taite Creek camp site is that it is the first time we swim (in Arrow Lake) in a few days. It's cold and after my riding gear is off, I just go straight in, all clothed. This is the next best thing to washing my clothes.
The next day, we have a lot of riding: around Scalping Knife Mountain, up to Nakusp, over Wilson Creek Road, back across the ferry onto which we were able to defy odds of - and we calculated this - 186,282 to 1 by being the last ones onto the ferry (this time by riding around the closed gate) two times in a row. Then we were going over Gray Creek Pass which
apparently, is quite a well known road and leads to St. Mary's Lake near Kimberley. In fact, Gray Creek Mercantile is about 1 km from the entrance to the road and they post a notice about the road condition on their website as some sort of public service. The road is generally open around July 1st, depending on how much snow is at the pass but two days before the trip I phoned the forestry person responsible for the area who told me that there was a foot of snow at the pass. We take a chance because it has been in the 30s since I talked to him. Phil is underwhelmed with the road because it has been graded for the season opening. It's too smooth.
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