Great Trail Wk2 D1

We spent a lovely Sabbath in Cranbrook resting. It seems to be a bit of a Blue Collar town so we felt right at home. Of course the one big difference was that rather than gangs and shootings, Cranbrook was much more dangerous. Everywhere we went there were signs like the one below. It was quite frightening.With only about 25 km to go today we decided to spend some time pedaling around Cranbrook. They have some nice trails and it was quite Pleasant. We also found a BMX course. I wasn’t quite as fast as my son Coby who used to race but of course my bike weight 70 lb loaded. It was free for anyone and attached to a skateboard park. Maybe socialism isn’t so bad:)Paddle out from Cranbrook to Kimberley was on a rails to Trail route. It was perfect after so many days on the highway. We followed the river up into the mountains and the ski town of Kimberley.Kimberly used to be a mine were they dug iron, lead and zinc from the mountain. When the town realized the mine would soon close they started making it a tourist center and have done an amazing job. There is a nice ski area, nordic tracks that double as mountain bike tracks in the summer and lots of trails and rivers. Add to that a mining train interpretive center and a downtown that looks like a small Swiss Village, and you have a great place to visit any time of year.They have a community garden that was created to show off the fertilizer which they had produced from a byproduct of the lead and zinc mining process. The gardens are beautiful and added more to our wanting to come back in the future.I have to admit that once again I’ve been impressed with pleasant Canadians. Who has park benches out in the middle of nowhere, made of beautiful wood and not covered with graffiti or being burned by homeless people?And we did do something in Kimberley that I almost never do. We went to a visitor center. The people were so helpful that it made our time in Kimberley that much better by knowing where to go and what to do. Go figure