How to Roll

Day 20: Fernie to Elkford. 45 miles. 2500 feet elevation. Weather tailwind treat.

With that kind of view off your balcony, you can’t help but start your day in awe. This is the type of mountains you see all around the city of Fernie and up the Elk Valley, where we are riding. Every direction looks like a postcard. Today was also special because my friend Gordon rode with me.

Gordon remembers rock-climbing trips, bicycle rides across sandy deserts, and even long car trips that ended with us wanting to kill each other. Despite these experiences, he keeps coming back for more. I was extremely grateful to have someone to ride with on my 20th day.

Gordon brought his rad power bike. He had equated in his mind electrical power with the capacity to haul large quantities of materials. It was packed beautifully, and the equipment looked great, but it took almost both of us to get it off the kickstand and rolling.

When we finally made it out of town and onto the prescribed Trail, Gordon decided to see if it worked any better by pushing the pedals up rather than down. This, of course, could only be accomplished by lying under his bike, which he chose to do accidentally. It turned out that trying to pedal from below is not a good idea and that falling over is downright dangerous.

Eventually, we were able to lift him without calling in a crane for the heavy bicycle and equipment. But for the next seven or eight miles, both of us struggled down a very rocky Powerline trail that was also covered in mud and a few rivers. Having had enough of that fun, we ditched it for the highway and eventually made it to Sparwood for lunch.

The Elk Valley is beautiful. The mountain peaks on either side are among the most spectacular in the Rockies I have seen across the continent. The valley floor is covered in beautiful green grass, trees, and lovely flowers this time of year. Once we were off the miserable trail, we quite enjoyed the trip from Sparwood to Elkford, especially as a tailwind pushed us along.

Unfortunately, we realized that, between the fall that banged Gordon up quite a bit and his batteries, we needed to be very optimistic about his chances of getting all the way to Engadine Lodge tomorrow. We came up with a solution, and thankfully, his friend Jenny will be picking him up in the morning while I’m pedaling, and we will all meet at Engadine Lodge.</

I loved having Gordon as a companion on today’s ride. However, I must admit it was weird not to be dealing with myself. I really have to think of a bigger picture, and it brought me back to the selfish nature of my ride. I’m continuing to try to pursue my three goals to make it less selfish. In fact, we talked with a guy from England today, but it does make me worry about my value. I guess I will think about it more tomorrow when I’m by myself 🙂