Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR) - Segment:
Canada, British Columbia: Baynes Lake, Elk River Crossing,
Grasmere, to Roosville, USA Border Station;
September, 2017
Objective:
Ride as much as allowed by the Weather.
Highlights
One Day Ride:
We are returning to finish the last 37 miles for all of the Canadian GDMBR.
We are riding this Alternate Route Segment because of a Fire on or near the main trail.
We stopped prematurely last August, 2017 (about 30 days ago), in Baynes Lake due to a right calf muscle injury (from walking, not cycling).
When we resumed for this ride segment, all of the ride conditions were favorable (health, bike, weather, roads ...).
The ride itself was a very pleasant day ride and we enjoyed ourselves and nature.
One Day in September, 2017
The Auto Drive along Elk River from Fernie to Baynes Lake
Above: Early in the morning on the Elk River.
Baynes Lake, British Columbia
Above Left: Terry and the Bee.
Above Right: Historic Waldo Church (historic because the sign says so).
Above: It's a One Hole'r Outhouse.
Above Left: Baynes Lake School (under summer repairs).
Above Right: Looking at the same building from the west side, the Baynes Lake Community Centre. Notice the Bat House (black box on a pole)
Above Left: Clever School Crossing Sign.
Above Right: Waldo Church from the west side, looking into the rising sun in the east.
Bats in the Belfrey!
Above: Community Bat Preservation Program.
On the Road Again and Fall is in the Air
Above: Fall is in the Air.
Above: Lake Koocanusa.
Lake Koocanusa was named in a contest won by Alice Beers of Rexford, Montana. The name is made from the first three letters of the Kootenay (alternately, Kootenai) River, Canada, and USA - http://dictionary.sensagent.com/lake%20koocanusa/en-en/.
Above: Deer approaching Stirling Road. It was the only deer that we saw on this day.
Above: A transcendent moment.
Above: Luminous Rabbitbrush (aka False Goldenrod or Goldenbush).
Above: The road ahead, BC Hwy-93 and the only way to cross the Elk River. We will be there in 10 minutes.
Above: The Elk River Estuary.
Above: A Soaring Hawk.
Above Left: The Bee is waiting for us.
Above Right: Terry and the Bee, it is still cool outside.
Above Left: We had reached BC Hwy-93 from Fitzpatrick Road. Our direction is to the right (south), 8% down, and 8% up.
Above Right: We're looking down, the level spot (the bridge) is behind the trees.
Above Left: Roadside Fall.
Above Right: The next few pictures are taken in motion and the entire event was less than 1 minute.
Above: Rolling fast (36 mph) in Rohloff Gear #14 (seldom used).
Above Left: Elk River.
Above Right: Quick snapshot right (west).
Above Left: Quick snapshot left (east).
Above Right: A back-view (north) after our long climb out.
Above Left: Looking south on BC Hwy-93.
Above Right: We were looking for, and found, Dorr Road (Dorr Cutoff Road). It was nice of someone to set-out the Streamers. We are about to ride 14 km off-road.
Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Management Area
Above Left: Dorr Road (Dorr Cutoff Road - backway into the Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Management Area).
The Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Management Area is a mix of Native American Reservation Land, 'Crown' Land managed by Canada, British Columbia Province managed land, Private Land, and Local Interests that address Water issues (Lake Koocanusa and the Kootenay/Kootenai River), Land Use, Trail Use, Recreational Use, and Ecology Management.
Above Right: 14 km's of off-road pure Nature coming at us.
Above Left: Code of Usage Behavior and who is responsible.
Above Right: Management Participants, Crown Land surprised us, Canada is Independent of England but a member of the Commonwealth. The photo is highly lightened to show the words that were in the sun shadow, the coloring is digitally white washed, sorry.
Above Left: Terry is pointing to our location and basically, we will take a left and down (west and south) counter-clockwise half-loop through the Recreational Area and come back to Hwy-93 at the town/area of Grasmere. We will ride through a portion of the Tobacco Plains Reservation. The Tobacco Plains are a Band within the Kootenay Nation
Above Right: It starts with a Cattleguard. All grids are well spaced and it is rough on bikes. The straps are narrow, can't ride on them, and it is possible to get bike wheels stuck between the straps which makes steering problematic (I learned the hard way).
Above Left: It got warm enough for us to put on our sunscreen - Terry and the Bee.
Above Right: Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Area.
Above Left: Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Area - Some road bumps, we could steer around the bad parts.
Above Right: We're changing from the Dorr Management Area to the Grasmere Management Area.
Above Left: Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Area.
Above Right: Notice that I (Dennis) am wearing Blue Jeans, they were just right for our cool ride in the 60-65F/15-18C temperature range of today's ride.
Above: A very interesting tree (it grew up with a tree-fall on it).
Above Left: Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Area.
Above Right: We are riding from a gravel road to a chip-seal road.
Above: Riding through some of the Private Land of the Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Area.
Above: We are now on the Tobacco Plains Reservation.
Above Left: It is noteworthy that the Tobacco Plains (Native Americans) are a Band in the Kootenay Nation.
Above Right: A west view across the valley of the Tobacco Plains Reservation.
Above Left: Another Cattleguard.
Above Right - WARNING: The worst Cattleguards for bicycles that I've ever experienced. The gaps are bone jarringly too spaced apart and the narrow straps can wedge a wheel in between the spacing gap and actually prevent steering (lateral wheel steering movement, yaw) for balance. Most straps are wider (like 3-4 inches / 10-13 cm's) and a cyclist can ride across a 3 or 4 inch wide strap (well, 9 of 10 times).
Every Cattleguard in the Dorr-Grasmere Recreation Area and the Recreation Area just north of Baynes Lake on Dump Road are just as bad as what is pictured here.
Grasmere on BC Hwy-93
Above Left: We reached Grasmere, which has one Gas Station / Convenience Store / Sport Permits.
Above Right: We stopped at the Grasmere General Store to eat our lunch (dehydrated fruit and nuts) and to eat some Ice Cream.
Above: Heading south on BC Hwy-93.
Above: Eleven kilometers to the USA Border Station called Roosville, Montana.
Above Left: Heading south on BC Hwy-93.
Above Right: Tobacco Plains Office and Hall (Kootenay Nation), located on Hwy-93 about 1 km south of the Grasmere General Store.
Above: The Quality Quilts Store on Hwy-93, maybe 5 km from Roosville - We visited for a little while.
Above Left: Heading south on BC Hwy-93.
Above Right: We are looking toward Galton Pass (between these mountains) where the Primary Great Divide Mountain Bike Route passes through. The road on the side of the hill (between the wires) is Phillips Road. Until here, Phillips Road followed Phillips Creek. Nearly as we could tell, Phillips Road changes its name to McDonalds Road as it enters this valley and meets Hwy-93. Also, there is a McDonalds Farm and McDonalds Lumber Mill near where McDonalds Road meets Hwy-93.
Roosville, Canada-USA
Above Left: This is Phillips Creek where it crosses under Hwy-93. The Primary and Alternate Great Divide Mountain Bike Routes have merged!
Above Right: We arrived at Roosville during some roadside maintenance, we had to wait for opposing single lane traffic to end, and for this pilot car to guide us 200 yards to the border station's Duty Free Shop where our transport vehicle awaited us.
Above Left: Welcome to the United States of America and the Roosville Border Station.
We just completed both the Canadian and USA GDMBRs!
Above Right: This is us, Terry and Dennis Struck and the Bee on the other side of the Roosville Border Station back in September of 2014 (to follow our adventure on the USA GDMBR, push the "Go to Northern Terminus USA GDMBR" Button, at this page's bottom-left corner).
Summary
Today's ride was wonderful with no hardships or riding issues. We did just finish riding the complete Canadian GDMBR (250 miles; Sept, 2017) and we just previously completed USA GDMBR (2500 miles; last October, 2017).
In terms of the overall Canadian GDMBR Journey, by tandem: Our worst experience was the rough forest road conditions between Elk Pass and Elkford, it caused us to run out of spare nuts, we made many trail repairs, we even broke a spoke, and because of the rained out roads being worn out by logging trucks we had to do a fair amount of bike pushing which further effected the schedule and we got behind on our plans. Our best experience was seeing a Grizzly Bear (twice), a Black Bear, two adult moose swimming, one young female moose running away from us when we stopped to filter water from a river, and one young moose (1.2 meters tall, 4' tall, all legs) covered in light brown curly hair, almost like a buffalo. Once again we met many wonderful people on the trail, in the bike shops, and just on the streets. We even got to dodge Flood conditions and Fire conditions. It was an ADVENTURE!
We have truly enjoyed all of the experiences that we would never have encountered had we not cycled the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route.
We would recommend this bicycle adventure to anyone who would appreciate a wilderness challenge!
| 66
| 
| 
