One mile at a time...: Selkirk Tour - Day 5 (Slocan, British Columbia)

I'm sitting in what can only be described as the nicest lodging situation I've ever had on a bicycle tour. With the continued ongoing daily rain up here I opted again for a roof over my head. The motel in town was full so they referred me to the Blue Moon Bed & Breakfast. The two rooms upstairs are being occupied (more on that later) so I'm in the guest suite. The house itself was built in the early 1900s but it's been added to over the years. The owners bought the place just last fall and have redone everything inside. All new appliances, remodeled bathrooms, everything. They also have a huge library and sitting area for everyone to use but here are the three rooms I have:

The shower had five shower heads. It was amazing. As I rolled up here Julie (one of the owners) was outside and said I must be Tim. I had told her I would be coming on a bicycle and they have had cyclists come in fairly often. I put my bike in their shed and she showed me around the house and where my room was and asked if I wanted a beer. I didn't turn it down. They're also letting me use their washer and dryer tonight which is nice of them. She's originally from Quebec and is French-Canadian. Her husband is from Germany and her mother-in-law and father-in-law are staying here as well as her brother-in-law. So the two upstairs rooms are occupied the entire month. She was curious about my trip so I showed her my photos and we talked a bit and then I went to my room. As soon as I did that the skies opened up and it's now been raining for the past four hours. Was really lucky to dodge it today.

Today was about 50 miles of riding. The first 20 were a long, gradual uphill. It really wasn't so bad since I took it slow and it wasn't so steep that required a ton of breaks. I rode next to a stream the entire day so I heard water rushing constantly. I had a pretty good idea of how steep the grade was by how fast the water was coming down over the rocks. After that I had a cruise downhill into New Denver where I had lunch. After lunch there was a little more of a downhill and then a very, very steep four to five mile climb which took me a long time to finish. From there I got to cruise mostly downhill into Slocan. A few kilometers out I met an older couple going the opposite direction and they stopped and wanted to chat a bit. They were from Boise, Idaho and doing the loop I was in the opposite direction. Another friend of theirs was behind them but he had taken a few side trips and they said I'd probably run into him. I eventually did and he wanted to stop and talk for a while.

As I was heading downhill into Slocan I noticed my bike was bouncing a bit. I turned into Slocan and looked down and my back tire was nearly flat. Sure enough...completely flat by that point. I tried to put some air in it since I was only three blocks from where I'm staying but I could hear the air going out of it. So I had to change the tire. It's the first time I've had a flat on that bike (it has almost 3,000 miles on it) and it happened when I was pretty much done for the day so I can't complain too much.

Here is my route for the day and then photos.

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Hooray! Although there were avalanche areas throughout the whole route but I figured I was pretty safe from them this time of year.

That was the trip into New Denver. A lot of waterfalls and small lakes. After New Denver I started riding next to Slocan Lake which took me into my stop for the evening. After this morning I left the Selkirk Mountains (I'll get back to them in a day or two) and now I'm next to the Valhalla Mountains. Slocan Lake is incredible. It was a calm day so you could almost see everything in the lake as a mirror image.