The Border Run

And I'm back in my tent once again as I write this, preparing for my early morning dash to the border.

I was having quite a good time in Fernie so it took me a little while to adjust back to the solitude of the road this morning. Hot dusty roads once again. I can't quite believe just how hot the Canadian summer is. Every day so far bar my rest day yesterday the sun has been blazing down on me, and as I have been losing altitude it has just been getting hotter.

And I will have to try and get a picture at some point of just how much dust a monster logging truck throws up. It's like a sandstorm that leaves your mouth parched and you can forget riding on for twenty seconds or so after they have passed as you can't see nothing. Essentially a lot of the off road routes I'm using are gravel or dirt tracks implemented by the logging industry.

Oh and I can tell the miles are adding up a little now, with just a smidgen of chafing. There is nothing as glamorous as standing on the side of the road, with a tube of Vaseline in one hand and the other one down your pants. I'm glad you don't see people for hours at a time on this route.

Anyway for lunch I stopped at the dairy bar restaurant. It's ace. One of the best burgers I have had in ages, and the lads won't like me saying this who I went on a stag to Barcelona with recently, but even as good as burger nas! And as I'm leaving Canada I thought I better try poutine. Now essentially this is fries with young cheese gated on them and gravy poured over. And that's exactly what it tastes like, chips n gravy but with melted cheese. Maybe I was just starving but it tasted great. But not as good as my lemon ice slushy. Oh yeah!

And a little more hot dust later I have found a campsite on a place called loon lake. My family will know all about loons. And by that I mean they are a kind of Canadian species of duck that somewhere we stayed in whistler had hundreds of them decorating the place. But they probably do know all about the other sort to. Trouble is there are no loons here. Either kind as far as I can tell.  However the lake makes an awesome swimming pool. I cannot tell you how good that felt. What really surprised me though, an indication of just how warm summer is here, I reckon the lake was warmer than swimming in the Caribbean sea. But there is a little dock you can swim out to and sun bathe and dive from. Happy times.

So tomorrow the border, Montana, and 3 days til Whitefish is the plan. Hopefully they will let an unemployed vagrant in like myself and my six month visa is worth the paper it's written on.

I was also told to watch out for strange hill billy folk in Montana until I get down to Whitefish. Strange as in the deliverance style rapist strange. Reassuring words. As if I didn't have enough to worry about with bears, cougars and loons!