Day 9: Castlegar to Nelson to Kootney Bay

Today we cycled out of Castlegar and along the Kootney river to Nelson. We passed about four amazing hydro electric dams along the way. It is interesting to not that everything in this region seems to origionally been developed during the gold rush.

The first dam we passed was called the Brilliant Dam. They are currently in the process of expanding this dam.




As I was sitting at on of the pullouts overlooking a dam, slightly ahead of the group who were taking a picture, an individual pulled over to ask me about the cycling trip. I quickly learned that the man I was speaking to was driving the support vehical for a monk WALKING across the country. I had heard rumors of this monk as Cam had mentioned that he was in the area but non of us had seen him yet. I am amazed this will be the third spiritual walk that this monk has completed. In the past he has started from the BC coast in early April and walked for 6 months straight to end in Cape Horn(apparently this is the farthes point east in Canada) in late October. The driver mentioned that there were some pretty cold days on his last trip. Can you imagine walking in a robe (not sure what the name of these garments are called) in April at 1500 m. Kay I know I with skiing as a kid and various hikes at high elevation in the summer months this can be cold. This time the monk is breaking his walk into two parts due to various engagements along the way. He is walking to Toronto this summer and completing the trip next summer.

A Little bit further along the road I found the monk in bright orange robe and sandles walking along. I coasted beside him for about 10 minutes to ask about his journey and he encouraged us to try to go the extra 12 km to Cape Horn. We wished each other a safe journey and continued on our way to Nelson.



In Nelson we took the afternoon off to enjoy a beautiful Sunday afternoon in the area. We stoped at an Organic Coffee shop called Grouned for some delicious sandwiched etc. We also found a computer where $2 covered 15 min or longer till the next person came to use the computer. This is where cam managed to post the last set of blog updates.



After a relaxing afternoon in Nelson we headed off for Cinnimon Buns (Since we are always hungery Jennica has coined this trip the Cross Canada Bakery Tour). Then headed off for along the lake to the Balfor Bay Ferry.

Unfortunately, our timing was a little off and we just missed the hourly ferry. So we made dinner as we waited for the 7:50 ferry to Kootney Bay.



Apparently, this ferry ride is the longest free Ferry ride in Canada (35 min). So rather late we pulled into Kootney Bay and found a campground to crash(Pilot Bay Resort-yeah it wasn't an actual resort).