Mount Fernie Campground, Canada - Polarsteps

We made the right call in riding to Cranbrook early in the morning; the road was quiet on the way there. Coming into town we could see the wall of snowcaps on the horizon, the last of the Rockies before the prairies. We headed to Tim Horton's just as rush hour was starting; we hung out on a patch of grass and watched nightmare traffic go by on the main drag of town, then figured out a back way to the Isadore Canyon trail, which would parallel the highway for a while and let us skip a busy interchange. The trail was dreamy, quiet, and easy to ride on; it's a perfect example of why we keep taking our chances on the TCT. Later on, though, we got back off the highway onto another trail section towards Wardner, and 4-5km along, with no warning whatsoever, the trail just ended in pile of gravel and we had to backtrack; this is kind of emblematic of the other half of the TCT experience, and not our first or last time hitting a dead end this way. This was our longest day so far; we were shooting for Fernie and just made it at the very end of a day of big mountain views and winding roads carved into cliffsides. Still being very traffic-aware, especially around these tight corners and especially when empty beer cans start showing up at the side of the road (demonstrated by Kini in the last photos. We saw a lot of these on the truck routes in Washington too, and they are not reassuring). Thanks to Mt Fernie Provincial Park for the hot showers, and also for being literally the first campground we've been to in Canada that's provided bear lockers for non-motorized travellers instead of just emphatically reminding campers to "lock all your food in your car because there are bears in the area". With 124km behind us and our needs accounted for, we slept really deeply. -Sara