Day 3.. Nice road ride, Hurt bear, bike repairs, hot tub, steak and beer
As I packed up and left the campground, my plan was to do a road ride into Fernie to get my bike fixed. While I was rolling on my backup tube, I didn’t wanna risk it on the trail. Cars and trucks passed me giving me a very familiar feeling of the way that I trained for this event. I had an ample shoulder and beautiful views surrounded by magnificent mountains.
Taking a paved route today I didn’t think I would see any bears. But, so far I’ve seen bears every day. However, this is not a scary bear story. It’s a sad bear story. If you don’t wanna hear it, you need to skip the next paragraph.
Riding down the highway, opposite of me on the left-hand side was 3 cars all bunched up on the side left shoulder. Initially I thought it was police stop. Getting closer I realize that there was no police. As I rode by, I saw a small bear laying down in between the cars and two women holding it and petting it. I turned around to take a look to see if I can help. As I approach the scene I see that the bear is laying down, breathing labored, and foaming at the mouth. Struggling to get each breath, he lied they’re unconscious. He was not a cub, but a little older. I would guess a year old. The ladies explained that he was running across the highway and got hit by three cars. At least one of the three cars that hit him pulled over and it was the lady who was caressing him and petting his neck what is the one that was driving. The look on her face, she was beyond sorry. Tears were willing up in her eyes, she knew that she had condemned despair to a slow death. It was a grizzly, and even though he was a juvenile, he easily weighed as much or is more of a man. The bear started to gain consciousness. He probably suffered from a concussion, broken bones, and shock. The bear stumbling, got off the ground and was trying to move back into the highway. Even though this bear could have done a serious damage to the lady, she grabbed him to prevent him from going into the highway. The bear couldn’t quite tell which way was which, and eventually stumbled a couple feet into the grass, and laid down again. Getting a little more wherewithal, the bear stood back up and continued to stumble towards the trees. Eventually, finding himself resting in some undergrowth. The man standing there, explained to me that he had called the RC (which is an abbreviation for RCMP, Local police). He said that there was an officer on his way, and that they requested that the person who hit the Bears to stay there. If this bear didn’t get human intervention, he was not going to survive in the wild. I left the scene with tears in my eyes and hopeful thoughts..
Getting into Fernie, I found myself at the Straight Line bike shop. They specifically set aside all of their work stuff to specifically help continental divide bikers. I got immediate amazing service, and ended up upgrading my front tire to a bigger size tire with Chris core inside of it hoping to prevent from future problems. Thank you so much straight line for getting me back on the road. There was a Continental divide bike rider that was being helped before me and pretty much everything on his bike need to be changed from gears to chain and brakes. He had quite a bill. https://www.facebook.com/straightlinefernie?mibextid=LQQJ4d
Fernie is a pretty sizable town (for this area) with a very friendly atmosphere. I see kids playing in their front yards with other kids, similar to how I saw children in Elkford playing duck duck goose in the driveway. There is a very large, Coal mine industry, and the nearby towns are surrounded by five Cole mines.
I checked into my hotel, got a good shower, spent some time washing clothes, and felt like a human again. The hotel even had a hot tub which I soaked in for a while to loosen some of my sore muscles. For dinner, I ended up finding a steak and a couple beers. Even though it wasn’t cooked the way I would’ve cooked it, it was Delicious. I have noticed that the food here in Canada, not from fast food joints, uses better ingredients. The soup that came with my steak, had a ton of vegetables in it, and was so good I had to get another bowl.
In the hotel that evening I went through and did a gear shake down getting rid of some of the items that I hadn’t used yet or had duplicates of. I was able to shave off about 4 pounds.
Though there was a lot of good things that happened today, but I will remember the bear the most. Life can be short, try not to waste the time you Have. Start planning the things you want to do.
