Tour Divide 2022 – Day 2 – Elkford to Fernie

Date: 11-06-22

Mileage: 60.87 miles

Cumulative mileage: 165.85 miles

Climbing: 5459 feet

Cumulative climbing: 13087 feet

Elapsed time: 12hrs 32min

Riding time: 9hrs 10min

We awoke to rain and as we were packing up we realised that all the other TD racers had actually long gone, not in the slightest bit bothered by this we took a detour into the town to stock up on food. Fortunately the Esso service station was open and we got some baked goods and chocolate too. We ate our breakfast sheltering from the rain on the forecourt.

Riding back out of town towards the turn off for the pass we had the delightful experience of two large dogs running across a garden on an intercepting vector with an evil look in their eyes. We had only been pedalling five minutes and were still cold, but needs must as they say, and I put in the sort of sprint and accompanying wattage that would have shown Mark Cavendish a clean pair of heels on the Champs Elysees. Unlike Cav, we were fully decked out wet weather gear, on fully loaded bikes, and had only been awake for half an hour. Needless to say when we stopped a quarter of a mile late to recover, both of us were almost ready to bring our breakfasts back up.

So next up was the Crossing Creek forest service road, known to followers of the Tour Divide as the Koko Claims pass. From hereon in you’re faced with a five mile push up and then, because of the conditions, a four mile walk down the other side. We remember feeling a little cocky to begin with. The first 3 miles were OK, a few bits where you had to get off and push, but mostly a climb up and down but doable. It wasn’t until we got to the turn, where there seemed to be an almost vertical avalanche chute, with ice cold water coursing down it, did we go “oh shitballs, this is where it actually properly starts”. It took us hours to do those last 2 miles. Which was fun given our feet were instantly cold and wet from the start of the push.

The real kicker is that there was a point where it looked like we were at the top, but had a small dip and a little bit more climb to get to the real top. I remember it being sunny, and actually more mud than snow at that point in time. However, the dip down was the first time we had to cross precarious snow bridges across water, and then another almost vertical push up the other side. It kept going. And going.

Push, brake, step, and repeat for three hours and one minute, average speed 1.7mph! The trail consisted of baby head sized avalanche debris rocks, sometimes with meltwater run off flowing over the top, snow, mud, and  everything you don’t want to push your up and through distilled into one trail. Sometimes all of those things at the same time. As I recalled later on that day in a state of delirium: “There ain’t no hole like a post hole party”, not sure but I think this may have been by S Club originally.

We stopped and ate at the snowmobilers cabin at the top. Where we bumped into other people who had the “fuck this” look behind their eyes. There was also a toilet we both used called La Shîteau, I hate to say it, but it did actually have a better poo with a view than the ones in the Elan Valley. The weather looked good but as we started to head out, the rain started again.

On the descent it was as hard as the climb with many snow melt gullies to cross on precarious snow bridges or  just pushing through knee deep fast flowing run offs, some of these were deep and fast enough that you had to keep a good grip on the bike to stop it getting pulled out of your hands and make sure you didn’t lose balance and fall in.

The water was so rapid that no one in their right mind would choose to cross it, except we had to. There were a couple of people we kept bumping into. Where one person would stop at each crossing and take shoes and socks off with the view of trying to keep their feet dry. As the descent continued, we got to see his resolve break to the point where everyone seemed resigned to the fact that their feet were getting cold and wet and just got on with it.

Once we had got back to the valley level on the other side we settled into a really nice ride down the Bull River forest service road, the weather seemed to agree that it was summer again and not winter and things were warming up nicely. Could this be the end of the real hardship for the day? Well as Sweary Dave once said in a video “the tour divide giveth, and the tour divide taketh away” and we rounded another bend to see the road disappearing under a torrent of water.

I remember when we came round the corner at first confused thinking “wait, there should be a road there”, then “oh the road must skirt to the left and that must be the river”, and as we got closer thinking, “shit, no, that is the road, and that’s the river on top of it”. I remember cackling at the situation because at this point in time, it had gone from “damn, this is dangerous” to “this is just ridiculous”.

This was the Norboe Creek / Bull river confluence, this just flowed up and over the Bull River forest service road, which we were on, and meant we had to tackle upwards of a hundred metres of submerged road with very fast flowing, deep water on the top of it. As a non swimmer this was terrifying. Ultimately though because you are truly in the wilderness you have to accept the fact that you either go back, through all those steam crossings and back up and over Koko Claims, or you accept that others have indeed done it this morning, there are no bodies or bikes present so you should be good to go. We picked our way through and made it out the other side, me with a considerably higher level of adrenaline in my bloodstream than Chris.

With that out the way it just left us with the Sulphur Creek pass between us and Fernie. Summer was in full swing and we were down to shorts and t shirts for the climb, which turned out to be pretty easy, but as we crested the top we realised it was back to winter on the other side, and we descended down the rocky, muddy other side in the rain before finally joining the tarmac for the run into Fernie.

This was actually the one and only place on the day that we saw any sign of bears with some poop on the road, but fortunately the perpetrator was long gone.

We found a hotel that had some space, there were a lot of other riders staying in Fernie that night, got cleaned up and headed out looking for food. This was duly provided, along with beer, at the Boston Pizza, where we met Tara who was originally from Aberdeen. We obviously emitted some Britishness somehow and she obliged by bringing the beer first.

Chris said the day was harder on his mind than his body, I was definitely  the other way round, all the pushing had taken its toll on my shoulders.

Back in the hotel room we were re-evaluating our take on the Tour Divide compared to the GDMBR, Koko was put in because of a bridge out four or five years back. We question why it is still in the route, is it unnecessary macho bullshit? Not a single person we spoke to said “yeah that was great” or it should be in there. We both agreed, that night, that neither of us had any desire to repeat that section ever again. The funny thing was most people who were there were probably as a result of the Ride the Divide film, and the route when that was made was quite different to what it is now. We both agreed there seems to be more in there to make it hard, and it’s not quite so much about riding the bike as it was, what with the extra hike-a-bike stuff. Although obviously if that’s the way you feel about it there’s no reason why you shouldn’t just follow the GDMBR route and take it at your own pace.

After working out on what we’d heard from those out there on the TD Facebook group the Galton Pass route would take two days, whereas the Fernie alternate would take one. As a side effect of the snow we decided we would take the Fernie Alternate instead of the TD route as to quote us earlier in the day  “pushing your bike through knee deep snow is shit”, now you could say that was what we’d signed ourselves up to, but ultimately we weren’t racing and the risk of the next section just felt too high. That and the fact we were already half a day behind plans. A lot of people stayed in Fernie that night instead of pushing on.