Sunday, June 29: Sirdar to Creston


Lockhart Beach Provincial Park

 Sirdar to Creston:  26 miles

Sunday was a good day to sleep in - I checked online for a Catholic Church, and found one nearby in the tiny hamlet of Riondel, population 253.  Such a small place, but it has everything I need to get by in a community.  A grocery store, post office, restaurant/pub, church, golf course, and a curling club!  The church listing said that the Catholic Church was a mission church connected to a parish in Nelson  (or maybe Creston).  Mass was at 2:00 PM.  I counted 15 parishioners.  I had a chance to talk with one lady in the congregation.  She said that there was no tabernacle for the Eucharist, so the priest had to bring the hosts from the main parish each week.  After Mass, the congregation has to extinguish all of the votive candles, to guard against a church fire.  They only have Mass at this mission during the summer months, because roads can be treacherous in the cold months.

Yes, there is a golf course, and it looks very nice.  I didn't take time to golf, even though I had brought my clubs along, just for an occasion like this.  They have about 40-50 members.   And, the curling club?  Its contained in a municipal building, as are many curling clubs in small Canadian towns.  It sounds like a fair number of residents just live in Riondel during the nice weather months, but apparently enough  live there year round to make a go of it at the curling club.  

A couple scenic highlights today.  The first was  Lockhart Beach Park.  It was a fairly warm day, so I decided to continue my tradition of an obligatory lake swim  each year.   I didn't stay in the water long; it was pretty cold.  Some hardy Canadians were  in the water; probably more of them on the beach.  At the water's edge I could see that the bottom was not sandy at the shoreline, but looked like gravel.  So I decided to keep my shoes on for this swim.    The joke was on me, because once I got around 10-15 feet into the lake there was a real nice sandy bottom.  It was ok, because with the chilly water, this was just going to be a quick dip.     I wore my shorts too rather than changing.   After the swim,  with the dry BC air and breeze,  my clothes  and shoes were dry in no time.

After the swim, I continued in the car, southerly to Sirdar, where I started the bike ride.  When I find a suitable motel, I usually would stay there for 2-3 days.  However, each successive day, my car rides became longer, as I was cycling away from the motel.  Today my destination was Creston, but I still returned  each night to Kootenay Bay.  Round trip in the car was over 2 - 3 hours, between Creston and Kootenay Bay.  Continuing south, finally I cam upon the end of the lake, perhaps 5-8 miles north of Creston.  The hills continued to get larger, in this area, and I got to a point where I was around 400 feet in elevation above the Creston Valley.  I took a couple of pictures,  but it is always difficult to capture the elevation changes in the photos. 

Once I arrived in Creston, a familiar theme resurfaces - signs for the US border.   Creston is less than 10 miles from the border. The TCT in BC  stays near the border for almost the length of the route in BC.  At points the trail diverges from the border from up to 50-80 miles, but then it runs back to the south.  While this territory is very "Canadian" -  the scenery, culture and people - it is a bit of disappointment that in all these years of riding on the TCT, I've never been far away from the US.  This changes next year, as I will swing northward toward Banff, then Edmonton, and not return to USA vicinity until well into Manitoba.  I am finding that my cycling muscles are growing stronger - I am taking a rather relaxed pace.  But as I am getting back into the cycling routine, I am feeling my sense of adventure has been rekindled for the TCT, after the three year hiatus, since  2022.   I envision making a greater commitment again for annual rides.  Looking back, prior to 2020, I cycled nearly every year, while I was fulltime employed.  Then 2020 and Covid happened, the border was closed.  My cycling energies were  directed to the Lewis & Clark Trail along the Missouri River.  Probably the greatest consequence to my life caused by Covid was the closure of Canada, and the delay in my return t the TCT.

 


My swim for 2025; chilly.


Riondel:  There is a Curling Club here!


Back to Highway 3 - its been around since Hope, BC

No good place for bike riding here.


Creston Valley from a nice viewpoint.



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