Kooteneys

Labour Day weekend, Pete and I took a trip to the Kooteneys which is about 4-5 hours south east of here. I had never been or at least I didn't remember much of it when I was 12 years old passing through that area. The town of Nelson is known as the alternative, hippy crowd and a lot of US draft dodgers nestled there. It's a quiant town that is growing and bustling. Very outdoorsy and a great feel to it for my liking. We camped almost an hour north of Nelson near Kalso. Just a very smaller town like Nelson. Had a great day checking out both town and their markets.

The next day we drove north west to mountain bike to a ghost town. We made sure we had a whistle since it is grizzly bear country all around there. Part of the mountain bike ride was along the old mining rail bed up there. The town of Sandon was bustling about a century ago, but now there's not much there but a few old buildings.





We were going to go for a quick hike afterwards, but saw a guy in the parking lot who had talked with another fellow who had seen 2 grizzlies on the trail. That along with the fact that it was raining hard made us decide to keep driving. We drove up north of Kalso to Meadow Creek where we were told that the Kokanee salmon were spawning. Also there was a good chance of seeing a grizzly bear from the car and we were all over that. I've never seen such a sea of red in the water as that's the colour that these salmon turn while spawning. No grizzlies though and we were disappointed about that.



We went to check out Johnsons Landing Retreat Center along this dirt, narrow, twisty road, but didn't have the directions so missed it, but it's supposed to be a great center. We, then, drove back and went to Ainsworth Hot Springs which has part of it in a cave!! Very awesome at the end of the day.

The next day we drove to Rossland to meet up with a friend, Marcia where we went mountain biking in the hail. Not so fun, but it was a great tour of that area. Can't wait to go back.