The morning
after our climb on Gimli, we drive to Slocan
(not much of a town) and stop by the general store to inquire about the ferry
toward Revelstoke. We're told it's free and sails on the half-hour, every
hour. We're going! We're all excited about getting the bus on a ferry! It
takes us about an hour of driving to reach the landing. It's kind of weird:
the landing is simply the end of a steep downhill section… luckily, I had
just downshifted into second gear before I went around the last curve and
saw the line of cars lined up for the ride. Had just enough time to stop...
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Driving
along Slocan Lake.
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Queueing
up to get on the free (even for the bus) ferry joining Gallena
Bay to Shelter Bay.
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Our
ferry approaching the landing at Gallena Bay.
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Quite
a crowd on the boat.
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Enjoying
the views and the great weather.
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After
a 15-minute wait, we get on the boat and sail across. The ride takes around
20 minutes. Beautiful weather; we take a million pics. Once off the ferry,
we drive to Revelstoke. We spend an hour at the library, checking the weather
and getting info about Assiniboine (the hut, the helicopters, etc) and Wiwaxy
(bike access, busses, etc). The high pressure system is here to stay. We decide
to try and climb the North Ridge of Assiniboine, IF we can get a spot in the
hut. We'll call tomorrow morning.
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Looking
at the crowd of bikers from inside the bus.
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More
views of the bay.
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Ditto.
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Driving
along the Icefield Parkway.
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We're
back in Canmore (one of our favorite towns). Yeah!!!
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Thursday,
August 14, 2008: We call the helicopter service and the hut. Amazingly enough,
there are spaces available in both! We make reservations for a helicopter
ride and two nights at the Hind hut. We have no time to loose. We need to
be ready and flying out by mid-day tomorrow! We immediately leave for Canmore.
We get there by mid-day and spend all afternoon preparing our packs (at the
visitor center: nice lawn and a picnic table), then a good portion of the
evening looking for a place to leave the bus while we're on Assiniboine. After
starting to despair a bit about finding a good spot, we go to the Heliport
to ask if we could leave the bus there, and they agree. It's pretty late when
we go back to bus at the visitor center. We decide to spend the night there
and move the bus to the Heliport the next morning.
