Nelson is in a beautiful location, nestled in a valley on the west arm of Kootenay Lake, surrounded by tree-covered mountains. There is however very little flat land between the lake and the mountains, so the town is built in tiers up the side of the mountain, with each parallel street higher than its predecessor. Even Baker Street, the historic main street of town, is well above the lake. So everywhere you go, you go either uphill or downhill. It is a busy town, with lots of amenities (and lots of visitors).
We spent the first day getting acquainted with Nelson, which included a walk around downtown and a bike ride on the Lakeshore Trail. We thought that the trail was 7 Km each way, but after about 4 Km we passed no trespassing signs, and then rode through a homeless camp in the woods, on what did not seem like a city-maintained trail. At this point we battled our way uphill to a road and headed back into town. It turns out that the trail is 7 Km round trip.
On Monday we decided to ride part of the Nelson - Samlo rail trail. Online info on the trail was sketchy, and I had the impression that the trail came from the lake up to Nelson and then down to Salmo, with a gentle grade. We started at the top of Gore Street, where the Nelson station had once stood, thinking that this was the high point of the trail, but boy was I wrong. The previous day we had scouted out the parking, but when we arrived at the parking lot, a crew was busy preparing it for paving, so we had to head back downhill and park on the street (with the parking brake on and the front wheels turned into the curb, as it was very steep). After pushing our bikes back up the hill to the trail, we were ready to start our ride, when we saw a large fresh (wet) pile of bear poop, right in the middle of the trail. This encouraged us to get going, despite the cool temperature (it had dropped to 6 degrees overnight and we were in the shade). The ride started out uphill, but we found a pace that we could maintain, and soon were cruising through forest, crossing old railway trestles, while frequently ringing our bicycle bells, to let the bears know that we were coming. 12 Km later, on a steadily deteriorating trail (especially after Cottonwood Lake), we arrived, half frozen, at the summit. After a short celebratory rest and some nuts, we turned around and headed back towards town, with minimal effort
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| Marlene at the summit of the Nelson - Salmo Rail Trail |
In the afternoon we headed north to Kaslo. Just after leaving Nelson, I had to brake extremely hard (throwing everything in the back seat onto the floor), and leaving rubber on the road, as a young woman pulled out right in front of us. Yikes!
Our first stop was Kokanee Creek Provincial Park, where we planned on walking the Canyon trail, but on arrival found the trail closed off with yellow tape, as there were bears in the area. The bears were there as the Kokanee (fish not beer) were spawning in the channel near the lake. We watched the fish for a while, and then asked the volunteer on site if we could use the trail and she gave us directions to get onto the trail above the spawning area. We had a great walk up the trail to a lookout, returning by a circuitous route that took us along the lakefront.
We then headed up to Kaslo, just to check it out. It was nice little town to wander around, and we came across a store selling Island Farms ice cream, my favourite. To help the island and local economies, we just had to have an ice cream - great ice cream, but poor value for money (half the size of the ice creams at the Log Cabin in Parksville).
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| Kootenay Lake & mountains from Kaslo |
Fortified with sugar we headed back to Nelson. About 2 Km north of Nelson, I glanced in the rear-view mirror (Marlene heard a bang, so maybe I did too) and saw that two cars had collided right behind us. I stopped and we ran back to see if anyone was hurt. One car was in the middle of the road, blocking both directions, and the driver was lying on the road beside the car. He said that he was just winded (he had some rib damage from the airbag deployment). The other vehicle was on its side, but the driver was standing up inside and said that they were all okay. While Marlene helped another woman get the two children out of that vehicle, I called 911 and went through their 20 questions until the ambulances arrived, followed by the fire department and police. We had to hang around until the ambulances left with all 4 people on board and the police were finished their evaluation, to give a statement, but eventually we were back on the road to Nelson. Maybe we should stay off the roads tomorrow.
A nice woman at the Information Centre in Nelson had given us a brochure on walking trails in the area, so on Tuesday we decided to walk the Millsite trail at Sproule Creek, as it was a comfortable 10 Km walk and close to home (to minimise exposure to the local drivers). The first 4 Km up were great, walking along the creek through a forest of evergreens and deciduous trees. But the bridge at the 4 Km point was broken and this seemed to put people off going any further. Not to be beaten, we clambered over the broken bridge and fought our way through the largely overgrown trail up to the old mill site. The sun disappears very early from the valley bottoms and by 4 pm there was a definite chill in the air as we headed back down the trail. Next time I will take a sweater.
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| Bridge weight limit - 1/2 a Jim |
We have certainly have had no difficulty filling our first three days here, and with warm sunny days forecast for the rest of the week, I am sure that we will see more of the great outdoors around Nelson.
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