The Red Lobster Journal for 1995

Mt. Rohr (almost), Mt. McGuire, Grand Forks to Balfour



Mt. Rohr (almost)

Alan Lizee and I drove up the Duffey Lake road and headed up the route for Mt. Rohr. As you can see the trees were fairly thick up to the lake.

 We skied up to a small lake on the west side of the mountain and woke up to heavy wet snow falling from the heavens Needless to say we went home.



Mt. McGuire




 I don't remember if Bob Cuthbert and I did this trip in 1995, but it was around the right year. In any event we had a good day trip. Along the summit ridge I remember we roped up and arranged that if one of us slipped along the very narrow ridge that the other person would jump over the other side. Reassuring? Anyway, it was easy and a nice mountain like reward for a long hike. Unfortunately when I scanned this slide, lots of deterioration had taken place and it was hard to make it look good.



Grand Forks to Balfour via the Columbia and Western Railway
We drove up to Grand Forks hoping for good weather, and it was the day we drove up. We enjoyed great food at a local hotel and went to bed anticipating an enjoyable adventure the next day. The morning dawned wet and we found various ways to procrastinate. I remember lolligaging in the restaurant and finally we decided to be off on our adventure.
I was great to be off. As usual when you get going, you realize you want to make minor changes to things. The former railway trestles were easy to cross on foot. To cross them while riding would have been stupid.

 I believe the railway grade east of Grand Forks has been worked on, but when we did it, some sections were pretty much impassible just east of Grand Forks, and some other sections were "weedy".
This picture was taken very close to where we camped. The bridge in the background is part of the highway just east of Christina Lake on its way to Castlegar.
The second day was spent going mainly downhill, with great views of Arrow Lake.

As we all know, it is very important to keep "fuelled" while cycling. This picture shows one Lobster technique in doing this. Chuck seems to be handling the technical aspects of the refuelling process while Keith Akenhead is doing to consuming of fuel, and Randy is eagerly waiting his turn.
There were a couple of tunnels we had to go through, but this was the longest at about a kilometer. It was slightly curved, so you really needed a flashlight or headlamp to get through safely.
We eventually got a view of the Arrow Lakes, and the old railway grade was a steady downhill. We got to the Hugh Keenleside Dam and stopped for a break in the town of Robson.

As I remember it we kept on looking for a campsite and it wasn't until quite late that we semi-secretively pitched our small tents out of sight at a rest stop not far from Nelson. That ended quite a long day.

Eagle eye Chuck saw a large turtle about to make its way across the highway.
We got to Balfour where Randy's family was staying. His inlaws had some property on the lake just a few kilometers past the town of Balfour and we stayed there the night. It was a fun ride with great friends. It was my first overnight bike tour and it turned out to be the start of many more.