Up the Creek, But With a Paddle

We are camping in Radium Hot Springs this week, and my mobile blogability has been severely hampered by the demise of my preferred app, Blogsy. Still, it seems a shame to break my update streak for such a weak reason, so I will try emailing this post in. If you are reading this, I guess it worked…

It started raining a little after breakfast this morning. Normally this is cause for concern or thwarted plans, or perhaps the sudden and horrifying realization that Frankentrailer is not as watertight as we had supposed. Currently though, the extreme fire hazard in the mountains and the nearby Verdant Creek wildfire means it would be churlish to complain. Besides, the extra humidity will go a long way to reducing the smoke from the hundreds of other wildfires in the interior; Radium is still under an air quality advisory that began on Thursday.

We took the opportunity to visit Golden, about an hour north of us where highway 95 meets the Trans Canada. Like most alpine towns, there are a number of art galleries, quirky gift shops and neat bistros, as well as a craft brewery called Whitetooth that just opened 8 months ago, and who have a Nordic Imprial Porter I cannot wait to try.

In terms of interesting structures, there is an intriguing pedestrian bridge built in 2001 which crosses the Kicking Horse River. Made wholly from locally sourced timber, it is an impressive piece of work, even to a non-engineer like myself.

Even more interesting is the world's largest paddle, located south of town. I'm a sucker for these sorts of roadside attractions, and so we made a point of getting a group shot on it. I'm hoping our appreciation for the paddle puts a bit of positive karma into our collective account for when we go rafting on the Kootenay River on Tuesday.