Bearly made it!

Instead of four hours it took us four days to get to Nelson as we headed over the valley into the Kootenays. We drove alongside and crossed lakes so long that free ferry rides form part of the highway. As the mountains got higher and the temperatures got lower we found time slipping pleasantly away as we stumbled across ghost towns left over from the booming gold and silver mining days of the 1890s, historic steamboats, museums, art shops, coffee shops, spa resorts built around hot thermal springs and big mounds of bear poo!! Here Chester is ascertaining how fresh this specimen is and therefore how fast we may need to skedaddle.