But first, another hot spring! This one was the Ainsworth Hot Spring. It was a typical hot spring in a lot of senses, but it also had a cool little cave system that you could venture into. Inside was like a natural sauna. I did not have an asthma attack.
We then got back to Nelson for about 3:30, by the time we drove around the area a bit. We walked around the town, checking out the shoppes and sights, sounds, and smells.
As per 'Amy's pseudo-guided tours', Nelson is one of the larger tourist draws in the area, and in a chicken-or-egg situation, is also the largest commercial hub in the Kootenays. I found the geography of it a little strange, because it is not as close to ski hills as other towns and there is no visible inherent industry in the area. The reason that you can't see much industry, though, is that it's intentionally invisible. A large portion of Nelson's GDP is from the sale of marijuana to the rest of the province, country and the US. This was obviously an intriguing nugget of information about the town, but not one that I could find out more about in the brief period that we were there. That being said, Nelson is a great little town and Robyn and I agree that it was the best mix of small town BC and larger city amenities. The beautiful surroundings, obviously, don't hurt the ambiance. Of all of the towns we've been through, we feel that Nelson would be the best fit for us (if we ever chose to move out here or anything).
We ate a delicious meal at a local restaurant named The Outer Clove, which specializes in garlic-based meals. (As a side note, I am struggling a bit with tense here, trying to write about the past in present-tense. Cut me some slack, I'm in BC.) We all shared some great food and hearty laughs and we agreed that the hot springs earlier in the day were making the beer and wine much more potent. But we weren't complaining.
Dinner ran a little late, and we then made a beeline back to the hotel. A couple more drinks by the hot tub (why not?!) to end the evening, and we were in bed by 10:30.
THE ALARM BUZZED again at 7:30 Tuesday morning and we did our get-ready dance, which we've mastered by now. We were on our way up the chairlift at 9:10 for first runs of the day. Whitewater, we realized, is a much smaller mountain than those that we've been riding in the past couple weeks. We've been spoiled, I fully admit. We came out here partially as a result of a recommendation of a (former) co-worker of mine - Captain Andrew Klotz. He raved about the town and resort and convinced me to pull the strings within this group. I am glad he did. Although the mountain was smaller than the others, it was also cheaper and less busy. We were able to ride right up to the chairlift every time and ended up getting in a lot of runs throughout the day. The smaller mountain and less traffic allowed us to explore the treed areas even more and gain more confidence with our skills.
Robyn even discovered a new love for seeking out jumps and trying her best not to injure herself 'hitting' them.
The sun shone all day again and made for a great day on the mountain. Whitewater is a bowl shape so there can be a lot of traversing in order to find some fresh lines and clean snow to carve. The locals have obviously explored nearly every inch of the mountain, as fresh powder lines were very difficult to find. If you look closely in this picture, you can actually see where the skiers have lost their marbles and they rolled down the hill:
We've all become much better snowboarders in this short period of time, and developed muscles that I had never even flexed before (do you know how to flex your Sartorius? I do!).
We're sitting around this evening, reading and chatting. These long days together have been great for the three girls to reconnect and we've been able to create memories we'll share forever together.
Tomorrow - a half day riding Red and then it's St. Patty's day!
Until next time.
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