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Gord Cook found this poem by Jimmy Valance who used to run brevets out of Fernie. Jimmy wrote this poem many years ago about the Castlegar - Salmo climb on Highway 3. Here's what he had to say in a preamble to the poem: "The Bombi is the summit on the road from Castlegar to Salmo and featured in last year's West Kootenay 300. It is not the steepest climb in the province, nor is it the longest; however, for 18 kms of unrelieved bloodymindedness, the Bombi is hard to beat." Note: Jimmy speaks with a Scottish accent... Address to the Bombi Summit by Jimmy Valance (with apologies to Robert Burns) Amang B.C.'s summits may ye be curst, Your grade and aspect are the worst, Ask a randonneur who durst Toil up your slope. And even those who would be first - Abandon hope! A blinding, unrelenting slog Where randonneurs their psyches flog In hazy, pain-induced fog, (To tell the truth, Reduced to counting every cog And every tooth). An so . . . may men wi' draglines find ye, Let hard-rock miners undermine ye, Let graders gouge, serrate and line ye Wi' metal fangs, And randonneurs fore'er malign ye In heartfelt sangs. So let your shoulders sluff and slide Right down the mountain's steepy side, Great chunks, a hunder' meters wide And forty deep. And knowing how it was ye died I thus could sleep. Alas! Alack! This won't transpire As each year passes ye'll just get higher, And to your summit we'll a' perspire In granny gear, Returning each - 'spite prospects dire - Succeeding year. On arriving in Nelson on May 22, I discovered that Bob Boonstra had, to his everlasting credit reverted to the original Nakusp 300 route, therby excising the dreaded Bombi. The above verses will serve as an epitaph - the following as a eulogy for a man of vision and compassion. (JV) Man, Bob, in Heav'n ye'll get your Thanks Where Randonneurs in Serried ranks 'Midst Synchros stems and Campag cranks Their voices raise, Exorcising rando Angst In songs of praise. Let your name be carried far and wide (You should, in fact be Sanctified) Thanks from us all who on't near died But ne'ermore will - For ye struck from the Kootenay 300 ride The Bombi hill. Poems first published in BCR newsletter June/July Issue, 1993. Submitted again by Gord: May 20, 2005