Canada - Day 28 - Manning Provincial Park to Hope

 45.4 miles, 1339’ climbing 45.4 miles, 1339’ climbing

It doesn’t get dark until late at this latitude and time of year. The Lightning Lake campground was noisy for hours after we crawled into our tent, but it was a pleasant din of families winding down their day around campfires, sounds of laughter and distant conversation. 

We got up just as the sky was getting light. It was surprisingly cool given the heat the day before. We packed up and hit the road, wearing jackets to keep warm on descents, and there was a good amount of descending. We rolled into the town of Hope fairly early, though it was already getting hot and windy. We could have ridden further, but not with a good stopping point, so we ended our ride in Hope.

It turns out that Rambo: First Blood (1982) was filmed here, and there are statues, a walking tour, and many photos of the filming. It’s a funny claim to fame! We got up just as the sky was getting light. It was surprisingly cool given the heat the day before. We packed up and hit the road, wearing jackets to keep warm on descents, and there was a good amount of descending. We rolled into the town of Hope fairly early, though it was already getting hot and windy. We could have ridden further, but not with a good stopping point, so we ended our ride in Hope.

It turns out that Rambo: First Blood (1982) was filmed here, and there are statues, a walking tour, and many photos of the filming. It’s a funny claim to fame!

Canada - Day 27 - Princeton to Manning Provincial Park

 45.8 miles, 3927’ climbing, deer

Today was predicted to be over 100F, so we left early after muffins and coffee in our hotel. We are changing our route because of the hot weather that is forecast. We’re sad to miss the GNBR that turns north from Princeton, but days of temps over 95F are too much. We will head to west Vancouver, and pick up the section on Vancouver Island from there.

There was some cool air as we started, but we were straight onto a climb. There were a bunch of mule deer along the roadside as we first left town. Soon we were in some beautiful rolling pine trees, and the climbing continued. By 10:30am, the sun was on our bikes and we were eager to get to Manning Provincial Park. We arrived in early afternoon and scored a campsite in the beautiful lightening lake campsite. After a cold swim and a warm shower, we felt distinctly more human. Eric, from the neighboring campsite and former winter visitor in southern AZ, gave us a lift to the store so we could make a few purchases.

Tomorrow we continue our detour to cooler weather on the coast, keeping our rides shorter and earlier. We are looking forward to a lot of downhill tomorrow morning.

Canada - Day 26 - Penticton go Princeton

 68.2 miles, 4423’ climbing, deer

Today we finally got back on our journey. It felt like starting a new trip after so many days off. The weather changed today, also, from warm to very hot. We set out at 5:30am to ride as much as possible before it got hot. The climb was pretty and pleasant up to Summerland. From there we passed fruit trees (cherry, peach, apple) and grape vines. We had a little single track, and then we got back on the rail trail through pine trees alongside a creek. It didn’t take long for the temperature to rise, so we kept pressing forward.

Around mile 46, we were past the bulk of our climb. We descended to Chain Lake to cool off in the shade and rehydrate. We believe the temperature was in the upper 90s. At the lake we met a couple who were on the KVR going the opposite direction. They were waiting for temperatures to come down. We chatted a bit. Ed & I filtered water for drinking and put our feet in the lake.

Knowing we would largely be descending to Princeton, we wet down our headsweats with water and descended using the pavement to get down the hill faster. There were a few hills to climb (hard!), but we made it into town, had cold beverages, booked a hotel. Soon we went for a burger and resupplied at the grocery store. We are checking the weather forecast and potential route changes to avoid the grueling heat. 

Canada - Days 22-25, Penticton Zero Days

 July 4-7, 8.3miles, 476’ climbing

On the morning of July 4th, we loaded up and headed out for Princeton. About 7 miles into our journey, while walking (not biking), Ed made a misstep that resulted in a serious bruise on his outer thigh. It was painful enough that we got a ride back to a Penticton to get it checked out, based on the doctor’s recommendation and the pain it was causing we spent 4 more days in Penticton for recovery.

On the side of town near Lake Okanagan, Penticton is like a beach resort minus the salt water and waves. There’s a long sandy beach and marina, a giant floating inflated playground for kids, a small amusement park also geared towards kids, ice cream vendors, public art, a museum. We walked, rode, and took busses to visit some wineries, buy groceries, float from Lake Okanagan to Skaha Lake in inner tubes (flat water, kinda slow, might prefer to kayak next time), people-watched along the shore, kayaked along the beach, looked at the public art (see the giant peach?).  We took advantage of the kitchen at our place to cook some of our own meals, caught up with the Tour de France. If you have to take unexpected down time, Penticton is a pretty good place to be.

Canada - Day 21 - Zero Day Penticton

 9.7 miles, 2 wineries

We took a zero day in Penticton, a small city on the south end of Lake Okanagan. After breakfast, we took a bus to the grocery store for our resupply, the longer distances being the downside of larger towns when it comes to bikepacking. Afterwards we cleaned our bikes and drive trains, and we pedaled out on the rail trail to visit some (2) of the many (nearly 200) wineries in the region. They mostly seem like smaller wineries, and the vines are beautiful to ride past on the bike trail with the views of the lake and fruit trees and distant towns.

We took a wrong turn, backtracked, cut through a cemetery, and finally arrived at Three Sisters Winery. Seems like most of these wineries do tastings, and this one has been in the area since 2016, so the winery boom here is a more recent phenomena than we thought. After sampling a few wines, we pedaled up to 7 Townships winery where we focused on white wines. We bought 1 bottle of Riesling to take back to our hotel. Wine isn’t easy to carry on bikes!

We picked up salad and samosas for dinner, biked back to our hotel for a soak in the hot tub, then watched a replay Mark Cavendish making Tour de France history while we dined. It was a good day. A heat wave starts tomorrow, unimaginable a couple days ago, so we will try for an early start tomorrow.

Canada - Day 20 - Hydraulic Lake Rec Site to Penticton

 50.8 miles, 240‘ climbing, rabbits, snake

It was cold and wet in the morning. A bunch of the BC Epic 1000 racers had departed, but some lingered, clearly in touring mode. We paid our camping fee and set off, back on potholed and puddle filled roads. It rained on and off. 

Finally we made it to Myra Bellevue Provincial Park where a beautiful portion of the Kettle Valley Rail Trail is. There was a vendor renting bikes, lots of sightseers, the surface became very good. This part of the rail trail crosses many trestle  bridges, a couple tunnels, and has spectacular views down to Kelowna and the Okanagan Lake. Penticton, our destination for the day, sits at the south end of the lake.

We took a lot of pics as the rain continued. Finally we were back on bumpy, puddled road, and we made it to Chute Lakes Resort for lunch.  The sun finally came out as we left there and descended a dirt road for several miles. Then we were back on the rail trail, the surface very good and a gradual descent, no need to pedal for the 15-20 final miles into Penticton.

The forest became dryer with ponderosa pines. Near the lake were beautiful farms and vineyards — grape vines, cherry trees, bee hives, other fruit trees. It was warm and sunny. There was a marina and Long Beach, lots of lovely homes, a resort feeling. It didn’t feel anything like where we started the day. We gladly checked I to a hotel and started on our town needs — shower, laundry, groceries, charging electronics. We will take a rest day here to dry out.

Canada - Day 19 - Mohr Rec Site to Hydraulic Rec Site

 80.6 miles, 3530‘ climbing, white tailed and mule deer, snowshoe rabbits 

We left our beautiful, riverside camp site around 7:30am, riding on a good dirt road through the forest. It was Canada Day, and we were unsure if we’d find an open store or restaurant to resupply. The pedaling was relatively easy compared to recent days with a mild downhill trend for many miles. We saw large brown rabbits with white back feet that we found out were snowshoe hares in their summer coloration. Lots of whitetail deer sprang away from the road, their white tails seeming longer than those at home. We spotted a couple of other deer without the white tails, about the same size, probably mule deer.

We planned to camp in Beaverdell. The valley leading in to the small community was particularly beautiful with large meadows fringed with trees. It was great to find the town open for business. We had lunch at a small snack shop, then resupplied at the general store, meeting the first rider on the BC Epic 1000 race we passed. The race leaders and middle of the pack were already past Beaverdell on a part of their route we don’t overlap with.

Since it was early, we decided to continue riding rather than staying in Beaverdell. We finally got on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail, nice since the gradient is never really more than 2%, nice for tired legs. Unfortunately it was quite bumpy, full of puddles and potholes and rocks, with only a few places to camp, slow going. We passed a few other racers, some who stopped to chat, and it was after 9pm, nearly dark when we made it to our camp site. Probably 30 racers were already there, in their tents. It rained lightly as we set up our tent, around 14 hours after leaving camp. The temperature dropped. By midnight all the trees and bushes were frozen, but it rained again before morning.