Okanagan Lake District: Part Two

Ride No. 1: A Volcanic Circuit 

Just behind Summerland is an ancient volcanic caldera bereft of water. Over the years the basalt has eroded and with glaciation through the valley this glacial lake bed has left extremely fertile soil. Coupled with the hot summer sun and good slope aspects, this area has long been a fruit producing area. This particular crater is home to grapes and apples. Light traffic also makes it a perfect place to cycle and walk. 

Certainly it's not flat! We found climbs almost as soon as we moved to the north and away from the  main town centre where we'd parked our car. It was warm with temperatures rising to 30 as the day progressed. I for one welcomed the warmth knowing that fall and then winter lay just ahead. On top of that is the possibility of more isolation with a second wave of C19 unfortunately predicted to settle in. Sunny days, bring them on!

We found this cool looking older barn as we looked for at turn that would take us higher up the side of the north end of the crater. I've no idea how old this barn is, but it has a very interesting design and 
older construction style. We certainly liked it.
Before we left home we had discussed that it would be time to harvest the apples on our two heavily laden apple trees on our return. However when I saw the fruit on the trees in the Okanagan I realized that we still had loads of time. Home almost a week now I'm only now taking a few apples from the tree for dehydration purposed as we put away food from the garden for the coming covid winter. It seems like an especially positive and necessary thing to do this year, though we do this every year. A way to prepare to hunker down and wait out the invisible virus. 

There are a lot of apple plantations in the crater, and it logically turns out there is also a serious cider industry here. Makes sense. Some of the trees are farmed in the traditional manner with full branches while others are planted in rows and pruned like grape vines, I assume to permit mechanized harvesting. The trees were heavily loaded with fruit!

Eventually all good things come to an end, and just like on our long walks the hills showed themselves and challenged us to take them on. 

It was a bit of a grind as we climbed then levelled of, then climbed again. Not having full on road bikes, our gearing system isn't really conducive to climbing, but we managed. 

The views began to improve as we climbed above the farm land and the volcanics of the area presented themselves a bit more clearly. We transitioned into grazing lands, but we didn't see anyone or anything grazing. Odd. Perhaps the cows were on vacation?

And still the climbs continued. Not brutal climbs, but steady climbs that I love when on foot. On a bike they are 'interesting'.

I think about now Annemarie's beginning to think that those electric bikes we've seen sound pretty good! Surprisingly we've seen quite a few young people riding them. What's that about?

We climbed higher still and started to get into that Okanagan scrub and treed countryside that I remember fondly from the summers of my youth. I was enjoying this very much. Though we have made considerable efforts to stay active through the Covid-19 isolation we have also found that much of that has eventually become, well, routine. What a wonderful change! 

Most of it anyway. Cycling up 14% grades in the heat isn't a whole lot of fun. But hey, there was a strategically positioned outhouse! Why aren't these available on the camino? Not the first time I've asked this question. A good little business for someone. Maybe 'good' isn't quite the right word, but you get my point.

We found the Kettle Valley Railway Trail (KVR) as was indicated in our guide book. In this area it's also part of The Great Trail that runs across Canada and also up into the far north. It's some 24,134 kms in length, the longest continuous trail in the world. Excited to find this old railway bed we set off in earnest believing that much of the climbing was behind us. 

The trail was just excellent. We met a number of folks coming from the other direction with heavily laden bikes who had obviously been camping their way along the trail. This should have twigged something. 

We kept on peddling along, climbing all the while. A long steady grind as we searched for the road that the guide said we would eventually turn off on.

We rode and rode. At one point I saw a road far ahead and I told Annemarie to wait in the shade of a tree while I went ahead downhill to see if I could figure out where we were...no cell coverage in this area. Then she wouldn't have to ride back up. I got to the bottom and with no idea of our location decided the only thing to do was to turn around. I rode back 'downhill' to Annemarie and then it began to make sense. The trees along the narrow track had formed a bit of an optical illusion. What had looked downhill was actually up! Not a steep up, but a steady climb upwards. We wondered why we'd always seemed to be working so hard. Turning around we exited the area at a good clip because we were going downhill most of the way!

Returning to where we began the trail we reviewed the basic photo of the guide book I'd taken with my phone and realized that we'd made a simple mistake that when walking would likely never have happened. Moving much faster and knowing the KVR was our turn off, we just naturally turned onto it when we came to it. The sign which read "Summerland to Princeton" should have nudged our brains. We'd been riding west up the long climb to the summit that would later take us down into Princeton! Oops. 

We figured out that we should have ridden along the road a bit further, past the steam railway station and then turned east towards the lake on the KVR 'Summerland to Penticton' section. We missed our turn by a couple hundred meters.

Now turned around and on the correct part of the KVR we did in fact begin a slow decent towards the lake through some pretty nice country.

The riding was easy and our hot, tired bodies revelled in the easy trail through the shade of the beautiful trees. The nature was wonderful!

At one stage there was a point of interest detailing the famous poem about the cremation of Sam McGee. Canadian folk lore. There were also some other historical postings along the trail that we stopped to read. Loads of history about the Indigenous Peoples, the European explores and fur trade that provided routes through this part of Canada and opened things up to the west. 



Still enough energy to smile!

High on the crater wall looking east towards Summerland and Okanagan Lake. At the beginning of our ride we cycled westward along the far side of the valley. Still well above the vineyards and apple orchards in the very dry scrub lands. 

Sometimes sitting at home living our daily lives it's easy to forget just how beautiful our country is. Of course I could also say this about many of the beautiful countries we've been privileged to experience.

A rare photo of the author on this particular trip. Hi Puck!

After a long day of riding, a downhill stage to the finish sounded pretty good until we realized that this meant a very steep section on a gravel trail. A 25% slope is pretty darn steep! After all, it was 'only' a 14% gradient on the way up all those kilometres ago? We both held on to our handles and brakes fairly tightly

: )

We survived the decent and made our way back into Summerland where we collect our car, shopped for groceries and ice and made our way back to our lakeside campsite. A swim and a cold beer followed! Not a bad day of riding. Amazingly we still had no smoke from the massive forest fires in America that was plaguing Vancouver, Victoria and the coastal areas. Air quality ratings there were posted at their highest level, 10+! We were to learn that people were largely staying in doors as it was considered too dangerous for much of the population to venture outside. We were fortunate indeed!

I'll post our next ride in a day or so. I'm enjoying reviewing the travel after the fact when I have a bit more time. Nicer than at the end of a long walking day when sometimes all I really want to do is shower, have a cold beer and take a short nap before dinner: )