June 24, 2015

What happened…

Andrew writes:Wow, two days in a row of late starts – 12 noon again. Is it late though when you have no set schedule? Carley is all done school for the year, so we sat in her kitchen drinking coffee and scarfing down pancakes, and just having a great time. We headed down to the bookstore to do some research on the Kettle Valley Railway, and checked out the TourismBC office also.

We’ve lived here in BC for many, many years, and driven all over the province. We know all three major highways from Vancouver into the Interior like they were the back of our hands. Yet somehow, it seems as though the Universe is conspiring to send us off into the “great unknown”. There exists a rails-to-trail called the Kettle Valley Railway that starts in Hope, and ends several hundred kilometres east in Castlegar. We’ve decided to ride the first 250km or so of the trail, just for shits and giggles, and it’s different. Also, if we don’t like it, then the highway is pretty close.

So the crack of noon, and we’re off like turtles through the streets of Hope searching for the start of the KVR. We stop and talk to a woman (Connie) walking her dog for 20 minutes, because here in Hope, everyone is a talker. Good thing we like to talk too!

Finally we get on to the trail and it’s smooth sailing. Passing through the Othello tunnels was a little unnerving. They are 50-300m long, and pitch black in the middle. We didn’t have lights, but we did have courage, and in my case, a change of underwear. People who live here in BC…if you haven’t checked out this amazing trail, then add an extra 2-hours to your next drive thru Hope and check it out. Bring your kids, bring your grandparents, it’s awesome!

We stopped for lunch at the start of the Hudson Bay Heritage Trail. Soup and sandwiches, yum! I found some sunglasses when I walked down to the river to wash out my thermos. After lunch, we started riding on Highway #5 proper, with about 30km or so to the summit. I rode this highway last spring on my way to Calgary with Jojo (Junyoung Park), and it didn’t seem as busy then. The shoulder seemed wider then also. Large tractor-trailers do their best to pass wide, but sometimes it seems like inches separating us from tragedy. I glanced at my iPhone with some offline maps I had downloaded and saw that we could hop onto the KVR again, so we did.

It was…interesting. A double-track gravel path led down the highway towards the river, then it changed to single-track and looped around back under the highway, and we squeezed ourselves through. Now there was a double-track gravel road again heading north, or the KVR disappeared off into the woods ahead. I had a feeling, maybe from something I had read, that we didn’t really want to head into those woods. So we set off down the gravel road. About 200m later, we were face to face with a gigantic iron gate, the words, “No Trespassing” emblazoned at eye-level.

Amanda: I want to go back.
Andrew: Adventure awaits ahead, let’s go!
Surprisingly, Amanda didn’t argue, she just started taking bags off her bike and putting them onto the other side of the gate. I quickly followed, and in no-time at all, we had lifted the bikes over as well. The gravel and rocks was easily rideable on our 2” tires. A steep hill loomed in the distance. I started to sprint up it, then slowed to a crawl, and finally stopped, winded. I just couldn’t get the traction that I needed in the loose soil. Looking back, Amanda had already parked her bike and was walking uphill to help me push. That’s …-ing teamwork! I ran down and helped her push her bike up the hills.

The road turned to pavement, and we rode back under the highway, and onto a forest service road. After another 2-3km we spotted a great looking campsite along the river and decided to call it a day as it was 5pm. The tent was erected, dinner was prepared, and we sat and relaxed as the sunset just after 8pm. I wonder if we’ll have visitors tonight, human or otherwise…

Today’s Photographs

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