KVR (part 1)

It really is all in the timing. Last weekend Jeff and I finally went on our long-discussed bicycle trip along a section of the former Kettle Valley Railway between Myra Canyon (Kelowna) to Penticton. This weekend the Okanagan is burning, albeit the opposite shore from where we were, but realistically that wildfire could have started anywhere. We were just lucky.

It's funny; we were talking at our base camp in Penticton the night before we stowed the bikes and gear on a shuttle that would take us to our start point at Myra Canyon. Neither one of us could recall who first suggested this trip and when. It could have been me, since I ride a lot, or it could have been Jeff because he's a train nut. The timeframe for this adventure is lost in the sands of time, although it was probably last Christmas.

We both like 2-wheelers, and it's been about 15 years since we went on a trip together. That time it was on motorcycles. I've kept my helmet and saddlebags all these years while Jeff has kept riding his 750. I bought a beater GS850 about 4 years ago, and since it remains a beater to this day we thought a more reliable mode de transport would be mountain bikes. Jeff bought one in the Spring and started riding/ training while I simply got mine tuned up.

We both studied "The Manual", Cycling the Kettle Valley Railway. I had Edition 2 while Jeff had Edition 3, the latest, the one that was published after all the trestles were rebuilt following the massive forest fire season a number of years ago. I think it was 2004. Shauna and I were in Kelowna that summer and I vividly remember the acrid smoke everywhere, and even seeing flames along the rim of a nearby canyon right from our hotel in town!

Our initial foray into Okanagan train country began and ended with good weather. It was a bit chillier than I'd expected, with less sun, but we packed enough clothes to be comfortable. We started off at 10:10 a.m. on Sunday.

Me at the Myra Canyon trail head.

A grove of "sticks" is left over from the wild fires a few years ago.

The first 10 km took us more than an hour. Both of us being engineering-minded types we stopped at every trestle (that was the attraction of starting at Myra Canyon) for photo ops.

The "Boo-yeah!" photo op of Myra Canyon.

We came across an interesting sign on what is billed as a cycling route. It said"No Cycling on Trestle". My first sarcastic thought was, "What... are you supposed walk your bike around it?"

I think it must be a carry-over from before the wooden guardrails were installed. And yes, that's Jeff waving at midspan (this time on a steel girdered bridge), flagrantly disregarding the law. Can  you just imagine what it used to be like in the good old days, just after people started re-discovering theses wonderful old relics from the past, when they had to be traversed with only the cross ties to walk on? No smooth-planked path, and certainly no guardrails! Now that's hard-core!

More to come...