2011 KVR tour

Our plan was to avoid most of the hottest parts of the day by starting our riding in the early morning.  When we started from  Midway, it was about 12C and so we started out in fleece jackets to keep us warm.

Our 7-year-old son Tadhg was riding his own bike, a 15 pound BMX race bike.  In order to help him succeed, we had him carrying his water bottle and nothing else.

Tania was riding her own bike which I had fitted with 2.35 inch tires in anticipation of loose trail.  She carried her own clothes and sleeping bag and her water bottle and things.

I was riding my CETMA cargo bike with our family food, tents, hammock, cooking equipment, fuel, 15 litres of water, sleeping pads, 3 sleeping bags and tools and repair equipment.  In among our gear sat our 3.75 year old daughter Fiona (aka Finny).

I also had a Follow-Me Tandem (associate link) attachment so that if Tadhg had trouble with the distances or the trail, I had the possibility of towing him on his bike.

The morning temperature in Midway was a pleasant 12C as we set out, making us glad to have brought some warm layers even though we were anticipating heat later in the day.

The trail doesn’t go far before detouring around a sawmill on a short singletrack trail.  In spite of the lack of signage, we managed to keep on track easily enough.  Early in the day we passed through a number of farm fields with gates and in one of them, a donkey and a horse befriended Tadhg.  The donkey was particularly fond of Tadhg’s hydration pack and seemed to be trying to eat it, although it was probably just trying to extract salt from the fabric.

Much of the trail had very substantial weeds growing on it and at some points all that was visible of Tadhg was the top of his helmet moving through 4-foot-tall grass and weeds.

At one of the farms between Midway and Rock Creek, the farmer had plowed under the rail bed and there was a detour around the farm field.  The detour consisted of soft soil and tall plants and an almost indiscernible trail through them.  None of us were impressed with the rough ride.

Later in the morning, there were a few road detours (none of which were signed) and we passed by a large fairground style campground full of leather-clad bikers and their harleys.  I had originally thought the Rock Creek campground might be a possible bail-out campsite if we were struggling on our first day.  It made for a rather noisy road and we were glad to return to the trail a couple of kilometres later.

Conveniently for us, just as we pulled in to the Kettle River provincial park campground, we greeted the park ranger and he guided us to an available site.  It was the last single site available and our other choices would have been half-double sites or continuing on and finding another alternative.  Continuing would have been difficult since sore bums were starting to set in.

Fiona and Tadhg were thrilled to get to spend the afternoon swimming in the river.  There was a fairly constant parade of people floating on inflatable stuff going by on the river and it seems to be the main pastime at this campground.

Tania was somewhat concerned that our first day had required substantial effort to reach only the 24km mark on the trail and it was definitely a substantial effort  to ride the erratic trail surface.

For our second day we started out early with plans to stop for coffee and oatmeal sometime midmorning.  Unfortunately, our breakfast break ended up being more than an hour long.  We did get to eat some trailside raspberries and prepared some delicious coffee, but it wasted a great deal of precious cool morning air and by the time we reached Paul Lautard’s KVR cyclists’ rest stop, it was 11AM and we were into the heat of the day.

To compound the heat, the trail after the rest stop is loose, sandy and washboard from substantial quad use.

A family on motorcycles and quads passed us in this section.  A shout of “get off the trail and out of my my way!” was what these folks though was a greeting as they blasted noisily past smelling of unburned gasoline, exhaust and raising a cloud of dust.  The ATV association should find that family and thank them for setting their advocacy efforts back so effectively.   We passed several gates clearly labelled “no motorized vehicles”, each of which had quad tracks circumventing it through the ditch. Many of these “no motorized vehicles” type signs throughout our trip had bullet holes decorating them.

As we passed over the Rhone canyon bridge, we started looking for the swimming hole which was listed in the guidebook as 300m after the bridge.  A km or two passed and we ended up backtracking, convinced that we had missed the swimming hole.  We were hot and cranky and we didn’t need to ride any extra distance.

Finally we gave up looking (after at least half an hour) and just continued down the trail.  Several km later, an outhouse on the side of the trail marked the location of the swimming hole.  The swimming hole was indeed a nice spot and Tania got all the way into the creek in spite of the cold water.

After a refreshing swim, we got back on the bikes and headed further up the trail before stopping at a flat spot where we stopped to camp for the night.  The constant washboard, the riding in the heat and the long day on the trail had taken their toll and we all felt worn out.  (and Tania felt like throwing up). We needed lots of food and a good night’s sleep.

We ate our supper and we were just getting ready for bed when Fiona announced that she had found a snake.  I was very concerned that she was unwilling to back away from it until I could confirm that it was not a rattlesnake.  I grabbed her and pulled her back until I could have a look and I confirmed that it was not a rattler, but Finny was very angry that I had grabbed her and I needed to have a long discussion with her about staying away from snakes.

As I was hanging our food bag to keep it away from squirrels and bears, the mosquitos came out.  The quantity of mosquitos was astonishing, on par with northern BC and substantially worse than the Amazon.  Of course the following day we found that our campsite was about 200m from a mosquito hatchery, a large swampy area ideally suited to mosquitos. Tania was feeling defeated after this long, hot, hard day with not a lot of mileage to show for it.

After the questionable trail on the second day, it was apparent to me that Tadhg was probably capable of riding the entire trail under his own power unless we had to deal with traffic or injury.  We actively encouraged him to take pride in this ability, partially to avoid having to pull him but mostly to build up his sense of accomplishment.

In the morning, we deferred coffee again in order to make it to Beaverdell, our last food supply store before Penticton.  We purchased the entire produce section from the Beaverdell store, consisting of 3 watermelon slices, 5 apples, 3 oranges and 2 pears.  We had also hoped to find beer, but unfortunately the beer selection consisted of Canadian, Kokanee and a few other equally unpalatable choices.  For either of us to carry it on a bike, beer needs to be high quality and flavourful – and not in heavy glass bottles.

After reading the chocolate milk chapter in “Mud, Sweat and Gears” by Joe Kurmaskie, we were eager to try out its magical energy-giving powers on Tadhg.  Although we got him to drink some, it was definitely not something that he would ask for.  It did give Tania and me a great energy boost. (Tania normally HATES chocolate milk but drank it to try out the magic – it was magical)

The trail out of Beaverdell is completely unlabelled and so it took a bit of asking for directions and some trial and error before we found the bypass around a small missing section of rail bed.

Once back on the trail, we made reasonable progress.  The trail slowly climbed up a huge switchback and we travelled North, West and East at various times during the day.  We witnessed the collection of stuffed bears attached to the shed and around the yard of the house where Carmi station once was.

Tania was feeling particularly good and so we stopped at Wilkinson Creek to fill our solar shower and she strapped it to her bike to warm up as we rode.

We decided to either camp at Arlington Lakes or to continue up the trail and random camp if we found it unsuitable.

The trail was climbing steadily and made a large switchback up the side of a mountain giving us great views of the valley below us whenever the forest opened up into meadows.  We came across a huge field of daisies which stretched out in front of us like a beautiful carpet.  The daisy field had a huge number of butterflies of several different types in it and I amused Fiona for a while by having her hold out her hand so that butterflies could land on it.  Of course there were no butterfly landings, but there was  one that touched her hand and that gave her a thrill.

Tadhg astutely observed that the air around us was hot, and when Tania asked how he knew, he said, “When I look across the field of daisies, I can see the air shaking.”

Our initial choice of spots at Arlington lake was nothing special but it was good enough for the night.  Fortunately we asked Archie the ranger if there was a good place to access the lake for swimming and he pointed us to the walk-in sites on a peninsula in  the lake.  Once we moved, our campsite was secluded, quiet and surrounded by water.  The lake was warm enough for me to get in for a swim and for a guy who needed a wetsuit in Hawaii, that says a lot.

Tania’s plan for showering worked admirably, the water was warm by the time she got off the bike in our campsite, and a bit of extra time in the sun topped it off enough to give her a truly hot shower.

Having made about 50km of progress in a single day, we were now ahead of schedule and we decided to sleep in and ride a mere 21km to McCulloch lake where we hoped to find as nice a campground.  We weren’t sure if we could find many places to camp beyond McCulloch lake and before entering the provincial park at Myra canyon so it seemed the most sensible place to stop.

For a portion of the morning we had the privilege of riding through an area where the predominant ground cover was lupins.  They were in full bloom and some of the sections were amazingly fragrant and smelled wonderful even from the seats of our bikes.

There were a couple of sections of the trail where quad barriers required me to unload my bike and portage it through, but it was a small price to pay for smooth, unchurned trail.

The main highlight of the day was finding a couple of patches of wild strawberries.  Tadhg was absolutely thrilled and crawled along searching for more “jackpots” of berries.  Few treats can compare to freshly picked wild strawberries.

Unfortunately, the campground at McCulloch lake was not as nice and could have used some tidying of cigarette butts.  The lake itself was nice enough and we spent most of our time down there since there were far fewer mosquitos at the lake than at our campsite.  The mosquitos at the campsite were serious enough for us to need our mosquito shirts to keep them off us.  Of course, mosquito shirts are not so comfortable in the hot summer, so we traded millions of mosquitos for substantial heat.

When we first arrived at the campground we purchased some Gatorade from the campground attendant.  I was thinking that it might be a great way to help keep Tadhg hydrated.  Unfortunately, he liked it about not at all – oh well, good thing he likes water.

Back down at the lake, the kids decided it was time for some playground time.  Since there was none, they did what kids do and built their own.  A log that took both of them to lift and a rock that was on the beach made a fine teeter-totter and the kids were as happy as if the playground were made just for them.

The campground attendant very kindly provided us with some water (for free) from his personal supply.  We were anticipating another night of wild camping and we thought it would be a good idea to have a full water supply as we made our way into the arid Okanagan valley.  We were carrying a water filter, and by this time it had become apparent that we had enough fuel to allow us to boil our drinking water but it was a lot more convenient to just pour 10 L into our water storage bag.

We had planned the next day to take us through the Myra Canyon to a small backcountry camping spot just off the trail near the Bellevue trestle.

Morning at McCullogh lake was a little chilly and we started out around 7:30 with espresso in our bellies and fleece layers on our bodies.  After an awful rough, rocky , sandy and loose first kilometre, the trail smoothed out and other than a few washed out sections and a 75metre long puddle, we made great progress.

Fiona was very much in the mood to take many breaks and so she asked to pee, poop or stop to eat every 30 seconds or so.  Finally, I pointed out a sign (4 year olds conveniently can’t read) that said “no stopping”.

The Myra Canyon is frequently touted as the highlight of the trip and we were pretty excited when we came to a ridge that overlooked Kelowna and shortly thereafter the parking lot for the Myra Canyon. (Doug was pretty excited because in the Myra Canyon parking lot – the van that rented day trip bike rentals also sold chips – he bought a few bags of each flavour).

In order to keep the rail grade at 2.2%, the rails performed a series of contortions across trestles and through tunnels to get over and around the steep Myra Canyon and the creek below.  Now a provincial park, the trestles are famous both for the trestles themselves and the views available from them.

Being a provincial park, it is actively patrolled and quads are kept off the trail.  The trail surface is also regularly maintained.  All of a sudden, our average speed doubled as we pedalled easily down smooth trails.

We were quite a contrast with most of the Myra Canyon riders.  While we were carrying our camping equipment and food, most of the folks in the canyon were out for the day with a water bottle and lunch or even less.  We could certainly see the appeal of the day trip as the scenery was breathtaking and the trestles impressive.

After the provincial park, the trail became shared with a logging road and there was occasional traffic but the trail conditions remained reasonable for riding.  As we came to where we had intended to camp, we were feeling good enough that Chute Lake Lodge seemed attainable.  We had heard from several trail users that beyond the Bellevue trestle, the trail deteriorated badly, but the promise of a lake and a campground with toilets and showers sounded like a good enough incentive.

As we rode the next section, the trail/road did in fact deteriorate into wheel sucking coarse sand,  Tania discovered why I had insisted on replacing her perfectly good tires with ridiculously wide ones.  Tadhg, unfortunately, had no such option and I was seriously considering hooking him up to my bike and towing him.  Tadhg was really having to pedal hard even to make slow progress and he even had to dismount and push for 100m a couple of times.

In spite of Tadhg’s troubles, we were keeping up with some folks who were out for a day trip on their unladen bikes.  They later admitted that they were pushing themselves to avoid being slower than a 7 year old and us with our fully loaded bikes.  Little did they know that I could probably have doubled my speed and Tania could have tripled hers.

If we hadn’t been warned, we would have had a hard time coping with this section of trail.  As it was, the bleak post forest-fire scenery and the evil trail surface were demoralizing and energy-sucking.

After a couple of hours of riding the road through hell, we came to the oasis.  Chute lake is a small lake on the edge of the trail and beside it is Chute Lake Lodge.  Although it has seen better days, the Lodge has a small restaurant which makes delicious pies and excellent fries.  After a tasty meal of french fries, pie and beer, we set up our tent in the (expensive) campground.  Tadhg made friends with a girl his age who was on a road trip with her family.  We had encountered them on the trail earlier in the day.  The girl had crashed her bike a little after we had met them and scraped her leg pretty substantially.

Tadhg’s friend and her family invited us to have marshmallows with them by the campfire.  After supper we went up and met with them.  Tadhg was pretty happy about the marshmallows until he tasted one.  He said, “I like cooking them, but I really don’t like the taste.”  Yet another junk food that he doesn’t like.

Beyond Chute Lake, we were expecting more rough trail.  We heard from some people that there was a lot of walking for them going uphill.  I dropped the pressure in everyone’s tires to see if we could gain a little more flotation in the sand.  As soon as we left, we realized that we were not in for the same kind of trouble as the previous day.  Although the trail was intermittently sandy, there was a noticeable downhill grade that had been missing the day before.  Also, the landscape changed from skeletal burnt forest to actual forest.

Now that we were in the Okanagan valley, the weather warmed up quickly and it was approaching 30 C by 9 AM.  Nonetheless, we enjoyed ourself immensely as we quickly rolled down through the forest in Rock Ovens Municipal park.  The rock ovens were built for the railway construction crews by the same Italian masons that built the dry-stacked retaining walls and approaches to the trestles.  The rock ovens allowed the camp cooks to prepare fresh bread for the railway construction crews.  The ovens themselves were igloo shaped dry-stacked (no mortar) rock ovens similar to the type seen in pizza restaurants.

We rode through the small Adra tunnel but the large Adra tunnel (which makes a U turn through a mountain) is bypassed due to an unstable roof and water accumulation in the lower end.  A project is underway to restore the large tunnel and they have opened the first 100m to the public.  The approach to the tunnel is an impressive rock cut surrounded by forest, making it feel like approaching a cave through a canyon.

We were all feeling great as we rolled out of the forest into more arid scenery punctuated by vineyards and orchards.  We had a great view of the Okanagan valley below us and the riding was easy enough that we kept relatively cool in the heat.

The last section into Penticton rolled through the middle of orchards and vineyards. Since the original rail bed had mostly been reclaimed by the farmers of the area, there were more hills and valleys than the usual rail trail.  Still, the predominant direction was downhill and the riding was nice.

Once in Penticton proper, the trail transforms into a municipal multi-use trail.  After wandering through the city for a few kilometres, the trail suddenly ends at a shopping centre parking lot.  Suddenly we were left with major roads to navigate and traffic to contend with.

We hooked Tadhg’s bike to mine with the Follow-Me-Tandem (associate link) for the first time in the trip, not because he lacked strength or stamina, but because we needed to navigate significant urban roadways with abundant traffic.  Fortunately, it was not for long and we soon found ourself on the canal pathway to make our way toward hotels where we hoped to find accommodation.

We arrived at the Ramada, which featured a pub with KVR memorabilia and so we checked in to a room.

Unfortunately, the pub was not opened to minors (even though it was calm, friendly and served food) and so we were directed to the poolside restaurant.   We could not see any good reason for this since the poolside restaurant had a much bigger bar than the pub.  Unbeknownst to us, we had arrived during Peachfest, when the town of  Penticton is remade into a version of the movie “Animal House”.  Several large, intoxicated, 19 to 25 year old men arrived at the bar just as we had ordered and proceeded to get loudly more drunk.  We ate and went back to our room.

The kids immediately changed into their swimming gear and asked to head down to the pool.  Although I was somewhat concerned about the drunks, I thought that the hotel would provide a safe enough environment for us to enjoy a bit of pool time.

The kids did indeed enjoy the pool, although I was chastised by one of the other patrons for protecting my children from the sun (they wear long-sleeve sunwear and hats).  I however was somewhat traumatized when one of the drunks came up to the pool next to us and dove in to knee-deep water.  Fortunately for him, the heavy steroid use protected his neck from breaking and he only bashed his head on the bottom of the pool.  After getting him out of the pool and getting a towel to apply pressure to the bleeding, I asked the bartender to call an ambulance.  The drunken friends talked the bartender out of the ambulance and one of them volunteered to drive the injured one to the hospital.

They were back in 15 minutes since there had been a long wait at the hospital and it would have interfered with their drinking time.  They were very upset to hear that they had been cut off at the bar and they started to threaten the bartender loudly.  They alternated between threats of lawsuits and violence until the police arrived to escort them from the hotel.

We were anxious to get away from Penticton the next morning.  We started with a trip to Starbucks and a return trip to the hotel to retrieve forgotten items.  At Starbucks we encountered a man who had cycled extensively in the area and who confirmed what the guidebook told us, that the trail out of Penticton was missing and that we needed to travel the highway until past Okanagan Falls.  We took the municipal path South to the intersection with the highway and pulled out on to the highway.  It was 8:30 in the morning and it was already over 30 C, so much for our cool morning riding.

As we pulled on to the highway shoulder, Tania got a look at the hill that we were facing.  There were several km of  6-7% climbing ahead of us and Tania did not like it.  We stopped for a while to discuss the alternatives, but it was obvious that what we needed to do was climb the hill.  I hooked up Tadhg behind me with the Follow-Me-Tandem so that he wouldn’t wander into the traffic lane and we set off.  Tania quickly left us in the dust as she channelled her displeasure into climbing energy.  We plodded along behind, the loaded cargo bike feeling like a bit of a whale on the steep hill.

As we reached the first crest, it became apparent that Tania was going to not only make it to the top of the hill, but that she was going to make great time.  Many other cyclists were passing us on the road, but none of them was carrying more than 2 water bottles of weight on their sub-20 pound triathlon bikes.

We stopped at a roadside fruit stand for some peaches, apricots and cherries.  We still had a long climb ahead of us, but it seemed less like certain doom and more like a challenge.

In order to make me feel better about myself, the BC provincial government placed a weigh scale at the top of the hill to measure just how much I had just lugged up.  It turned out that my rig weighed 200kg (440 lbs) with our gear, food, (less 7 days that we had eaten) water, Finny and me.  Tadhg and his bike were another 30kg (66 lbs).  That meant that we were carrying over 150 lbs of gear and food.

After the weigh scale, we had  a stretch of rolling hills, followed by a steep descent into Okanagan Falls.  We stopped for snacks and to browse a shop.  We moved on and rolled along the now much flatter highway toward the next section of trail which would take us through Oliver.  We got held up by road construction part of the way there, and the heat was oppressive, but we made reasonable time.  In a quirk of BC highway construction, (the other is misleading signage)  the highway narrowed for every sharp curve, so that whenever there was a blind corner, there would be no shoulder and we would be forced dangerously close to speeding traffic who couldn’t see us.

We stopped at a gas station just before the trail to pick up some chocolate milk and Gatorade.  We discovered that Tadhg liked lemon flavour Gatorade almost as much as he disliked orange flavour.  From there on, he pointed out the Gatorade logo whenever he saw it.  It’s probably a good thing for him to have at least one junk food that he likes.

Passing through the Oliver area from about half way between Okanagan Falls and Oliver to Halfway between Oliver and Osoyoos is a bike path that uses partly the KVR bed and partly alternate routes.  The important part is that it is shady and flat and after the highway climb and descent, it was really nice to ride on dedicated cycling facility.  We made great time to Oliver where we stopped at the former train station which has been converted to a tourist information office.

The super helpful folks at the tourist information office went out of their way to help us to find suitable accommodations for two nights in Oliver.

Somehow, in a stroke of incredible good fortune, we lucked into the Retreat By the Lake B&B near lake Tuc-el-Nuit.  The room was huge and tasteful and for a modest price, a second room was available for the kids.  Included in the room was wine, fruit and the use of the fabulous outdoor pool.  The real gem though, was the couple who owned and operated the B&B.  Patricia and Bob went out of their way to help us and make us comfortable.  From driving us to get takeout from the local indian restaurant to inviting us to a barbecue with their friends and family, their hospitality was as good as it gets.

After a hearty breakfast, we set out on our last day of riding with mixed feelings about leaving, but with the confidence that we could make the 30 km remaining without too much trouble.

The ride through desert valley with vineyards surrounding us, was beautiful and fairly quick for the all-too-short rest of the bike path.  There is more bike path under construction after the end of the existing bike path, but we were not at all sure if it would end in the middle of somewhere and it was not yet signed, so we did not take it.

The last 15 or so km to Haynes Point (campground in the town of Osoyoos) was on the highway again, and the ride was less enjoyable than path, but we managed the last few hills in reasonable comfort in spite of the heat.  We unhooked Tadhg once we were off the highway so that he could finish his ride under his own power.

My parents had kindly offered to shuttle our car from Midway, so they arrived in the early afternoon for a swim and to visit.

The busy campground at Haynes Point, with its blaring televisions and generators was a big change from the peaceful quiet of the more remote campgrounds.

THINGS WE WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY NEXT TIME:

It was dumb of me not to pack a bunch of toys for Fiona to play with in the bin of the cargo bike.  For the next trip that we take, she will be big enough that we can put her on a tag-along type of bike so that she can feel like she is riding herself.  We will also bring some toys along.

Sandy sections of the trail were difficult to navigate with Tadhg’s skinny-tire bike and he might be better off with wider tires, especially as he grows heavier.  There is a lot to be said for his bike being under 20 pounds though.

The two man tent, three man tent and the hammock added up to a substantial weight, although this was not a huge problem on the shallow-grade rail bed.

Tadhg did not like the parts where we stopped to read the guidebook or the map, perhaps we will involve him more with the navigation process on future trips.

Ideally, we would avoid stopping in bigger towns during party seasons.  Unfortunately, a bike tour such as this cannot be rigidly scheduled as it is difficult to adhere to distance and time schedules with children involved.  The weather for our trip was ideal, but there was every possibility of extreme weather delaying us by a day or more.

Further research into the details of supposedly missing trail sections would be beneficial.  Knowing that there was a trail along the shore of Skaha lake to OK Falls would have substantially changed our experience.