I wanted to hit the North Okanagan to explore some of the roads I missed on my July trip thru the area, and I had the time but the weather was tenuous. In the end, I decided to join TT and his crew to ride Hwy 8 Spences Bridge to Merritt (always great), then to decide whether to carry on or to ‘bail’ for home. We got lucky and slipped thru the cordon of speed enforcement up the canyon unscathed, but got waylaid by an intense rainstorm in Spences Bridge. After an hour discussing the problems of civilization with the hotel / café owner, the sun returned and we blasted the Nicola valley on dry roads in the sunshine. The skies looked fine so I bade goodbye to Jeff and Nick in Merritt and headed east on my own.
There was an intense headwind up along Nicola Lake, but this died away when I cut up the Douglas Lake road into the grasslands to the east of Quilchena, excited to be ‘off the map’ and exploring new, unknown ground. The first 15km of this road is dreamland, with green and gold surroundings, good pavement, an ancient rounded topography, a mixture of open and tighter curves, and no traffic.
The road turns to gravel for 10km thru native land (insert political discussion here…), then reverts to pavement for 10km thru the Douglas Lake Ranch country, before settling into gravel for all but the final 10km of the remaining 45km to Westwold on Highway 97.
The gravel across the plateau was smooth and dry, but east of Salmon Lake there had been a recent heavy deluge, and the clay-mud almost had me and the bike down several times – BT203’s are NOT best suited to gumbo! As the road dropped into the upper valley (then canyon) of Salmon River, travel got a little less intense, but it was still 1st gear, no front brake, and minimal steering inputs for 20km or so. I was awfully happy to see pavement again 10km west of Westwold.
I rode east beyond Falkland, then headed north on the wonderful Salmon River Road, thinking I might overnight in Salmon Arm, but I turned back at Silver Creek when a dense downpour enveloped the valley ahead of me. I came back and ran east towards Armstrong, but this was thronging with people for the Interior Fall Fair.
In the end, the Blue Stream Motel on the main drag into Vernon was my home for the nite, with Kelly O’Bryan’s across the road providing sustenance and Kilkennys in the evening and Denny’s serving up breakfast. While the motel is atttactive outside and has a great location and grounds (complete with in situ stream), it’s a bit tattered in the rooms – but for $69 for the nite, who can complain?
The day’s totals, just under 600km in just under 10 hours total, with plenty of chaos thrown in!
map of first day: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z8Dm3mAE_66U.kQV_FT6Ic76M&usp=sharing
There was an intense headwind up along Nicola Lake, but this died away when I cut up the Douglas Lake road into the grasslands to the east of Quilchena, excited to be ‘off the map’ and exploring new, unknown ground. The first 15km of this road is dreamland, with green and gold surroundings, good pavement, an ancient rounded topography, a mixture of open and tighter curves, and no traffic.
The road turns to gravel for 10km thru native land (insert political discussion here…), then reverts to pavement for 10km thru the Douglas Lake Ranch country, before settling into gravel for all but the final 10km of the remaining 45km to Westwold on Highway 97.
The gravel across the plateau was smooth and dry, but east of Salmon Lake there had been a recent heavy deluge, and the clay-mud almost had me and the bike down several times – BT203’s are NOT best suited to gumbo! As the road dropped into the upper valley (then canyon) of Salmon River, travel got a little less intense, but it was still 1st gear, no front brake, and minimal steering inputs for 20km or so. I was awfully happy to see pavement again 10km west of Westwold.
I rode east beyond Falkland, then headed north on the wonderful Salmon River Road, thinking I might overnight in Salmon Arm, but I turned back at Silver Creek when a dense downpour enveloped the valley ahead of me. I came back and ran east towards Armstrong, but this was thronging with people for the Interior Fall Fair.
In the end, the Blue Stream Motel on the main drag into Vernon was my home for the nite, with Kelly O’Bryan’s across the road providing sustenance and Kilkennys in the evening and Denny’s serving up breakfast. While the motel is atttactive outside and has a great location and grounds (complete with in situ stream), it’s a bit tattered in the rooms – but for $69 for the nite, who can complain?
The day’s totals, just under 600km in just under 10 hours total, with plenty of chaos thrown in!
map of first day: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z8Dm3mAE_66U.kQV_FT6Ic76M&usp=sharing