12 July - Burns Lake to Kelowna

12 July

Burns Lake to Kelowna

Up and on the road by 9:30 after stopping for brekky at the local brekky place, (A&W I think). I’m 225 km west of Prince George and it took me 10 hours to do Kelowna to Prince George the first time, so I need to get on with it.
The road to Prince George passes uneventfully enough, although closer to 3 hours travel rather than the 2.5 I’d budgeted. The road is reasonably straight and uneventful and I don’t see much worth stopping for to photograph in my slightly hustle state of mind and I’m beginning to think that this will be a transport day. Hope not.

It’s unspeakably hot again and I’ve taken to wetting down my helmet liner for the past 2 or 3 days in an effort to get some temperature relief. It works well but I look like Dreyfuss when I take my helmet off and I have to remember to check out my appearance before approaching anyone.

After eating at Prince George and trying to find a speedo cable (sorry, order only – they bloody well had 2 KLRs on the floor! I was to repeat this experience 3 more times), I depart from my previous track and head due South towards Vancouver, my next waypoint being Cache Creek, 442 km away. The road is still rather straight and it's so hot that I’m drinking about half a litre of water every time I stop at this stage, mmmm warm water! I was to learn later that it had been 40 degrees for most of the day on the road I traveled.
I’m in the lake district and every second town seems to be called something lake. After about 2 hours travel, the scenery starts to get a bit interesting, a lot of mowing and haymaking going on, and down by Lac La Hache, some very nice countryside.

Bit of paradise by the water

In some places the countryside starts to remind me of a cross between Switzerland and Hawkes Bay. A bit later on the place starts to look a bit dry. To combat this there are extensive irrigation works with huge rotating arrays that pivot form a central point. As a result, many fields become circular (or semicircular where the well head is by the road).

Reminding me of home

Big irrigation works make for a circular green patchwork from the sky

At Cache Creek, the road changes from Highway 97 and becomes Highway 1 South to Vancouver. I intend to travel south to Spences Bridge and take a wee secondary road to Merritt. The road after Cache Creek becomes even more desertified and everything not cultivated is now straight Bush Sage. At this stage the road goes through Fraser Canyon and becomes very interesting for two wheeled travel.

Coming into Fraser Canyon

The canyon proper narrows right down and there are more of the superlong CPR trains, plus the odd ghost town feature

Across the other side of Fraser Canyon, ruined wooden church and CPR train

Constant companion

Looking up Fraser Canyon the way I've come

I have to go a bit further than I thought to catch highway 8 to Merritt where the road doubles back on itself up the other side of Fraser Canyon for a while, and it’s here that I’m pulled over by the RCMP for the first time. Just a random licence check by a couple of blokes in two cars, and it’s funny to watch the guys face as he clocks I’m foreign registered. He goes through the motions anyway, having stopped me and we talk a little about where I’ve been and where I’m going. He raises his eyebrows when he learns of my planned start and end points today, telling me “that IS a big day”, before wishing me well and telling me it’s been a pleasure having me visit his country. Awww.

So, buoyed up by this and the great road I have just ridden, I take off down Highway 8. Well, what a FANTASTIC piece of road, quite challenging and curvy, but with a nice reliable surface. I’m having so much fun carving it up I’m reluctant to stop to take pictures.

But I do

Gravel cliffs on Highway 8

Great road for a bike

The river valley Highway 8

Sounds corny I know, but at this stage the one thing going through my head was "Saved the best till last" This was the single best bit of riding in the whole trip.

I make it though to Merrit, and join Highway 97C, the Okanagan Connection, which is the main drag between Merritt and Kelowna, on the map it looks like a motorway. It’s only several days later I check the map to see the coy little legend “Closed in Winter”.

So, it’s a mountain pass.

No rain fortunately. Unfortunately, it rises so high and so steep, my ears pop several times within 10 minutes and the temp drops so much I have to stop and close off all the zips and vents in my riding suit. I think it went down to about 11 degrees at the summit.

And there was a genuine sunset, my first for nearly 3 weeks!

Coming down was exciting, very long steep grades, plus darkness, plus headlight plastered with flies plus tinted visor plastered with flies. Yes, I stopped and cleaned both of them off.

The rest of the ride into Kelowna was reasonably uneventful, except the traffic you always seem to encounter when approaching a major population center, plus the temp is back up to 30-something again. I got in at 10:30 and basically flaked out after ripping the luggage off the bike.

Time on the road; 13 hours
Distance 932km (how do those Iron Butt guys do 100 mile days?
Fuel, approx 51mpg imp, difficult to tell accurately without trip meter.

Total distance traveled in Canada and Alaska, 11, 500 km