Photos at last!

Well, we sucessfully navigated the Fraser Valley and have arrived in Vancouver. It really feels like the Across BC part of the journey is done, and from here on in we`re just on vacation. We`ve got until Thursday afternoon to make it to Victoria so we now have time to slow down and enjoy. The plan is to spend a day or so here in Vancouver, staying with friends, and then head to Saltspring for a few very slow days at Ruckle Park before heading on towards Victoria where we`ve got two weddings to enjoy. Should be just grand.

But here`s some photos of the journey from Nelson to here. How shameful that it`s taken so long to get them up...but here they finally are. Enjoy!

Matt after being stung near the eye.


Just out of Christina Lake, on the trail to Grand Forks.


How kind of Grand Forks!


Climbing out of Grand Forks, heading towards Greenwood. Gorgeous ride.


Navigating one of the many, many gates along the trail.


Overgrown trail!


Beautiful morning at Arlington Lakes, between Midway and Penticton.


Frying up the pile of perch given to us by fishermen in the campsite. People are really kind to you when you show up on your bike in the middle of no where!


Major milestone!


Myra Canyon Trestle


Trestles again. Notice the burnt forest from the 2003 fires. Most of the trestles are now reconstructions, but a few are still original.


Roughing it in Naramata. We HAD to, the trail went right by...


Laundry, bike trip style.


Still roughing it, in Penticton.


Penticton to Summerland


Climbing a virtual wall.


Heading up the Tulameen River from Princton, heading towards the Coquihalla.


A night in a hotel! Still sort of camping though...


Once the trail meets the Coquihalla we rode on it at times, and at other times on trails or roads running near it. Trails sure beat highways for riding!


Fording a river. Which would have been even cooler if it weren`t for the fact it turned out we`d turned off the trail and had to ford right back again to get back on it. Oops.


Camping outside a collapsed former KVR tunnel. That is the tunnel the strap stealing rats lived in. Also the night of many bears and much wind.


Fallslake Creek Falls and an old KVR trestle.


Old, grown in railbed. Great riding (no ATVS!).


Quintette Tunnels just outside of Hope. They are really cool! Worth a visit next time you drive the Coquihalla!


Riding Highway 7 from Hope into Mission.

Stumbling upon a Slow Food Cycle Tour in Agassiz...we really wanted to keep following it, but had to be content with eating organic hazelnut burgers in a hazelnut grove surrounded by other cyclists and slow foodists. Not bad.

Loading the bikes on the West Coast Express bus (they don`t run the train on weekends. Very disappointing) to get from Mission into Vancouver.


Which brings us to Vancouver! There is a section missing in these photos, from Nelson to Christina Lake, but they are on another camera card and I`m feeling computered out. It was a cool section, with tunnels over a km long and great views, but I`ll have to show them to you some other day! More fun to be had!

At long last we reappear from the internet-less void!

Poor little blog...so neglected...

I think we last made contact from Penticton, where it was hot and the trail was rough. Well lots has happened since then. I'll try to keep it (relatively) short and to the point! First, a mention that I brought the camera cord today to upload photos, but this computer doesn't allow such things. I should be able to get some up in a few days though, so stay tuned.

Ok. So we left Penticton and were feeling pretty frustrated with the quality of the KVR trail...bad surface, lots of ATVS, blandish scenery. And we expected that the next big part - from Penticton all the way to Hope - was going to be even worse since it was relatively untravelled and unknown. Well. We were wrong. And right in places too! But all in all it's been pretty incredible.

From Penticton the trail goes towards Summerland and then over to Princeton. The official trail from Penticton to Summerland is along the highway, which we didn't really want to do. We had a map which indicated that the KVR trail continued that way though and although no one we asked seemed to know anything about it, we bravely decided to try it. And it was great. No idea why it wasn't the official trail. From Summerland you have to take a "detour on paved roads" because they actually run a steam trail on part of the KVR there. It turned out to be a set of tortously steep hills that we tackled at high noon in 34 degree weather. But we perservered and were rewarded with a gorgeously resurfaced trail that ran alongside a creek just perfect for falling in when necessary.

We were somewhat disappointed later that day though when we pulled up to the lake we were to camp at, after 65 km, only to find they had dammed it and the campsite was gone. We pouted for a bit, then ate a bunch of candy and pushed on another 10km to Osprey Lake, a way more beautiful lake to spend the night at anyway. From there it was a wonderful downhill glide into Princeton the next day (paved even, because we skipped out on the trail, which was incredibly rough and hard to ride at that point).

Princeton was hot, dry, desolate and completely devoid of places to use the internet. I'll say no more. We cleared out of there as soon as we could and rode on through the tiny town of Coalmont to the other tiny town of Tullameen. A rough trail, but some of the most beautiful scenery yet. Photos to come! In Tullameen we spent the night at the "Otter Sleep Inn" (thanks Dad and Dona!) and had a night to rest, shower, and do laundry. And use real pillows. Sweet, sweet pillows.

Still feeling a bit ragged from the long hot days and rough trails of the past while, we only rode 5 km to Otter Lake Provincial Park the next day for a day off at the beach. It was worth it and needed.

The final bit of the KVR, from Otter Lake to Hope, was the section we had had the most trouble getting any information on, so we felt pretty nervous setting out on it. We had been unable to track down anyone with trail info or who seemed to have heard of anyone going that way. Not encouraging!

But as it turned out, we really enjoyed the ride towards the Coquihalla (deep ATV created sandruts aside!) and even had one of the many trail destroying ATVers stop and give us water. It really makes it hard to lump all ATVs into one groups as trail-wrecking good for nothings when they turn out to be really nice people on really not so nice machines.

So yesterday at about noon we reached the Coquihalla, where the trail begins to fall apart a bit - you end up on and off the highway, and bouncing from trail tragment to service road and back again. We skipped the first bit of trail in favour of the highway because it has some serious slides on it that are supposed to be near impassible by bike. But we ended up facing a wicked headwind and hardly making any headway while giant trucks wizzed by inches from our ears (ok, it was way safer than that sounds, but that's what it felt like!).

We camped last night just below the summit, right along the gas-pipeline service road that the trail follows and had quite the experience. First we chose a site that a bear wandered right through. So we moved up the trail further, to the mouth of a now caved in rail tunnel, and as soon as we were all set up a bear walked down the road and into the bush just a few hundred meters away. We stayed anyway and spent the night battered by winds and sure we could hear an animal doing something nearby. Finally morning broke today and all seemed well until we tried to pack up and couldn't find the webbing straps we use to hold the bags onto our racks. We looked and looked. I was sure I remembered where I put them, but they just weren't there. The best we can figure is that there were packrats living in the tunnel and they stole them. I know it sounds crazy, but where else do four bright red and yellow straps disappear to overnight when left coiled neatly beside your pannier??

So we used a bit of our bear hang rope as ties instead and headed off on what was to be our last day on the rail trails. It took us until just 2pm to ride the 60 km into Hope because it was a gorgeous downhill run, with lovely trails, a much more bike friendly highway ride and a trip through the stunning Othello Tunnels. I highly recommend checking out the tunnels next time you're on the Coquihalla. They're a set of 4 tunnels drilled through sheer cliffs along the Coquihalla River that were apparently one of the most complicated section fo the KVR to build.

And now we're in Hope, you know where we've been, and we're off to eat dinner.

Tomorrow we're off to Mission and the next day catching the trainbus into Vancouver! Time flies!

Okanagan sun and swimmin'

Well, we've definitely found summer vacation land! We're currently spending a couple of days in Penticton - a land of sun, peaches, swimming and crowded campgrounds. We arrived here yesterday very ready for a break...one more minute sitting on those seats was simply unthinkable! The past few days have been really beautiful and exciting, but also somewhat challenging.

We left Grand Forks, where Matt last posted, and headed off west towards Greenwood and Midway, still on the Columbia and Western Rail trail. We swam every day in a river or lake and life was simply great. The trail was in pretty good condition, with some soft bits, but all in all we really enjoyed ourselves.

At Midway we got on to the Kettle Valley Railway trail, which was something we had really looked forward to, given how famous it is we figured we'd be riding on a perfect trail through gorgeous terrain. It didn't really turn out that way though! Turns out it's only the 13km section through Myra Canyon (with all the trestles...the ones that burnt in the Okanagan fire and have since been replaced) that is well ridden. The rest of the KVR has been, thus far, a bit underwhelming. Not that it's really bad or anything, but the surface of the trail had often been abysmal, with tons of pockets of loose sand and quite a bit of washboard. The sand just sucks your bike all over and makes forward progress really challenging and the washboard is so hard on your body. My wrists and bum have take quite the pounding over the last few days. We pulled into town here pretty exhausted and are going to take two days to recover.

Some of the scenery has been pretty great, especially travelling right along the beautiful Kettle River and Myra Canyon really is amazing. Some of the trail, however had been more of a logging road, often through clear cuts or scrubby bush. I've been thinking that I probably wouldn't have been disappointed by this section of trail if I hadn't been expecting so much from it. It's really not that different than other parts have been, but when you thing something is going to be great, when it turns out to be good it's hard to be as enthusiastic about it. It makes me realize how amazing a lot of what we have done has been to realize that this "famous" section doesn't top a lot of where we've been.

I should mention that on the day we passed through Myra Canyon we also celebrated our 3rd anniversary, and passed the 1000km mark of the trip. Very exciting indeed!

Yesterday we dropped down from the highlands that seperate the Kettle Valley from the Okanagan and rode down into Naramata. That was definitely a gorgeous ride, especially because we ducked out of the KVR trail a bit early and onto smooth, paved, and very downhill roads! We stopped at a few wineries, ate good food, smelled Ponderosa Pines and sage brush and ended up in Penticton, camping right by Skaha Lake. Today we're swimming as much as possible, eating as much fresh fruit as possible and running errands.

Sorry about the lack of pictures again...I keep forgetting to bring the camera cable with me when we go to libraries and ther haven't been card readers around. I'll post some when I can. There's some pretty nice ones!

Nelson to Grand Forks

Hello all - another quick entry! The public library closes in a few minutes, but I thought I'd write a quick update.

We left Nelson on Monday, but didn't go far - I have an aunt in Winlaw, so we took advantage of the gorgeous Slocan River rail trail to get out there. We swam in the river and enjoyed the very easy grade up the Slocan - and then down again the next day. All the while we were off the Trans Canada Trail, which makes a long and kind of awkward detour (I'm sure it's very nice) from Nelson to Salmo, Trail, and then to Castlegar. We bypassed it by taking the Pass Creek Road, which is a quiet, winding paved road connecting Crescent Valley to Castlegar. At the end of the day we pulled into a very well-placed and well-kept campground at the end of the Pass Creek Road, right at the east end of the Robson Bridge. TCT cyclists take note!

We rejoined the TCT on Wednesday morning as we cycled up Lower Arrow Lake along the Columbia & Western rail trail under cloudless (though smoky) skies. Beautiful views, but a frustratingly sandy surface, possibly related to the heavy use the trail receives from ATVs, whose riders have annoyingly removed the "no motorized use" warning from all of the trail signs. Oh well. The trail was otherwise great, with tall trestles and an inconceivably long (900 metre) pitch-black tunnel. We camped at the end of a 45 kilometre uphill grind, at the deserted Farron railway station. And then we got to coast downhill for 35 kilometres into Christina Lake - great payback for our hard work.

After a couple of relaxing days at the lake, which is, by the way, surprisingly warm, we pushed off this morning for Grand Forks. Not a long day - only 35 kilometres or so. The Columbia & Western trail follows the Kettle River most of the way through farmland and open pine forest. A very nice ride, aside from the fact that my right eye is swollen up so much that it's nearly shut. I got stung by a wasp. That'll teach me to keep my sunglasses on.

In short - this is a great section of trail. Hardly any road riding, wonderful scenery, decent weather. Having a great time. We'll post pictures sooner or later. So long for now!