Mr & Mrs. Marmalade – 8

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Smoke

Last day in the Okanagan, and the effort of the trip is beginning to tell. Plus, it’s genuinely hot today. So let’s do something thoroughly tourist-y and ride the KVR through Myra Canyon.

This is the famous section of trestles and tunnels that was destroyed by fire back in 2003.

They’ve since restored it, and now it’s a favourite place to ride bikes, walk dogs, train for Ironman, etc.

It’s a nice little diversion, and it’s also a lot cooler up here than the 33C in the valley.

Anyway, it’s very scenic, even if somewhat dull to ride.

At least it’s not uphill.

Of course, it’s not down hill either, but we only did about 16km of it before dropping in to some great singletrack back down to Kelowna.

Yes, there’s plenty of singletrack to access off this section of KVR.

Get a room…

Definitely some epic light today in the Crawford Canyon.

Yes, we’re still on run #1 today. I think it turned into something like 35km.

Not like it was some kind of death march or anything, but it was pretty long.

ANOTHER viewpoint? OK, we’ll take another break.

After a hot lunch at the Eldorado (and I mean hot. 35C on the patio), we went to Gillard for a couple more laps. Yvonne on a teeter…

This was a good warmup for the next few days, as we are heading to the North Shore and the Sunshine Coast for the last part of the tour.

OK, so you can’t hit ‘em all. I think Yvonne would have hit this if we hadn’t been sorta tired out already.

Al and I cranked off one more fast one on the same lap before calling it quits.

While Yvonne waited for us and managed to snap this pic of doe and fawn.

Newlywed or….? – Day 1

Posted on July 4, 2010 by Smoke

I think Louise may have thought she was going to end up nearly dead a couple of times the first day. her and Mark just got married last week, and are in Canada on a honeymoon.

Actually, since they were riding in Whistler on XC bikes last week, the Okanagan must have seemed like a very friendly Spain.

You’ll note the lack of a derailleur on Mark’s bike. I’ve ridden a lot of singlespeed, and let me tell you, that’s one HARD way to go out here.

Power to them both, they stpomped Smith Creek easily. So we went for a dessert lap over in Crawford. I think they liked the teddy bears.

Yeah, that rain is over and done with. Summer is finally here. Not too warm yet,

… but I sense a big heating up in the near future. So long as we don’t have a repeat of 2003. It may make some cool pics, but I’m not into a huge fire right now.

OK, they’re fit. And they rode Rocky Screech. I think we’re going to try a full loop out in Naramata tomorrow.

More Banana Bread – Day 3

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Smoke

Or…Happy Birthday Al! These guys really like the Gillard trails, so that’s where we went. There’s some new trails up there too.

This one’s called Meeko (whoever that used to be…).

Thanks to Tucker for providing some new singletrack for us.

The way Ken’s been putting in lines, you can run the same trail over and over, but keep mixing it up with all the alternate lines. Here’s a shot from Ghost Rider.

The birthday boy dropping in to Boss Hog.

A few more faces showed up for the last day, some we’ve had before…

…and some were new. I’m gapping on names though (sorry, it’s been a brutally long month and I’m a sieve right now). All I can tell you is that this Aussie is loose, as in nut.