Northern Washington and Southern BC
Loop Tour of 8 Mountain Passes

Day 12 - Cherryville to Falkland, BC
110km

 $35.00 motel, hard to resist! And it was too damn hot to camp anyway! Actually, I checked out the municipal campground in Falkland - it wasn't too appealing. That's why, a cool room with a shower and TV made much more sense.

 The ride was rolling countryside with some long slow climbs thrown in for good luck. The traffic volume increased considerably, the closer that I rode to Vernon, and the shoulder of the road diminished proportionately - why is that?

 I shouldn't have mentioned logging trucks in the previous day's report, for I saw enough to last me a lifetime on this day's ride, and some I saw from an intimate distance! I was hoping that after Kamloops, when I would switch from Highway 97 to Highway 5A, the traffic volume would decrease.

 I stopped for a second breakfast, in Lumby, at a nice cafe that actually had vegetarian sausage on the menu, made locally and very tasty! After that I was ready for anything!

 Lots of beautiful scenery to gawp at, as I rode past large farms and ranches. I couldn't believe how many places were for sale though. It seemed that every other farm that I passed, there was a "For Sale" sign on the gatepost. I could only assume that farming and ranching were obviously not very lucrative propositions anymore, or had they ever been?

 Once I reached Vernon, I stopped for a while and finally found a spare tire that was the correct size, I even managed to trade in the one I bought in Nelson that wouldn't fit (too wide for my fenders). Long story, but suffice to say, that one should always check the size of tire by reading the sidewall of the tire, instead of just reading the tag that the bike shop attaches. I ended up with a 38mm instead of a 32mm! I thought that it looked big! Anyway, thanks to the Olympia Cycle and Ski Shop in Vernon, all was well. Good bike shop! The other bike shop in Vernon, on the main street, was not very helpful and the rest of downtown Vernon was not impressive either, lots of traffic with no regard for cyclists.

 Falkland was just another small town, with the main highway running through it for a main street, but the surrounding area made it a nice locale. After settling my bike and gear in the motel room, I had a refreshing shower and was ready to brave the world - I decided to go out for Pizza and a beer - downtown Falkland!

Day 13 - Falkland to Knutsford, BC
88km

 If you're looking for Knutsford on a map, you likely won't find it! It's a small rural hamlet 7km south of Kamloops on Highway 5A. Not much there except for a few farms and houses, and the campground that I stayed at. Nice place, but expensive for tenting, $18.00 plus another loonie for a five minute shower; I took the full five minutes too! This seemed to be the only place, camping wise, until Merritt, another 85km down the road. A little too far to ride on this day.

 From Falkland, Highway 97 was a zoo! Hardly any shoulder in lots of places with really fast moving traffic. I was glad to leave it at Monte Creek and join the Trans Canada Highway 1 for about 25km to Kamloops. Although the TCH was also busy, I had a nice smooth, wide shoulder to ride on and felt much safer. The shoulders on Highway 97 had been sporadic, and when there, very rough. Barring the light head wind, the ride itself to Kamloops was easy and I made good time. Kamloops is in a valley, so I had some nice long downhills. Of course, for all the downhills, I knew that I would have to pay!

 Fortunately, I didn't have to venture into downtown Kamloops, but did some shopping and had lunch at a plaza just east of the city.

 Then I paid for the downhills! Riding by and leaving Kamloops is one looooong uphill, not too steep, but seemingly never ending! About a quarter of the way up the hill, there was a sign stating "No Bicycles." Yeah, right, what was I supposed to do? There was no exit, so I carried on, on the supposed "Freeway." Regardless, I had lots of room on the nice wide shoulder and found it no different than riding the other 25km on the TCH. After a few miles of the hill I found the the exit for Highway 5A, then I found myself with a few more miles of uphill!

 I eventually arrived at the campground in Knutsford and figured that I'd still have about 1km of hill left when I left the campground in the morning, but that's all that I could see though, and I'd been wrong before!

 The weather had been cooler until noon and by then I had covered most of my ground. The weather man was threatening thunderstorms for the evening with a chance of showers on the next day, and rain for the following day. It was hard to believe that this was almost the end of July with the weather being so changeable. Usually, in this part of BC, at this time of the year, the weather is hot and dry. I reckoned that it would probably improve by the time I finished my trip! The cool mornings were nice to ride in though, but I could have done without any more wet stuff.

 I saw another touring cyclist heading east on the TCH, and that's the only one since I saw the couple entering New Denver as I was leaving. So much for meeting lots of other cyclists back in Canada! I also saw another coyote on the previous day's ride and a pair on this day. I managed to snap a photo of one of them, but I think that it was too far away; hard to tell on the small LCD screen of the digital camera.

 I was expecting a bigger ride the following day to Aspen Grove and I was keeping my fingers crossed that the rains would stays away!

Day 14 - Knutsford to Kentucky - Alleyne PP, BC
139km

 What a day! Big miles and hard ones at that. My first 95km on this morning were bucking 30 to 40km headwinds, not fun at all! I was in wide open, ranch land terrain, with no trees to provide any sort of windbreak. It was really too bad, because the road was perfect for cycling, but every time I stopped pedalling, the bike would stop, even on a downhill! The wind was so strong, that when I reached Nicola Lake, whitecaps were forming on the waves of the lake. There was a small campground and store just at the head of the lake and a little further on there was a gift store and heritage (read - expensive) hotel/restaurant at Quilchena. Other than that, there weren't any towns or convenient cafes, in fact, almost nothing until I arrived in Merritt, exhausted from the battle with the headwind! On the plus side, I had very little traffic to contend with on this road, especially of the large logging truck variety! I was once again glad of my mirror, as the headwind whistling through past my ears, blocked out any sound of traffic approaching from the rear.

 In Merritt, I did some grocery shopping and devoured a sub for my lunch. I thought that I only had 24km more to ride to Aspen Grove from Merritt, so I took off again. Horror of horrors! The 7% grade hill out of Merritt was 12km long; thankfully, the wind had lessened a bit and almost seemed to be behind me. What a grind as tired as I was! I was contemplating turning round and finding a motel in Merritt for the night, but then I'd have to start the damn hill all over again!

 Anyway, I made it, and then what? The kms were adding up and I soon realised that I had quite a bit further than 24km to go from Merritt! In fact, I had 38km to ride before the turnoff for the park and then the place was another 6km on a rough tar and chip road. I might mention that I also encountered 7km of road works whilst travelling from Merritt. In some places, the road crews had dug away the shoulder of the road, leaving a 6ft drop-off next to where I was riding. And of course, I was sharing the road with morons who didn't want to share the road! Some drivers are real jerks - I think that they expected me to ride, 6ft down, in the ditch or something.

 As you can see, it was a good day for expressing profanities to the wind, and to reckless drivers!

 While I made and ate my dinner, I planned for a shorter day's ride, but was hoping more for no headwinds on the next day's travel. It was still windy in the park at 7:00 p.m. though, but I was optimistic that perhaps the winds would abate overnight - one could only hope!

 By the way, to cover the 139km on this day, I was in the saddle for 8 1/2 hours, one tough grind!

 The extra 6km into the park were worth it though, as this park was in a beautiful setting on the two shores of Kentucky Lake and Alleyne Lake. The park ranger must have thought that he was doing me a favour, when I asked if he any sites left. He said that he could put me in the overflow area, a gravel area next to a boat launch ramp! I checked it out and it was an awful place to try and pitch a tent, and the ranger said that he'd have to charge me the same price as a regular spot that had a fire pit, picnic table and decent pitch. After some discussion, I coaxed out of him that the park wasn't actually full and that he actually did have some decent sites left - I moved into one! Did I look stupid and poor or something? Well not poor I guess, as it would have cost the same for a patch of gravel as a regular site. I still can't figure why he was guiding me to his "overflow area?" Did I smell that bad?

 What was good on this day? Cloudy, but no rain... And a bad day on the bike was still way better than a good day at work!