We reached the most northerly point of our journey yesterday – New Denver, British Columbia. We are now on the second leg of our tour, heading back south and inevitably home, though it will take us a while since we are not taking the shortest route. An odd sensation – one of both sadness that the northerly push is over and anticipation of returning home – in knowing that a turning point has been reached.
Pretty easy riding today since we went through more open country. Nothing too exciting but still taking it all in. The excitement of the day was when Diane discovered at a gas stop in Midway that her right side bar end weight had fallen off! The screw holding it in had fallen out – the vibrations of the 650cc single strike again :-(.
No use riding back to find it. We simply removed the dangling plastic hand protector and moved on. This is not a safety issue since the gas grip is independently secured. Still annoying though. The bar end and brush guard (the official name of the black plastic ‘thingy’ covering the levers) do help in tip over since they somewhat protect the levers. Oh well, we used the forced break to have some ice cream at the gas station 🙂
Osoyoos was a zoo due to the long weekend coming up. Major tourist town by the lake. Hotel after hotel lined the main drag. Diane saw a sign for a campground when we rode into town which a local that walked up to us in the grocery store parking lot confirmed. The next campground going further west on 3 was not for another 60km plus it didn’t have facilities and Diane really needed a shower, or wait … that was me that was stinky ;-).
The campground was packed, the only free space was in the overflow area at a discounted $26 rate. We took it since it was hot out and we didn’t feel like riding anymore.
Dark clouds had been lingering over the hills in the west since we arrived. We were just hanging out when one of the other campers informed us that severe weather was moving in with a chance for thunderstorms that produced – hail, high winds (80 kmh), the works. Swell, I completely secured the tent by using the additional guy out points (velcro straps underneath the flysheets tie around the aluminum poles and there’s a loop on the outside to use rope to tie it down).
We moved the bikes out of the open and closer under the trees. All our gear was packed away, we had finished our last beers so we just sat around and chatted, waiting for the weather. Glad to report all we got was some sprinkles before the sky started to clear again.
Todays route.
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- mountains and the lake giving way to open valleys and grassy hills
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- hey, somethings missing
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- left side, what it should look like
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- missing bare end weight (helps reduce vibrations)
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- on the way to Osoyoos after leaving Grand Forks
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- on the way to Osoyoos after leaving Grand Forks
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- on the way to Osoyoos after leaving Grand Forks
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia, threatening weather
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- Osoyoos, British Columbia
I believe Osoyoos is the hottest and driest spot in Canada.