spam
Expert Class
Posts: 343
|
posted September 20, 2005 09:00 AM
Kettle Valley Railway ride- Coalmont to Kelowna
So I figured we better do the KVR before motorized vehicles get banned....I'm not so sure whether that will really happen or not. After reading everything people posted here and then riding some of it ourselves, I suspect that there will still be big chunks available for some time. As you've read elsewhere, courtesy is the key to make sure it remains accessible. Anyways, here's part 1 of the weekend... rest to follow
So, Sagot and I decided we would do the KVR on the Labour day long weekend and a guy we know from DSBC, Sail_lots (John), was okay with our loosey-goosey schedule so he decided to join us. We got a really late start- Sagot had been working like a dog all week so we agreed to get up and get ready on Sat am and leave around noontime. Around noontime, we still needed another hour to get our shit together and so I phoned John and left a message to this effect. An hour later I phoned back to make sure he'd got the message and was en route and I woke him up from his beauty sleep. But I know the guy needs it more than others so Sagot and I hung out, had lunch, drank coffee and eventually we all left Vancouver around 2:30.
After completing the "Hope Drone", we took the Crowsnest through Manning and had dinner at the ski area and carried onto Princeton, pausing to check out the exit of the trail the guys couldn't find coming home from the Routledge Run- I still had their track on my GPS that Sagot had been carrying then and turns out they almost made it.... ah well. From Princeton in waning light, we headed up to Coalmont via the main road, to camp at the forest service campsite there. It was pretty much dark by now. We rushed to set up our tents and beds, and then headed out to the old Coalmont Hotel. 
The old Coalmont Hotel is not to be missed. When we arrived, there were 3 or so locals drinking and they were pretty friendly- we chatted them up and then shared stories about the hotel, changes in management and history of the place. We got a tour of the hotel rooms-it was a bit creepy, I don't think I could recommend the accommodation. Very friendly though- after asking about the current bear situation, the lady running the bar offers to put our food bag in their cooler for the so we don't have to string it up back at the camp. Back in the saloon again, John pulls out his SLR camera to capture some pics of some of the locals and just then a woman in her 30s or so arrives with her crazy hairless dog. She's like "hey, we're taking pics !!! Great, take some pics of these" and yanks up her shirt to reveal not much more than brown nipples on her skinny white torso, which she thrusts at the camera. I decide this is the right time for me to go out and pick up that food bag we left strapped on the bikes outside. As soon as John puts the camera away, she starts playing pool with one of the locals like nothing ever happened. I am laughing my head off but none of the locals seem to think this is out of the ordinary at all.
Next day we got up nice and early and rode to Princeton via the KVR- very pretty and scenic along the river, pretty easy riding. Bridges over the river are the prettiest. Breaky and a few supplies in Princeton and we carry on. Out of Princeton, the track meanders up in elevation through some fields and above a valley. The trail in this area is marked with "No Automobiles permitted on the Trail"- we aren't autos so we figured we're good to go. We met most of the cyclists we encountered in this stretch and had previously agreed that we would putt-putt by them in first gear and do our best not to be a PITA. Said hi to everyone, no one seemed too perturbed that he were sharing the track with them. My favourite area was from Jellicoe to Osprey Lake- lots of cabins, several quaint, rustic resorts and B&Bs here, lots of people using the KVR- a little girl 7 or 8 yrs old on a ancient old 500 cc all by herself, a couple on an ATV with their dog sitting on the front of the seat (looked like he was the one driving), fathers with kids on their ATVs out for a gentle ride. Everyone was pretty courteous. I think the only car I saw on the trail was a jacked up Samurai and they were waiting patiently for us and some ATVs to proceed over a bridge before heading over.
Beyond Osprey Lake to Summerland, the trail was a bit less scenic but fun with some ruts, detours and stuff to break it up. When we got to the outskirts of Summerland, we saw a section of the actual tracks that were left behind and started seeing signs restricting the use of motorized vehicles. We got a few dirty looks from the locals too so decided to burn into Penticton on pavement- we were pretty dirty and ready for some snacks at this point.
I'll finish the rest of this road report in a part 2, to follow in a day or two.... I forgot to bring a camera on this ride but I'll try to see if John has some to share....
____________
get both sides of the story
  
|
frEEk
Administrator
ummm... yeah
Posts: 9660
|
posted September 20, 2005 09:42 AM
so i take it the parts u did were not the parts that were burned down last (this?) summer?
|
spam
Expert Class
Posts: 343
|
posted September 21, 2005 06:48 AM
Yah, the major parts that burned down, the huge trestles you usually see in pics of the KVR like the Myra Canyon, are beyond Kelowna. We did cross several bridges that had been rebuilt but I don't think they had burned. We did ride through one of the areas outside of Kelowna where everything, including houses, were destroyed, but I gotta write about it tomorrow....
____________
get both sides of the story
|
|
|
|
|
HOME
NEW TOPIC