I've wanted to do the Kettle Valley Rail Trail for a while now and I managed to get a place to park my car through Warmshowers so it was on.
I stayed a night at a provincial park north of Penticton so I could take a shower and then woke up the morning of the 28th and drove into town.
I rendezvoused with my "host" by 9:30 am and, having prepacked my bags, was on the road minutes later.
I did a few kilometers along some very nice bike lanes until I came across the KVR. The trail soon took me out of the downtown area and into orchard country. Very cool to be passing beautiful ripe grapes and apples just beside the trail. Lots of people passing by too and I stopped a few times to chat with cyclists and once a guy wearing a White Pass shirt.
As the trail reached Naramata, the long, slow climb began, but being an old rail route, the gradient never exceeded about 3% except for short stretches so it was pretty easy pedalling the entire way up.
I had a tailwind heading north, it was sunny without a cloud in the sky, and the trail was pretty well groomed riding for the first 20 kms or so. After passing through a tunnel (very cool), I came to the end of the section that vehicles are excluded from and the going got significantly rougher. I had to drop my speed and even then, managed to ding a big rock every 50m or so.
It was more or less rough the rest of the way up to Chute Lake, but I took it slow and tried to spare my poor bike as much as possible. I ran into an older woman (Donna?) also biking the KVR. She had come down from Chute Lake direction to Penticton already and was heading back up so she gave me a little intel about the trail ahead.
I rolled into Chute Lake around 2pm, which despite being in the middle of nowhere, is blessed with a lodge and a rec site. I set up shop at the vacant rec site (yay weekdays) and then headed over to investigate the likewise vacant lodge.
They had a hamburger and beer on offer. I hadn't really eaten much that day, missing out on grocery shopping before leaving civilization, so I had to partake. It was nice and sunny so I sat outside and soaked up some rays while eating. Very satisfying.
Donna (?) had the same idea apparently and showed up just as I was finishing my burger.
After wandering back to the rec site I polished off my day by doing some reading, taking a short walk and cooking another small dinner before calling it a night by 7:30 (at which time it became dark).
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