I make up my usual oatmeal and instant coffe while letting my fancy new keychain thermometer acclimate to the air temperature.
As I was sipping coffee, I was shocked to see it sitting a shade above 0°C. I was wearing a hoodie for comfort but otherwise fine in short pants and without gloves. Must have been the gross Yukon summer and frosty field work in Beaver Creek a month ago that made me ready for chilly weather.
To be safe, I put on my jacket and gloves to start the day. It turned out the be the right call, as even suited up I could definitely feel a nip in the air and found a few patches of frost along the lake.
About an hour into the day though the sun was out and I was soon stripping back to short sleeves.
If only the road/trail surface had improved as quickly!
Coming out of Chute Lake, the surface got progressively rougher for about 15 km, with many sections of deep potholea or with unfortunately large rocks jutting out of the dirt. Speed was not that impressive. Luckily there was good scenery of the Kelowna valley but I spent a lot of time brooding on the evils of allowing motor traffic on otherwise wonderful trails.
As I approached Myra, a few logging roads intersected the trail and vehicle influence waned while the trail surface got better. Eventually I reached an awesome section where motor vehicles were unable to access and began winding around a wide canyon along a series of curving trestle bridges. The sun was out and I stopped to put on some sunscreen and enjoy the lovely scenery. There was even a couple of tunnels. Very cool.
All good things come to an end though and eventually I popped back out onto the section of KVR that vehicles are allowed on and the silky smooth gravel became quite a bit less silky.
Still, it wasn't too awful and I was making solid time so I was in a pretty good mood.
Shortly after my lunch break, I encountered two ladies by the trailside and soon discovered that one of them had crashed and injured her hip. I offered whatever help I could but they were good on food and water had already sent a friend to call for rescue and were fine on food and water. 40 km later I would remember the painkillers and triangular bandages in my first aid kit. Oops.
Aside from about 5 km of trail that had been horrifically thrashed by a brushcutter (apparently on government orders?) the rest of the afternoon was 100% downhill and quite warm, with more or less smooth trails.
The final 5 km into Beaverdell was a bit rough, likely having something to do with the incredible amount of ATV tracks along the trail...
I made it into town by 4:30 though and stopped off at the small store for a tomato and a sandwich. Then it was off to the campground. A tent site by the road ran 30$, a bit steep but not a lot of options and the showers and water were drinkable and unlimited.
I had a short chat with my neighbour the next site over while eating dinner, then did some reading until it got too dark (around 7:15) and retired to bed.
A big day at over 100km. I can theoretically make it bad to Penticton in two days but the distances between campgrounds make it a bit weird. Either a short day to Johnson Creek tomorrow or a long one to expensive camping at Osoyoos. We'll have to see.
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