Trail of the Damned

Following the advice of someone who was NOT a bike tourist (note: big mistake), we attempted to ride the KVR from Okanagan Falls to Penticton. It seemed like such a good idea… right along the western shore of Skaha Lake, totally flat. BUT…it quickly went from hard-packed dirt to loose gravel, large rocks, and in places, mini-sand-dunes. After struggling through this, walking a good bit of the way, and ¾ of us taking falls, we decided to bag it at about the halfway point. From the lake we had to push our loaded bikes about a kilometer up a very steep hill to get to the highway. Not a lot of fun, but once we got there it was a nice downhill coast into Penticton.

From the shore of Skaha lake, its another 5 miles into downtown Penticton, which is actually on the shore of Lake Okanagan. Although we had originally intended to ride on to camp near Summerland, we were all too worn out from the awful trail experience, so hoped to find camping near downtown. No such luck. The only campgrounds near downtown were “No Tents” (guy said they ruin the grass). We did find a marvelous restaurant for lunch, followed by Starbucks. Then back we went the 5 miles to Skaha Lake to find camping. The first one we tried had closed for the season at 5pm that day (it was about 5:15). The second one wanted us to pay for three separate sites at $24 each. But the third one was just right… very friendly and a little rough around the edges, with lots of senior citizens apparently living there full time. We crowded our 3 tents onto one of their 10 or so gravel tent pads, next to another group of women who were avid rock climbers; Skaha Bluffs, just down the road, is a popular rock climbing area.

This may be a new low for Rainbow Riders. It took us 7 hours to ride 21 miles today.