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August 4th 2006:

My longest shortcuts

All of us on the track near the Okanagan lake
It's hard to find a more beautiful cycling track
Leaving Oliver was easy enough. All seven of us were tired of the scenery and were eager to be on our way. Jod stayed behing though. He needed to keep working in order to buy his plane ticket back to Quebec. So our group of seven was thus reduced to six. And so, we were off, our destination: Kelowna!

Interestingly enough, this time I was the one who chose the road we'd be traveling. We didn't take road 97 like we did on our trip to Oliver, this time we chose to try the Kettle Valley Trail. It was an old railroad track that had been supposedly rebuilt as a cycling track. A wonderful choice for the view... but one hell of an ordeal due to the track's poor condition.


My sister on the track between two vignards
Our two wounded girls, despite their injuries, they keep on smiling
Our first day from Oliver to Penticton was incredible. The track passed beside a huge lake while passing through small villages. What's more, it was perfect, no climbing and it was all hard dirt that hadn't yet transformed into sand.

The second day however was something else. After a short night spent in a hotel in Penticton, we started off at one o'clock in the afternoon and were forced to stop 30 km later on a track that could hardly be called a track anymore. Despite all this, we still had a good time. With all the vignards we saw, we were sure we were in France. What's more, we found the perfect spot to camp with a breathtaking view on the valley. What's more, we actually had a washroom. In short, it was a lot better than the previous night when we had to pay 120 dollars for a hotel in the middle of downtown Penticton.

A beautiful sunset seen from our tent in Sutterland
A tunnel formerly taken by the train
The third day was by far the worst of them all. Just writing about it makes me shiver. Had I been alone, there would have been no problem at all. However, taking off with three people who almost never do any bike, one with thin tires and the other with a twenty bucks two-wheeler bought in a flea market... let's just say the trip was less than enjoyable. What's more, at one point, I wasn't sure if we'd have enough water to last us for two days. As a result, the road to the summit was a lot longer than expected. We'd pedal for two hours in soft sand to find ourselves in the exact same spot... 50 meters higher. After 8 hours of laboring through this, we finally reached the peak and were ready to go back down to Kelowna. There was one small problem though. The only possible road was a rocky path that went down extremely steeply. With Danielle's bike lacking some decent brakes... let's just say we had a lot of fun. In fact, I think her bike must still be on the mountain side all bent out of shape. Luckily for Danielle, she escaped with only a few scrapes and bruises. On her part, Julie decides to fall off when the road starts to level out and actually become decent. Here's a tip from her: Never look at your luggage when you roll 50 km per hour on a bike.

Julie striking a "Save the last dance" pose in the tunnel
The beautiful track again
A nice meal taken in downtown Kelowna, a night in a school yard and after all this, I'm all set to leave Kelowna in a week's time. I'm almost gone!!!