We are doing it. After all of the planning and postponing, we are doing it. Mom and daughter, biking the Kettle Valley Rail Trail or the KVR, from Myra Canyon to Osoyoos.
We postponed the trip twice and were left with the option of waiting until spring or going mid-October. I was afraid I would never do it – like so many other dreams. I also knew that I needed it. I needed this trip or I would succumb to depression and get stuck on the couch again. So mid-October. We decided to leave on the Thanksgiving long weekend and planned to bike Monday through to Wednesday or Thursday. We left the end date open, not quite sure how long the trip would take. This is our first time doing anything like this. I am a backpacker and am used to carrying my gear into the mountains for multiday adventures camping and scrambling. I have done multiday kayak trips. However, I have only tried a multiday bike trip once over ten years ago, dragging my two older boys (quite young at the time) and niece along. We did not make it far and opted for a ride home after two days due to bad weather. I have not being doing much of anything for the past couple of years. Mom has been getting into hiking and some biking over the past couple of years, but no multiday trips. We have not hiked or camped together for decades! Neither of us trained as much as we planned to. We trained quite a bit over the summer, but things just went sideways for both of us in September.
We decided to bike from the top of Myra Canyon to Osoyoos. Originally we had wanted to bike from Midway to Penticton but were warned that not all of the trail has been maintained as a biking and hiking trail. Parts of the trail have been used by motorized vehicles and is quite rough, especially after the rain. Furthermore, part of the trail is currently closed. So after a lot of research, we decided to try the KVR trail starting from Myra Canyon. The trail is not complete between Penticton and Osoyoos. Originally, as I understand, there was only a short line on the KVR that ran south from Penticton while the main rail line continued northwest from Penticton. Even though we can not follow the full KVR route south, there are a lot of bike trails and some sections of the original KVR trail, with only a couple of short sections on backroads or the highway. So we have a plan.
We are headed to Myra Canyon Ranch. We will spend a night there and park the car for the week. They will shuttle us and our bikes up to the trail in the morning. We are driving from Vancouver over the Coquihalla highway. It is pretty wet. In fact that rain is somewhat thicker than rain. OMG it is snowing! The further we drive, the more snow there is! This is crazy! As we are driving through the snow, looking at each other in disbelief and making jokes about turning back, we pass a man on a bike. Peddling up the hill in the opposite direction. This looks like some pretty rough biking conditions! That is hardcore… That is dedication… He is wearing a rain poncho. That would have been a good idea. I have two ponchos sitting in my camping gear back at home. I will definitely add that to the list of things to bring the next time we do this.
We are happy to see that when we are coming down, out of the pass that the snow has become rain again. We arrive in Kelowna around 6 pm. We navigate our way through town and up into the rolling hills surrounding the Valley. As we wind our way up and up, we see the ranch. Lit up in the night it looks quite inviting. We look at each other excitedly! We are here.
Our host shows us around and to our suite. It is huge. We each have our own room and there is a large and comfortable living room. We grab a few of our bags – we will worry about the rest tomorrow. Now is the time for celebration! We are really doing this!
