Western Dreamz TripLog
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Thursday July 8, 2004 - "Thanks for nothing, ZZ."
Where to start? Oh yes. At the beginning. We left Jasper's grey skies, looking for fun and sun in BC. As you'll see in the pictures, it was pouring rain when we crossed the border. The weather did clear up as we rolled into the valley and we were able to get some sun. We headed for Kamloops and drove downhill almost the whole way, ending up at an elevation of about 450m (compared to 2000m when we were in the rockies). Along the way, we showed our extreme maturity by laughing for several minutes at a place called "Pinous Lake", not to mention the numerous signs telling us to "Pull Out". In Kamloops, we stopped at a bike shop to get advice on local trails. The guy there (Brian) was very helpful and pointed us toward several trails in town as well as some ski resorts open to bikers, where you can ride the lift up and ride your bike down (for a fee of course). We decided to try a human-powered trail first and it was... interesting. The trail system was in and around a large dusty canyon with a tiny creek at the bottom. The sides were slightly rocky, but mostly dry dirt, and fairly steep. Some switchback trails were cut into the sides of the canyon, and along the top there were some dusty trails with the occasional dirt jump. We had to walk our bikes up the sandy switchbacks (they were nearly impossible to ride) where we booted around on top for a while, blew a tire (and fixed it), and then headed back down. The ride down was pretty unenjoyable due to the tight turns and soft sand (and our feet being clipped in). This is clearly downhiller's land. Kamloops is DRY. Everything is eroding away, there is little ground cover, and almost everything was dust. According to Brian, nobody in this area RIDES up a hill (God forbid!) It seems that the standard thing to do is either hitch a skilift up, or park one car at the bottom of a trail and one at the top, and drive back up once you are done riding down. Another trail that he told us about had a bunch of "road gaps" which turns out to be a spot where you JUMP OVER A ROAD. Not quite our style. Maybe in a week or two we'll be ready for that. Anyway, after the ride we packed the bikes up and headed for camping at Kekuli Bay Provincial Park, or as we will call it form now on, Crapsville, BC. Postal code: Don't even bother looking for this junkhole. This place was worse than Sunshine Park (long story from a while ago). There was not a single tree. It was a collection of RVs and Tents in a field by the water. And they wanted $23 for the priveledge of parking there. So we continued on, figuring we'd try a campsite in Kelowna as it was not too far away. Well guess who was in town? ZZ Top. Due to that (and it being summer in the Okanagan Valley), the next campsite was full. Luckily for us, they only posted the full sign at the entrance to the campsite, not at the start of the 7km dead end road that it was on. So back to Kelowna for some Tim Hortons and some Figuring Out Where To Sleep. A side note: Next to the tim hortons was a restaurant called "Chinese Laundry" which was proudly advertising "SMORG" in their front window. The best part was when I asked the girl at Tim's if she knew where I could get some SMORG, to which she replied: "Umm... Uhhh... Hmm. You mean just regular smorg?". OK Maybe we were a bit tired but it was hilarious at the time. Anyway, I have to get back on track because there's a lot more to come. Our next destination was south of Kelowna, where there were three potential Provincial Parks. This was the first time on the trip that Mappoint would lead us astray. Unfortunately our paper map doesn't zoom in as well as Mappoint, so we tend to use Mappoint quite regularly. (For the less nerdy readers, Mappoint is Microsoft's mapping software which we have running on the laptop and connected to the GPS [And for even less nerdy readers, the GPS is the satellite receiver that can tell us our exact Latitude and Longitude so we don't die]). So we quickly found out that that Mappoint only knew how to get NEAR Darke Provincial Park (and Eneas Lakes Prov. Park), and ended up leading us to a dump. The dump was closed in case anyone cares. So we turned around to try a different road which appeared on the paper map (with no name). Along the way we tried out Okanagan Lake Provincial Park, which was blocked off with a couple of metal gates. We took that as a "No". Continuing on our journey, we tried a small municipal campsite in Summerland (closed) and then tried to find the road leading to Darke Prov Park from Summerland. With the GPS batteries dead (and us too lazy to change them) we tried taking the main road West out of town. Guess where it led? TO ANOTHER DUMP. So we changed the damn batteries and found one road via mappoint that led almost all the way to Darke, not quite reaching it. We figured that it was our best bet, and that the road likely led to the edge of the park, with the park symbol on the map being in the centre of the park. Well, the drive was fun! and guess what happens halfway down this road? BAM it turns to dirt without warning, and next thing you know, you're crossing an old rusty fence and a cattle guard (or texas gate or whatever it's called). The only marking here was a "Rural Crime Watch" sign (great) and a "No Campfires" sign. Nothing about "No Camping" though. So we considered putting the tent up (did i mention it had started raining again?) but were a little scared of bears and the deliverance-esque appearance of the trailer homes along the road leading up to here. So guess what. BACK TO CRAPSVILLE BC $23 CAMPING IN A FIELD STUPID JERKS CENTRAL. Only we didn't get that far. we decided after driving for 40 minutes that we should keep the $23, and save the 10 more minutes to get there. We pulled into a lookout along the road and slept in the car. And that was Thursday!
Friday July 9, 2004 "Ladies and gentlemen... The Trews (an hour ago)"
Today we woke up in the car to rain and highway traffic, after getting about four hours of sleep. We drove into Vernon for some Tim's, and found some more free internet at the gas station. Taking advantage of the early hour, we headed to the Silver Star skihill for some biking. One hour and thirty dollars later we were on the lift for our first try at downhill biking. We took it easy for the first run and did not do too badly. The trails are rated like ski runs: green, blue, black and double black. We stuck to the green and blue to start with, and when we tried a black we realized taht blue was pretty much our limit. The biking was great though, and before the trip is done we will try renting downhill bikes and see if we can tackle some of the black bits. While at the hill, we had cell service so we arranged to see the Trews that night (funny they were playing Kelowna that night with Evanescence). Thanks to Iain and the band for the admission. Unfortunately we did not realize it was a five-band evening starting at 5pm. We showed up at 8 and missed the Trews set (they only played from 7-7:30). It's a shame we missed the set but it was still a good time. We ran into a girl that Rocky knew from Port Hope (Angie). She was quite a huge Evanescence fan, and also quite intense overall. We ended up waiting backstage with her friends while she got autographs, then heading down to the bar where she works. After one beer we were ready to turn in. We'd thought ahead this time and secured space at the hostel (spending the extra money we saved the night before by sleeping in the car). We were also scared shitless about the car getting broken into or stolen, since Angie's car had been broken into a few times in Kelowna. Everything was still there when we went to bed . . .
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