Princeton, BC

We are on the Kettle Valley Railway trail again. Today Julie and I started from Princeton, BC.

The old rail bed is a source of pride for the town, they have the trail head all prettied up.

We started out toward Coalmont, with no plans to actually ride that far.

Before we had biked very far we found that it was breakfast time at the Osprey Nest.

About 2 km into the ride we came to a tunnel.

The tunnel was pretty nice to ride through.  It had a paved surface and electric lights!

Shortly after the tunnel, we crossed the Similkameen River.

Shortly after crossing the river the paved path turned to gravel.  Julie's 2" wide knobby tires handled it well, my fixie's 28c road tires were a bit more dodgy.

 We had started out early this morning, in hopes of seeing some wildlife.  Julie was a bit afraid of surprising a "bahr".  I was hoping to see at least some deer.

We turned around about a mile after the trail had turned to gravel.  The hoodoos seemed to be a good point for turning around.

We rode back to Princeton.

Once in Princeton it was easy to know where the trail went.

The last spike for the Kettle Valley Railway was driven near here.

The last bridge to be built was named the Bridge of Dreams because it was the culmination of the dream of building a railway across Southern British Columbia.

The trail continued on up the valley.  Along the way we were entertained by a pair of Yellow Bellied Marmots.

We rode to the end of the pavement near a sawmill.

It was a short, but great ride!

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .........10................0..................0.......................0...........10
Jan...............0................0...................0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........414...............0..................0.......................0...........414
June........337...............0..................0.......................0...........337
July........310...............0..................0.......................0...........310
YTD...... 2018.............0...................0.......................0..........2018

Kamloops

I was in Kamloops this morning for the wrap up breakfast for the Rocky Mountain 1200. I have no pressing plans for getting home, so talked Julie into going for an easy ride.  The visitor's information folks suggested "The Rivers Trail" a multi-use path that skirts the North and South Forks of the Thompson River, and also runs along the main stem of the Thompson River after those two forks merge in town.  It sounded good to us.

We had some trouble finding the trail, it seems that despite map information supplied by the visitor's association, the trail is not contiguous.  We eventually found it and pedaled off in search of adventure.

Julie says "I don't need no stinking helmet on bike paths"

We saw quite a bit of wildlife in our short ride.  It seems that we have been surrounded by Marmots on this trip.  At Lake Louise we saw many Hoary Marmots. We figured it was nature teaming up with my friend John Henry "Hoary Marmot" Maurice and making a few friendly jabs at us.  Today we saw Yellow Bellied Marmots.  I guess that might be construed as a return jab on our part.  ;-)

We also saw a pair of deer.

We even saw some bat condominiums, but thankfully did not see any bats during the daylight hours.

There were countless geese and ducks, and a hawk.

The path had not been well marked.  We searched at seemingly dead ends, and sign posts that directed us onto busy roadways with no shoulder for considerable distance.  We finally turned around when our path turned to gravel.  Julie's Mtn Bike could handle that, but my narrow tired fixie would be a handful.

We thought about riding back to the car and continuing on in the other direction.  But when we arrived at the car a rather sketchy looking guy was milling aimlessly around in the area.  We decided to at least move the car to the other side of the river and pick the trail up there.  The path continued to be elusive and after a couple of missed opportunities, and busy traffic, we decided to grab some ice cream and hit the road for Princeton.

It was another good bike ride, but not quite as good as the others this week.

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .........11................0..................0.......................0...........11
Jan...............0................0...................0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........414...............0..................0.......................0...........414
June........337...............0..................0.......................0...........337
July........300...............0..................0.......................0...........300
YTD...... 2008.............0...................0.......................0..........2008

Yellow Head

Tete Juane in French.  The locals pronounce it Tay Zjahn.  I had a bit of time this morning and the weather is awesome. I hopped on my fixie and went for a ride.

I first crossed over the Frazier River, already a decent sized river at this point.

Shortly after crossing the river I came to some recreational fields that had a small park area with a picnic table.  I didn't need the picnic table but found the information signs interesting.  I was after all a tourist today.

Having been educated in local history, I pedaled along.

I took a right turn onto Old Tete Juane Cache Rd.  It was a very low traffic road, paved, but no center line or fog lines.  I would not see a single vehicle as I pedaled along today.  I would see a couple of white tailed deer though. More rare was the sight of an operating wigwam burner.  I haven't seen an operational one of these in well over 30 years.

It explained the smoke we had seen in the valley yesterday evening.

smoke from the wigwam burner can be seen in the distance

There were no logging operations today, I had the road to myself.  The road transitioned to packed dirt/gravel.  It was dry, and very ridable. It was actually smoother than the asphalt. I continued on.
I rode along some marshy land between the forested hillsides and the Frazier River.  I was hoping to see a moose, but instead got some nice scenery.

With all my photo stops I ran out of time before getting very far down the road.  I turned around and pedaled back the way I had come.

It was a good morning to be on a bike!

.........Road Bike.....Rollers.............MTB..........Lifecycle......Total
Today .........18................0..................0.......................0...........18
Jan...............0................0...................0.......................0............0
Feb..........124...............0...................0.......................0...........124
March......277................0..................0........................0..........277
April......559................0..................0........................0..........559
May.........414...............0..................0.......................0...........414
June........337...............0..................0.......................0...........337
July........289...............0..................0.......................0...........289
YTD...... 1997.............0...................0.......................0..........1997