Thursday, August 27, 2009

Today I found Little Miss Sunshine. Although the weather has been pleasant the entire trip (except for the smoke in the Fraser Canyon), the temperatures have rarely gotten above 25 degrees. Today was the hottest day so far. I’m sure it was at least 35 degrees as I headed east along the Crowsnest.

I woke up in Keremeos and was in no hurry to get up. Today’s trip was going to be a great ride east along the Crowsnest to Nelson, where I would be staying with my cousins Judy and Morris (actually Judy is my first cousin once removed. She’s my dad’s first cousin and Morris is her husband). The ride itself would only take 4-5 hours so I had time to relax a bit. Unfortunately my motel only had one station on the television, so the entire morning I watched tribute after tribute to Ted Kennedy on ABC.  Do you remember where you were when Ted Kennedy died?  I was in BC.

I finally got on the highway at about 11am and made it to Osoyoos for noon. I stopped to get a sandwich for lunch, and then started the longest and steepest continuous ascent in all of British Columbia. Part way up I stopped at a roadside turnout overlooking Osoyoos where I ate my sandwich in the hot sun and took a few pictures. I also met a very nice (but apparently lonely) guy named Brad who regaled me of all of his riding stories from back in his glory days when he had a motorcycle.  People who like bikes always get chatty on isolated roadside turnouts.

It was when I left Osoyoos that I noticed the temperature was much higher than I had been used to. This made stopping for breaks difficult as the only escape I had from the heat was when the air was moving past my face. Occassionally I stopped at mountain streams to stick my head under the cold water, but this relief was only temporary.  I had to keep moving.

I arrived at Nelson just before suppertime eager to take off my leathers and have a shower. I enjoyed a few cold ones and a wonderful dinner with my cousins, followed very closely by an early bedtime.