Sunday, July 16th, 2007

Last night’s fellowship went pretty late and forced a late morning wakeup.

We checked out of the La Mission Motel at 11:00 and, after I packed my gear on Silver, we headed straight for the Summerhill winery. The plan was to visit a few wineries before I headed east to start my journey back home, and everyone else headed west to Vancouver.

Summerhill is unique for two reasons: 1) it is an organic winery, and 2) it stores its wine in a giant pyramid, and actively promotes the advantages of pyramid power. As you can probably guess, this is a very hippie winery that is very popular amongst the tourists. The restaurant is top notch, too.

After a very nice tasting of several of their wines, I ended up purchasing two bottles, the first was the 2006 Ehrenfelser. I discovered this wine for the first time last year on the Easy Rider Tour, and instantly it became one of my favourites. Almost unique to the Okanagan, the wine is very tropical and fruit forward…great on its own or with really spicy food. A must try. And also a must have.

The other wine I bought was a ‘treat’, and something I had never purchased before- although I’ve been a fan for some time. I decided to splurge a bit and I purchased a bottle of Reisling Ice Wine. If you’ve never had Ice Wine you don’t know what you are missing. Harvested after eight days of minus 10 degree weather, the moisture in the grapes is almost all gone by the time the juice is extracted from them while they are still frozen. The result is a very intensely flavoured wine- for special occasions only.

After Summerhill we went to the first winery I had ever visited, and still continues to be a favourite: Cedar Creek. Owned by Senator Ross Fitzpatrick, this winery not only features excellent wines, but a nice patio restaurant, which is where we had lunch. After a nice meal we entered the tasting room and, after sampling even more great wines, I purchased two bottles: the Ehrenfelser (fantastic!) and the newly released Estate Syrah.

As if visiting two more wineries before leaving town wasn’t enough, we then decided to visit Carmelis Goat Cheese Artisan. This was very cool. After tasting several varieties of goat cheese and even having some goat milk gelato, I bought some blue goat cheese to take home with me.

We headed back to the Motel to say our good-byes. It was nearly 4:00 at this point, and I was now going to head east. I had decided to take the number 6 hwy from Vernon to Nakusp. This would place me north of the Balfour- Kootenay Bay ferry, so that I could drive the number 1 Destination Highway in BC again tomorrow. From there I would head to Calgary. Then home on Tuesday.

The ride was very pleasant. As I rode out of the Okanagan and into the Kootenays again, this new road was a lot different than the way I came in through the south. More rugged and isolated. The road itself was more windy and the ride in general was very nice. I was also back in the forest, and there was A LOT more wildlife than I had gotten used to in the Okanagan.

There was something else that was different about this trip: clouds and rain. Although I didn’t get rained on, I was following a rainstorm and so the road was still very wet. This isn’t a big deal, but on three separate occasions a deer ran out onto the road. This is a big deal. A deer could cause considerable harm. However, even this paled in comparison to what I found about 10 km east of the Needles ferry: a moose. I turned around a corner and sitting in the middle of the wet road was a huge moose. And boy did it ever take off in a hurry. My heart skipped a beat as I came toward the massive beast. Man, I don’t want to think about what could happen with a moose on the road.

At the ferry, after calming down about the moose encounter, I met a woman who was moving to Nakusp- a small community about 50 km north of the ferry. She raved about how nice the town was that I decided to stay there for the night. Besides, the sun would be coming down soon. It was nearly 8 o’clock.

Nearly 45 minutes later, I rolled into Nakusp hoping to find a little motel to stay in. I had no idea, however, that this town is the site of a huge music festival, and there were no rooms anywhere in town. Not even any campgrounds. Nothing. This was disappointing. It had already been a long day and the next town, New Denver, was about 50 km away. And it was starting to get dark.

I headed to New Denver in the dimming light of day and, after finally reaching the town, looked for a place to stay. It was pitch dark by now and every restaurant was closed so I already knew I was going to bed hungry. I finally found a little motel, but was promptly informed that they were full. It appears that people also stay here for the Nakusp music festival. She suggested Kaslo, which was another 50 km away. She called the Kaslo Motel for me…and they had one room left. So I took it and headed down the highway. In the dark. Alone. Exposed to the elements. Hungry. And tired.

I won’t lie to you, this ride was extremely dangerous. Not because of the road (which was windy), not because of the dark (and it was), not because of the cliffs and drop-offs (and there were many), but because of the deer. I had encountered 24 deer over that 50 km stretch. Wow. Lucky for me the air was warm and I took my time…no rush.

When I finally got to Kaslo I was relieved. I found my motel and was told that five minutes after I called two other bikers showed up wanting a room. Man, I was lucky to have called. I went for a nice walk about town in the warm night air to stretch the legs. It had been a damn long day. And tomorrow was going to be another long one if I was going to make it all the way to Calgary.