Tuesday, July 30, 2013

If you pushed a rug with your foot on a hardwood floor a bunch of folds would pile up. Those folds are pretty much what happened to create the Columbia Mountain system- the southern portion of which is often referred to as the Kootenay Ranges (although some people refer to the entire Columbia Mountain system as the Kootenays).  These ranges were once terranes- or islands- on the pacific plate that rammed against the North American plate…the terranes smashed against each other and slipped and rose over and under each other to form those folds. There are three ranges in the Kootenays, each of which represents one of those folds.  From east to west they are the Purcells, the Selkirks, and the Monashees.  They are much older and very distinct from the Rocky Mountain Ranges, which are quite young from a geological perspective and have not enduring nearly as much erosion and aging as the Columbia Mountains have.

I rode over each of these ranges yesterday.  Creston is at the southern portion of the Purcells (this range also towers across from the Rockies on the west side of the Rocky Mountain Trench), I rode through the Selkirks to get from Kootenay Lake through Nelson and into Castelgar, and rode over the Monashees from Castelgar into the Okanagan region.

Today I woke up in Oliver, and while the Okanagan is usually a focal point of my bike tours the only reason I came here was to ride across those ranges on the Crowsnest yesterday, and to ride back through them on a more northern route…a “Kootenay Loop” if you will.  It was hard to leave Oliver and getting here so quickly, but I had to stay focused on the mission of the trip.  There would be time for wine and sun later…

I rode north of Oliver through the desert on the White Lake Road, breezed through Penticton, and rode up the side of Lake Okanagan in the hot morning sun.  This is where it got really hard not to decide to stick around.  This is perhaps one of the most beautiful locations on the planet.  By the time I reached West Kelowna it was lunchtime, so I stopped for some Subway before heading further north.  I bypassed Kelowna because traffic on Harvey and up to Vernon is atrocious.

Actually, the West Side road on the westbank of Lake Okanagan is a very cool ride. The road has a lot of esses and curves, very little in the way of guardrails, and towers high above the lake. About halfway up is La Casa Resort where my cousins Lara and Shane got married last summer while I was on the Road Warrior Tour 2012.

The day was heating up and it was nearly 3 o’clock by the time I got around the northern end of the lake and into Vernon for more fuel and some drinks.  I took abit of a break here because this is where I was going to say goodbye to the Okanagan and head in to the Kootenays for an extended stay.

The road between Vernon and the Needles Ferry on the Arrow Lakes is in the top 10 of any motorcyclist worth their salt in BC.  You start out leaving Vernon in wide valleys of dry grasses and brown trees…as you head further east your elevation starts to climb as you head over the Monashees and over Monashee Pass (with a modest elevation of 3952 feet). Once you clear the pass the road tightens right up and you are back to characteristic Kootenay riding…heavy forests, deep canyons, the freshest air on the planet, and beautiful vistas.  After a few hours after leaving Vernon you approach Needles to take a ferry across the Arrow Lakes.

The Arrow Lakes, like all big lakes in the southern interior of BC, are actually a widening of a river.  In this case it’s the Columbia River, the largest and longest river in the Pacific Northwest.  I had passed the beginnings of the Columbia on Day 2 as I rode down the Rocky Mountain Trench.  From there the Columbia actually heads north until it almost gets to Valemount where Greg and I stayed on Day 1 of the Fellowship of the Road, from there it becomes a lake because of a dam, flows south, and then widens again into the Arrow Lakes south of Revelstoke.  A dam at Castlegar is essentially what creates the lake itself because it forces the river to widen and deepen in between the Monashees and the Selkirks.

The ferry at Needles is unique in the Kootenays because it is propelled by a cable that stretches along the width of the lake.  Simple design but effective.  It’s also much smaller but thisis a lightly travelled highway so there’s no need for large capacities.  Still, it’s the only way to get from Nakusp to Vernon quickly and if you like riding ferries like I do it’s a must see.

The ferry gave me a nice 15 minute break before I got back on Silver and rode the highway from the ferry to Nakusp.  That ride is enjoyable enough.  It’s a little less than an hour and straight the entire way.  There’s a few nice views of the lake but with all of the ferry traffic behind me I just kept on riding without stopping for pictures.  It was nearly 7pmby the time I reached Nakusp and I still had 100km to go to my destination.

I actually took another short break in Nakusp because I was about to enter the ‘zone.’ I had been circling around the Kootenays the entire trip, from Radium south to Creston and then west to Oliver and back here…the entire time I was circling around them.  But now…this wasgoing to get serious.  Now I was goingstraight into the heart of the region. This is what the Tall Towers episode was all about.

The ride from Nakusp to New Denver always takes me back to the first time I rode it on Ryan & Silver’s Excellent Adventure 2007.  On that trip I left my friends in Kelowna after a weekend of wine touring at 4pm.  I figured I could easily find a place to stay in Nakusp.  I was wrong because the Nakusp music festival was on and every place was booked.  On that trip I arrived in Nakusp at about 8pm and after finding no rooms at the inns I kept riding to New Denver.  It was the same story there- everything was booked.  By this time the sun had set andit was pitch black out.  The owner of a motel in New Denver called a little motel in a little town called Kaslo-another 50km down the road.  There was one room left.  Little did I know at the time that that fateful night would start a long relationship.

This time around this same ride was much less frantic.  I enjoyed the early evening mountain air as I rode through the Selkirk Mountains and into New Denver.  I’ve never really spent muchtime in this little town- it was always a waypoint to other destinations.  This time around I actually stopped to grabsome ‘to go’ dinner from a local market so that I could eat once I reached my destination in Kaslo. In truth, the reason I stopped in New Denver was to have a break before riding the final leg of the day’s journey.

If the Creston- Kootenay Bay highway is my favourite, and the Pemberton-Lillooet highway is my second favourite, the New Denver-Kaslo highway is my third.  That’s my top three, with no doubt.  This is a tight little road that squeezes through the tightest pocket of the Selkirks, just to the north of Glacier Provincial Park. Unfortunately I didn’t get to enjoy it nearly as much as I liked, mostly because I was exhausted from five long days on the road and the sun was setting.

Still, it was a fitting end to a beautiful day.  When I reached Kaslo the motel owner greeted me by my first name and asked why I didn’t book my “usual room.” I told her it wasn’t available when I booked. She also made a comment about how I always arrive so late and how dangerous it is to ride in the dark around the area because of wildlife.  Ok, mom. Thanks.

I took off my hot, sweat soaked gear and threw on my swimming trunks.  It was time for a Kaslo tradition.  I walked three blocks to the beach, cracked open a gin and juice, and enjoyed a cold cocktail before going for a swim in the dark lake. The stars were shining above me and I just stared up at them and breathed in the crisp mountain air.  This was heaven.  This was the moment I thought of when I planned the Tall Towers episode.  I just laid there in the water for about a half hour before going back to the motel where I promptly passed right out.

What a great end to a great day.