I think this tour should be named after the temperature in BC instead of my age.  Every day the thermometer has gotten higher and higher and today it was forecasted to reach 41 degrees…and I was headed to Oliver, right in the middle of Canada’s only desert.

I really hate leaving New Denver.  It’s such a cool little town.  Thankfully the morning air was somewhat cool, so the ride down to Castlegar was quite pleasant, although smoke in the air still stole the scenery.  I had originally planned to ride west through Nakusp and Vernon to reach Oliver, but the thought of sitting on a hot bike in downtown Kelowna and West Kelowna in 40 degree heat changed my mind.  Those locations make me punchy on a good day.  I wasn’t about to put myself through that.

The Crowsnest is an awesome ride if you sit back and enjoy it.  After Castlegar there’s a long ascent up to Paulsen Pass, and then another long descent into Christina Lake.  After that it’s semi-arid forest all the way to Osoyoos.  The ride down in the Okanagan Valley is quite a sight, although today those amazing vistas were stolen by smoke in the air.

I reached Osoyoos at around 1pm, and stopped in at the first winery I saw- Moon Curser. I only had an afternoon to spend in the desert so I wanted to pick some wines to send home.  After a quick tasting I headed north to Oliver where I checked into my motel and left my gear, and my wine.  I had a quick lunch and headed back south to visit some more of my favourite wineries- Hester Creek, Gehringer Brothers, and Oliver Twist.  I was a sweaty, gross mess but I didn’t care.  The staff didn’t seem to mind either.  It was 40 degrees out.  Everyone was sweaty.

I headed north and stopped at Stag’s Hollow in Okanagan Falls.  Glad I did- the wines were fantastic!   I continued up to Penticton because they have a UPS store and I had to ship my wines home.  It’s not cheap but it would be impossible to get them all stored properly on Midnight, plus the constant heat would probably spoil them.  This was the best plan.

It was about 6pm when I rolled back in to Oliver.  I took a dip in the pool at the motel to cool off, had dinner at my usual restaurant down the street, and enjoyed my first air conditioned motel room of the trip. Today I rode far, took in the hot sun, drank wine, and breathed smoke all day.  It didn’t take long for me to fall asleep.