Running to Creston

Our day began with a terrific breakfast of bacon, eggs, and hash browns and after cleaning my bike yesterday we were ready to hit the road on the way to Creston. We rolled out at 8:45 a.m. heading south to Vernon and Kelowna. The ride was easy but even though we were riding the speed limit we were passed by several vehicles whose drivers seemed to be in a great rush to get wherever they were going just a few minutes sooner.

 

 

Ready to roll

 

This area has been farmed for almost one hundred and fifty years and there are many abandoned farm buildings, some of which are collapsing. Seeing these buildings makes me think of the hope that the farmer who built this barn, felt, and the end of it all. There is something sad about derelict buildings and abandoned railway lines and we saw both today.

 

 

Derelict barn south of Monte Lake, BC





We passed through villages named Westwold and Falkland as we rode south. We passed through Vernon, stopped in Kelowna for gas then headed down Highway 33 to Rock Creek. South of Kelowna we passed through the village of Joe Rich where there had been a forest fire this weekend. We came upon the aftermath slightly south of the village. The fire had burned to the edge of the highway but it wasn't able to cross. The hillside was blackened and one house narrowly missed being burned. I imagine that the owner should have bought beer for the fire crews who saved his house.

 

Highway 33 runs along the rout of the old Kettle Valley Railway and as we rode we saw evidence of the old railway grade near Westbridge and at Rock Creek as well as outside of Midway and Greenwood. Several years ago I rode this section of the Trans Canada Trail from Midway to Beaverdell and from Midway to Christina Lake. The land is still as beautiful as I remember.

 

Greenwood is Canada's smallest city with a population of around eight hundred. It had its heyday during World War I when the smelter there turned the copper ore from the Phoenix mine into armaments . When the war ended, the demand for copper dropped precipitously and the smelter shut down. All that remains today is the stack and the slag piles from the smelter.  On the outskirts of Greenwood the Columbia & Western Railway crossed the old highway and in 1913 a tunnel was built to carry the highway under the railway embankment. Sometime after the railway closed the tunnel was pulled slightly uphill and decorated with a large selection of world flags. It is amazing that they were able to move this structure because it must weigh quite  lot.

 

Smelter stack at Greenwood, BC

Old highway tunnel near Greenwood, BC

 

Old highway tunnel near Greenwood, BC

We stopped at the Paulson Bridge and walked out on the deck to look down on the old grade of the Columbia and Western Railway. As we stood on the deck several heavy semis rolled across the bridge causing it to flex and move. It is hard to imagine a structure as large and strong looking as that bridge bouncing up and down but it did and it was a bit disconcerting.

 

The C&W railbed from the Paulson Bridge

The C&W railbed north of the Paulson Bridge



 The air had a lot of smoke and in places I could smell it. The surrounding mountains were partially obscured by the smoke and when we stopped at a viewpoint south of Castlegar the town and the Kootenay River was almost impossible to see,

 

Kootenay River and Castlegar shrouded in smoke



For the first time I rode the Salmo-Creston Highway over the Kootenay Pass which tops out at 5800 feet. Again, the landscape is amazingly rugged and beautiful. With the exception of a twenty minute stop to let one-way traffic pass through because of highway resurfacing the ride from Salmo to Creston was a lot of fun with long sweeping curves and amazing vistas.

 

Riding the Kootenay Pass

 



We arrived in Creston around 5:00 p.m., after riding 585 kilometres. After checking in to a motel we walked about a kilometer down the highway to a fish and chip place. We both ordered two pieces of cod and chips. We received four pieces of cod and a mountain of chips. Neither if us was able to eat the whole thing and the walk back to the motel was considerably slower than the walk there.

When we returned to the motel we met two people who were staying there. Bob, from Lethbridge was in Creston but he is the maintenance supervisor in the A&Ws in Lethbridge. He was working in Creston for a few days. When he met us he had a can of PBR in his hand and covering his considerable girth was a Harley-Davidson t-shirt that had many holes in it. It looked pretty bad but he was a friendly guy and he does ride a Harley when he is not working. He told us to look him up if we were ever in Lethbridge but I suspect that will not happen just because we don't ever plan on riding there.

The other person we met was a middle-aged woman from Winnipeg who had ridden her Harley on her own, to Kelowna. She had spent time partying in Kelowna then in Osoyoos before heading back to Winnipeg. She did admit that when she started out this morning she was feeling a bit 'rough' but she made it to Creston so she was able to overcome the pain. it kind of made us feel good that we were living a clean life, at least for Sunday and Monday.

 

The motel is a typical low cost place although the cost was still quite substantial, but it has probably the most anemic air conditioner that I have ever experienced. I hope it eventually cools this room down enough for us to get some sleep.