Sweet Roads

Day three began with an almost cloudless sky in Penticton. We had a relatively expensive room last night but the breakfast was worth come of that money with coffee, omelettes, boiled eggs, waffles, strudel, cereal and other items. Our start was as planned so after refueling we rode south on Highway 97 until we turned west south of Kaleden, heading to Osoyoos. This road is about 40 kilometres in length but it provides some fine riding along with excellent scenery, so the ride was a real pleasure.

The climb to the pass between Penticton and Keremeos

Tom was waiting for us at the K Restaurant, so after coffee we rode east toward Osoyoos. Again, Highway 3 provided more great riding. East of Keremeos, near the area of Cawston, the highway parallels the old VV&E Railway which ran through Keremeos on it's way to Princeton and the gold mine at Hedley. The highway runs along the north side of the valley and there are many vineyards along the river. Toward Osoyoos one of the features that has significance to First nations in this area is Spotted Lake. Usually it is almost dry with large white circular patterns on its surface. Because of the large amount of precipitation over the winter these spots are now submerged. In all my years of passing this place, I have never seen the spots under water.

We stopped at Tim Horton's in Osoyoos for a break before carrying on. Jim's son Geoff has a pair of riding boots that have gotten under Jim's skin (in a humourous way) but part of it is because Geoff wears his skinny jeans inside his boots. To Jim, that just seems wrong so he asked me to include a photo so readers can see what he is on about.

Geoff's riding boots

Geoff and his KTM motorcycle

One of the great parts on Highway 3 is the climb out of Osoyoos to the top of Anarchist Mountain. Again the roads snakes its way up the side of the mountain providing good views in many spots. Just before the highway doubles back to climb the mountain away from the view, there is a pullout that gives a panoramic view of the southern Okanagan Valley from south of the US border to north od Oliver, BC. Across the valley the mountains are still snow capped in spots. The view is worth the time it takes to enjoy it.

View to the south & the US from Anarchist Mountain

Osoyoos from Anarchist Mountain

View north to Oliver, BC, from Anarchist Mountain

When the road finishes the climb out of the Okanagan Valley it emerges into open country at more than one thousand metres. There is little evidence of human activity here except for the odd ranch house and the village of Bridesville, once a stop on the VV&E Railway. Those days are long past and Bridesville seems to be a sleepy village wit a few hundred inhabitants.

After the steep descent into Rock Creek where the evidence of the large forest fire that occurred here a year or two ago, we carried on to Midway where we took a short break. Midway was the point where the Columbia & Western Railway and the Kettle Valley Railway met. I believe that the name comes from the fact that it is about midway across BC but there may be other explanations. West of here the rails were torn up to the Myra Canyon in 1979 and between Midway and Castlegar the rails were removed in 1989. The railbed is now part of the Trans Canada Trail system.

Rest stop in Midway, BC

Greenwood which is fourteen kilometres east of Midway has the remains of an old copper smelter that was closed in 1918, at the end of the First World War. All that remains now as the smelter stack and a huge pile of slag, the by product of the copper ore that was processed here. During its heyday, Greenwood must have been a very busy place. During World War II Greenwood was the site of an internment camp for the Japanese who were removed from the west coast after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.

Model of the Greenwood chimney with the real one in the background

Plaque with stac in the background

The remains of the Greenwood smelter

On the east side of Greenwood beside the highway is a large concrete tunnel which now has flags of many of the nations of the world painted on it. The tunnel was built in 1913 to allow road traffic to pass under the Columbia & Western Railway. When the highway was widened and the tracks removed in 1989 the whole concrete tunnel unearthed and left as a curiosity. a former myor had the idea of covering graffiti with flags painted on the structure.

Road tunnel at Greenwood, BC

We stopped in Grand Forks for lunch and to refuel then continued on through Christina Lake toward Castlegar. At a roadside rest stop we met Wesley and his father. Wesley loves motorcycles and wanted to go and look at ours. I asked his father if Wesley wold like to sit on a bike. Wesley enthusiastically said hw ould so I had him sit on my Harley while his father and I took photos. It is never too early to start to bring the young ones over to the 'Dark Side' and Wesley has begun his journey.

Wesley on my Harley

In Castlegar we stopped at Tim's so Garry could do his smart phone magic to find us rooms. Nothing was available in Castlegar, so we rode the remaining distance to Nelson where he had found two rooms for a reasonable rate. Nelson has a beautiful downtown but we bypassed it to get to the hotel. We crossed the large orange bridge over the Columbia River at Nelson and shortly reached our hotel. 

Crossing the Columbia River at Nelson, BC

Today's ride was about 350 kilometres. Tomorrow we will ride up the Slocan Valley to new Denver to ride from there to Kaslo. This is ranked as the best motorcycle ride in BC, and we are stoked to be able to ride it again. The weather continues to be be quite good for riding and we are hoping that it stays that way for the duration of our ride. So far this trip has been very good and we'd like it to stay that way.