August 6, 2019

Kelowna, BC to Cache Creek, BC

Fuel in Kelowna and in Ashcroft just before Cache Creek.

Took Hwy 97 north from Kelowna.  This is a high speed road.  A few miles along it rises up a couple hundred feet and you get stunning views down onto Wood Lake and Kalamalka Lake which have an extraordinary turquoise color. Unfortunately, there were no places to stop and snap a picture. But, if you google Kalamalka Lake, you will find dozens of pictures online.

Otherwise, this is a boring road.  It also passes straight through Kalowna and Vernon which are both sizable towns with heavy, slow moving traffic and stop light after stop light. Lots of heavy trucks, RVs and trailers that accelerate slowly from each stop light. The Trans Canada Highway passing through Thompson Canyon west of here is a more interesting route to Cache Creek in my opinion.

North of Vernon the road veers west toward Kamloops.  I got off at Kamloops to visit a bike store in search of a tire but the store was closed for an extended holiday weekend.

Lunch at a Tim Hortens which is a ubiquitous fast food chain in Canada.  There I had a long chat with a fellow who is up from San Diego with his family.  He saw my bike in the parking lot.  He rode the same bike (DR650) all over Australia so we had lots to talk about. Looked in his 40's or early 50's.  Not the first such to tell me how much he envies my travels. Guys in their 40's and 50's, family, already looking forward to retirement.

Sometimes the best roads are ones where you can motor along
without craning your neck to see lots of wonderful sights.

Missed a turn getting back on the highway and ended up on Hwy 5 heading south.  Eventually got off at an exit.  Google maps informed me that from there I could take 970, a secondary road, and reach Ashcroft just south of Cache Creek.  This turned into a very pleasant ride.  The countryside was remarkable for its unremarkableness.  It could have been any of dozens of places in North America including central Pennsylvania where I grew up.







Just south of Ashcroft the road passes a huge mining operation.  The first thing I saw in the distance looked like a mountain being systematically dismantled.  On closer inspection it was a stupendous pile of debris. 

Farther along was an area where they separate copper and molybdenum from tailings crushed into sand.

Tonight in the Sunset Motel in Cache Creek.  I stayed here last year.  Nothing special.

But for the haze this would be a great shot.  This is just past
the mining operation.  Row upon row of mountain peaks
receding into the distance.