Monday 15 October
Climbing, climbing, climbing. All day gentle uphill along the Kettle Valley Railroad Trail.
Breakfast at the Cowboy Coffee shop in the company of the local deer, then up out of town in the cold above the Weyerhaeuser mill into scrubby pine trees.
Soon we climbed into the incredibly beautiful BC grasslands – remarkably similar to the highlands around Dullstroom and Belfast in South Africa’s Mpumalamga province.
Here we saw our first trail wildlife – a couple of deer. Or were they elk? We need to brush up on Canadian creatures.
These grasslands in BC form in the rain shadows of the mountains and are quite dry – almost semi-desert – so no trees grow here. Cows here have enormous open pastures that they share with the diverse local wildlife (including rattlesnakes). The sun warmed us up quickly here and we had to transfer several layers of clothing from bodies to backpacks as we went.
But the grassland views sadly didn’t last. The last third of the day was spent on a sandy trail through more scrubby pines. Although we initially had glimpses of the river valley below, we progressed away from the ridge and into a dull slog through the trees, the trail again corrugated by ATVs, the loathsome sand and ruts making for hard work.
The monotony was broken by a family of four deer and the sighting of a few enormous paw prints to remind us we were in mountain lion country.
It was a happy pair who found the car as we had left it next to the deserted Link Lake three days ago. We took a few minutes to stretch weary muscles before heading off on the long stunning drive home to Vancouver.
That’s it for the 2018 part of this journey and we’re pleased to have reached our goal of making it to Penticton this year.
Hope you’re enjoying the ride with us – thanks for coming along.
Today: 48km. All uphill – climbing from 650m to 1,150m.
Total distance 780km
#transcanadatrail
#thegreattrail
Trans Canada Epic 