Day 8 Kaleden to Fintry Delta in the Okanagan Valley, BC

68.1 miles  4,860 ft ascent.

Awoke to rain falling on the roof of my tent.  No heavy rain at that time, but the sky was a cause for concern.

An hour later!  Hallelujah!  Looked like a good riding day ahead!

May have spoken too soon.  The sky appeared a bit ominous to the west.

Today's highlight was seeing Bighorn Sheep beside the road.  We stopped to take pictures, and the sheep held their ground.  One demonstrated how they lie down by going down on their two front knees before lowering their back ends.  They were not disturbed by our presence in the slightest.  There is a "baby" in one of the following photos.

 

 

All day today we rode beside Lake Okanagan.  It is 135 km long and primarily less than 5 km wide.  Okanagan is a rich farming district with sales of three billion dollars a year.  More than a third of that is from wine.  Canadians tell me that this valley produces the best wine in Canada and is their Napa Valley.  There are both large and small vineyards. This photo was taken on the major highway where we rode.  The small patch of land beside the highway is full of thriving grape vines.  That is Lake Okanagan behind the grapes.

 Another view of Lake Okanagan

This morning we followed the cue sheet provided by the tour and rode on a rail trail.  That was a big mistake.  The trail was covered with loose gravel and sand, and it was raining by then.  Thankfully, no one went down.  After riding 3.5 miles on the trail, we decided that riding there was a poor idea and diverted to a road nearby.  When we applied our brakes, there was a frightening grinding sound from bikes with both rim and disk brakes.  I was concerned that the heavy grit that we had picked up on the trail was ruining our bikes.  I stopped and used a handkerchief soaked in road puddle water to clean my bike's rims and brake pads, asking the group of riders with me to move on, since they didn't wish to use time to clean their brakes.  Most of them have disk brakes, which many people assume to be indestructible, but I was  wary, based on the sounds they were producing.  Miraculously, I did meet my group down the road, and we rode together the rest of the day.  

Unexpectedly, there were many difficult climbs, maybe 10 to 12, along the route.  Even thought we rode beside the lake all day, there were huge ridges to cross.  Kilometer long climbs of about 7% grade were surprisingly the norm.

 

It was quite a day!