Kelowna and a great bicycle ride

July 2^nd: Today we make a big progress with the weather: the sky is equally grey, but it does not rain one drop !

Finally we move on, our destination today is Kelowna. Behind Sicamous the light traffic slows down; with heavy equipment debris on the road and on both sides is moved. Here a rock avalanche must have come down. On a parking lot by the road more than a dozen cars are buried up to the windows.

Before Vernon the scenery changes. The mountains are lower and in the wide Okanagan valley a lot of fruit cultivation can be seen. In Kelowna we stop at a big sign “U-Pick“, here we can pick strawberries. After barely fifteen minutes we have three pounds, so thick and ripe the berries are hanging on the shrubs.

We had seen on the internet before that campgrounds around Kelowna in July are expensive and mostly full. We liked one on a farm outside town with only ten sites, but when we called the day before we got a negative reply. As we are nearby we want to take a look anyway. And we can stay for a night as someone had canceled in the morning. It is Canyon Farms RV Park, a pure luxury campground, ten affectionately designed huge sites completely quiet in the countryside (and with excellent Wifi).

Only two km (1 ¼ mi) away a steep winding gravel road (8 km/5 mi) leads up to Myra Canyon, the most spectacular 6 km (4 mi) part of a bicycle path leading along the abandoned Kettle Valley Railway track. In this section the narrow path leads over 18 wooden trestle bridges and through two tunnels. Including lots of photo stops we need two hours for the 12 km (back and forth).