Bad Planning

DAY 8, Mon, 07 23 2018
Hedley ➜ Princeton Municipal Campground
Dist, 36.8 km, Avg, 18 k/hr, Max 35.6 k/hr, Cal, 793, Hr 106

    Well, after a 6 egg scramble and 4 cups of Joe, I was ready to roll...
The owner of the grocery/beer store was very cool. Long grey haired hippy type that is ready to retire was so friendly. I only wanted a few eggs, so he gave me a knife and let me cut a dozen egg carton in half. Cool. I made the cut with great precision.
    Anyway, today was a simple, short ride due to poor planning. I was very disappointed in my lack of attention. Anyway,  I got myself a fine site at the Princeton Municipal Camp, then headed into town for the essentials. I have been to this town a few times in the past and always liked it. Today was no exception. The ride into town was maybe 9 minutes.
    Once back at the site, I got organized and spent some time on my log. A couple just rode in on old school bikes with camping gear. The guy was very nerdy looking with super retro style happening. (probably is a software engineer)  and the girl was an oddball set up that I cant describe. Maybe a Thrift store model.  Anyway, they were the focus of my entertainment for a bit. At one point, the guy took a ride to the shower. As he passed my site area, he dropped his clean clothes and towel in the mud while fumbling with his toe clips. I was amused. Highwaycat was furious that a flawed human was allowed to camp within 50 metres of our camp.
    Anyway, I had some fine eats and beer, not to mention mosquito attacks and was feeling ready for tomorrow's Allison Pass fun time! 

Hwy 3 (Crowsnest Hwy) at Similkameen River. Turns out there is a nice road on the other side of the river that I wish I chose. (Old Hedley Rd) Oh well

Not again

Tough ride, flat and windless 37 km. Sigh

Camp

Neighbours

Night planning with HWC

THE TOWN, not the rock band named after said town

Day 7, Sun July 22, 2018
Oroville WA, - Hedley BC
Stats: 
             Cat Eye:  Dist. 88km, Spd. 18.3, Max 61.6 km/hr, Time 4:48
                 Polar:  Time 4:49, Cal. 2681, HR 120, Total Time 5:45

    Was up early and ready to hit the border. It was a crazy easy ride of maybe 10 km to the crossing. Yay! Unfortunately, when I got there, I found no obvious location for bikes (or pedestrians for that matter, but I guess they don't get many people walking the 10 km to the border only to walk another 10ish to Osoyoos)
    There was a bit of a line up of cars and I didn't want any part of that so I went to the front of the line. I had no clue what to do as there was no access to any border security people. It turns out, however that blocking a security camera is a good way to get attention. Joe Jug Head had to get out of his comfort zone to yell at me. "Get away from the camera!" I said that I had no place to go, so he barked,  "go back to the stop line!!!"
   Okay, after jumping the line of maybe 25 cars, I found myself face to face with border guy. After a couple standard exchanges, his behaviour changed slightly. He maintained his Security Jug Head persona, but was obviously interested in my trip and opened up a bit. He was a fit looking guy and probably had an outdoor workout lifestyle. It was weird. Anyway, he wished me well and gave me some info about the forest fire situation.
    So, I went on my merry way into Canada, yay! Of coarse it was hot as hell again but that didn't bother me as I was on familiar soil. I went to the Osoyoos Travel info Centre to get updated on the forest fire situation. Of coarse, seeing as it was Sunday morning 9:30 am, the facility was closed and would open at 10am. I spoke to another human traveller that was equally annoyed as I at this situation. Isn't early Sunday morning a good day and time for travellers to seek info while vacationing?  F**king idiotic management...
      Anyway, I headed out of Osoyoos as time is more important to a cyclist than a motorist. Leaving the town wasn't pleasant. It was a steady climb up Hwy 3, although the shoulder was decent and traffic was low because car people were waiting for the Info Centre to open, I guess, ha ha, sigh.

The Mall, Hedley

    As I headed west, my elevation went down as the winds and heat went up. The conditions were greatly affecting my efficiency. I was becoming toast. I rolled into Hedley BC with the mindset that Princeton was another 70 km. So, I decided to check out this town that I had ignored several times in the past. I found "The Hedley Inn" and took a tour of the facility. I looked at all the little rooms with bunk beds for $40.00 or whatever, and then visited the top suite. It was basically an apartment on it's own with everything a tired, hot, pissed off cyclist would want. It was frigging beautifully designed. I only paused for 2 seconds max and said "I'll take the suite". I think that he was delightfully surprised. Maybe he thought that a long hair geezer couldn't swing the rent? 
     Even though I was very angry at myself for stopping so early, I was pretty happy with the outcome. After getting set up in the suite, Google told me that Princeton was only 36 km. I felt so stupid. This was the 3rd time that I goofed as far as navigation is concerned.
I need to get a GPS set up on the bike as I'm done with stupid mistakes. 
    Anyway, I had a store across the street with everything we needed. Also, there was a super restaurant kitty corner to me. "The Hitching Post" was an awesome place. Unfortunately, it burned down later in November. Terrible news for a town that is really struggling. 
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/hedley-b-c-s-historic-hitching-post-restaurant-levelled-by-fire-1.4875256  

Heading to Canada

Sketch of my border experience

Damn straight

Climbing away from Osoyoos BC

HWY 3 West. Sign refers to cycling . "Challenge" was a bike event that replaced "Ironman" a few years ago. This is familiar territory for me. Hot, dry and windy. Flat stretches can be difficult. Ugghh. BYO. Rattlesnake.

Hedley Inn/Hostel, (home base)

Inside my suite. I would show more pics but I don't want anyone to feel jealous

Log duty

A fine service station just steps away

Another fine establishment for some purpose of some sort and whatever have you...

Steel girders for a new bridge that will pass the town. Construction for this bridge has greatly affected this little town in a bad way. I was confused as how to access the hostel from a cyclist's point of view. I can't imagine the same brain thoughts from a motorist's perspective.

Coffee and eats. This was a super nice eatery. Pretty much the only business (except the general store) that gave people a reason to visit. Unfortunately it burned down in November  2018 ,so sad

A Hedley resident

Hard times in Hedley

 
    

Better safe than sorry

Day 6, Sat. July 21, 2018
Red Apple Motel, Tonasket WA. → Osoyoos Lk. Veterans Memorial Park, Oroville WA.
Stats:
Dist, 30.69 km, 16.9 km/hr, Time, 1:48, 732 cal, 109 bpm

Crazy short day.
As I headed for the US - Can. border, I was wondering what my destination would be. I knew that I would have an impossible time in Osoyoos BC because of its popularity especially on a Saturday. If I continued on along Hwy 3, I was worried about road closures due to forest fires in the area as well as not knowing a safe place to stop. As I was mulling these things over in my cranium, I past a sign reading "Veterans Memorial Park Camping". I took a look and after a painfully long break, I found myself at one of the "Walk in sites". I felt stupid in stopping so early, but I think that it was the right call.
    I got set up next door to a noisy family. They annoyed me at first, but after the kids got bored with screaming and zooming around, they turned out to be a great help to their parents in meal planning and clean up. No, I wasn't spying on them. Highwaycat was studying them for her "Mexican Relations" course. Ya, that's it.
   The nice thing was the supplies including beer was a short ride away. Also, I nabbed the last bundle of firewood.
Sweet!

Like an airport runway

Roadkill

Destination

Hazy sun from forest fires (camera doesn't capture the cool factor)

The set up

The neighbourhood

The Osoyoos Lake Veterans

A Kokanee Beer advertisement

The elusive South Okanagan Sand Cat

Shirley hauls fire and ice (Ice not pictured here) (no fire either but sounded better than saying "Firewood")

Sketch for Day 6

South Okanagan Sand Cat by day is also Fire Cat by night. Crazy beast!

Tiskit Tasket, I'm in Tonasket

DAY 5, Friday, July 20, 2018
Pearrygin State Pk. Winthrop ➜ Red Apple Motel, Tonasket WA.

Stats:
Cat Eye:  Dist, 117km, Avg. 18.4km/hr, Max. 61.5km/hr, Time, 6:20
Polar:      Time, 6:11, Cal, 3179, Avg Hr, 117, Total Time W/ Breaks 7hrs

    Last night was windy as hell. Despite the frequent sleep interruptions, I was up at 5:30 am. The rest day may have helped. I Rode back into town for some travelling calories, fluids and overpriced sunscreen. 
    I finally rolled out at 7:15am. I was expecting today's ride to be easy with some gentle hills. The #20 through Twisp was good, but had some shitty sections not to mention  annoying traffic. WTF?!. Luckily, I only had to tolerate this traffic for about 45 minutes as I turned left at the 97 junction for a northern direction. That annoying traffic was heading south. 
    It was great to have this road more or less to myself. I was really enjoying the ride but I noticed that I had begun to climb and was confused as to why the climbing seemed to continue longer than I expected. Anyway, the road was nice and twisty with a decent shoulder, but the scenery was nasty. I guess this forest was the victim of a recent fire. It was strange to be able to see far into the woods as there were few limbs and no leaves/needles.
     Maybe 2 hours from the 97 junction and I'm still friggin climbing! I was getting pissed off. Just then, I woman cyclist was heading down in the opposite direction. "You're almost at the top!" she belched. "Thank F*&king Kryst!" I replied. Fifteen minutes later I saw the sign. "Loup Loup ski hill", 4020 ft. With every suffering, there is a reward. This one is an awesome downhill, although, the shoulder had broken blacktop and as usual in the Okanagan Valley, strong crosswinds added to the scare factor. I'm fine with climbing hills but I hate the unexpected ones. Next time I'll try to be better informed. Maybe a GPS for Xmas?!
    Once down to 50 metres or whatever level, I could really feel the heat! The desert heat and landscape was familiar to me from my Ironman days in Penticton BC. 
Finally rolling into Tonasket WA, I got a cheap room at "Red Apple Motel" I was so bloody hot and ready for a cool shower. 
    When I got to the office, there was no human behind the locked door to help me, however, there was a piece of paper with a phone #. GRRROWLL!!.. The owner was out doing better things a guess. I called the #. He took less than 10 minutes to arrive. A rough character that enjoyed screaming into the phone while getting my info. He has a renovation company or something like that and was yelling at his Mexican workers. (He made the point that they were Mexicans) He was yelling so loud that I believe that he thought his sound waves would reach the employees before the digital transmision, ha ha Uggghh.
    Then he directed his overbearing persona to me. "How ya doin?!" he asked. "Hot!" I replied. "Your doin hot?" he replied sarcastically. As if "How ya doin" made any grammatical sense. Then He poked fun at me for cycling this route instead of driving, ha ha, damn old school American. (Interestingly enough, he wasn't keen on Trump) I though that he would be pro Red Hat. As he was trying to process my payment, he mocked my credit card. "This isn't working, what kind of card is this anyway? CIBC, is that even a real bank?" When the painful transaction finally cleared he said the room was $50.00 and asked if I could handle that. What a character.
    Crappy room was perfect with A/C, cool shower, beer and pizza! 

Morning road

Burned OK forest

Desolate ghastly forest

Wizz and hill climb break

Thankful turn off

Unexpected climbing. Like the bike sign tho

Damn ski hill that I had no clue about. Sigh, I guess that surprise climbs are part of the experience...

Destination

Common local traffic. Probably a PTSD surviver of Vietnam War

Cat by the pound

Home base

Sketch of motel transaction, uggh

Quality room art

PEARRYGIN LK. STATE PARK CAMP

DAY 4, Thurs, July 19, 2018
Winthrop Inn to Pearrygin Lake State Park.

Rest Day:
7km of rural road
Hot as hell again

We took our time leaving Winthrop Inn. I had coffee after coffee while watching the Tour De France. Stage 11 or 12, "Alpes D'huez", one of the classic favourites. Despite not knowing most riders, I still enjoy it. I love listening to the commentary from Phil Liggett and Bob Roll. I miss the days of Lance and Jan Ullrich.
    Anyway, I decided to check out Pearrygin Lake State Park. I wanted to get out of town as there was a big Blues Festival happening this weekend. A short ride through the old town and onto a rural road, and blammo! I was rolling into camp. I was very lucky to find a great site. It was crazy hot, so the 2 big trees on my pad were very appreciated.
    This campground was not how I had envisioned it. There were a lot of big 5th wheel trailers, speed boats and Jet Skiis? Anyway, our site was away from the bullshit which was great. We investigated a trail that circles the lake but cut it short after realizing that it would eat too much time. Decided to head back into town and play "The Tourist" as this was our rest day.
    Winthrop is a cool little town with an old western feel to it. The wooden sidewalks reminded me of Dawson City Yukon, Skagway Alaska too. I couldn't find a souveneir so I blew cash on a Mexican lunch on a patio.

Sketch of very short ride to camp and rest day

Quiet road to Pearrygin Lake

Pearrygin Lake

Home Base

The Office

Proof of purchase

Great site

Minimal

Cat outta the bag on the trail

Rex Derr Trail

Rex Derr Hobitt

Downtown Winthrop WA.

Tourist town