Ride on, Highway Cat !!: July 2017

DAY 6,
Sun; 07 24 2016,

Cherryville to Vernon BC

Dist: 77.8 km., 21 km/hr, Time: 3:30, Cal: 1377, HR: 108 bpm.

I slept great last night! I set myself up on an incline sleeping position, this made it easy to pop out of bed. Out of the tent by 5:30am! (the benefit of consuming only 2 beers and crashing at 10pm ha ha.)
Breakfast at the log cabin cafe was awesome! My go to choice is always an omelette. Went with the
3 egg and cheese and of course brown toast and gallons of Joe.

Ride to Vernon was great!
Turns out that there was a gas station 5 km. past the campground that sold food and BEER! I guess sometimes it may be worth it to ask questions when staying in a very small unincorporated town.

As I roll into Vernon, the quietness of the open road crumbles away like the very blacktop that supports these tires. Traffic and conditions are nasty and strain my ability to navigate. GRRRR!
I found the Tourist Info Cen. They gave me a couple options for camping which turned out to suck big time. One didn't exist anymore and the other one was retarded. It was a private site on Swan Lake. Beautiful if you pay the big bucks, but what he offered me was "a special gem!" Fu**ing goof tried to sell me a piece of grass that was maybe 10 by 10 feet right beside another camper with no table, nothing. Id take it if totally desperate as hell. Got the hell outta there in a disgusted angry sorta way.
I ended up grabbing the 1st motel I came upon. Super 8. Again, if I was more patient and looked around the friggin corner, I would have found several cheaper motels. Sigh I guess this is the price I pay when heat and stress build up. At least the ride here was great.

Shaw Cable was out. Crap. Spent some time walking around the town taking random pics. Got beer and pizza, yay! Saw the fattest couple in the world. They were sitting on the tailgate of a large pickup truck in the parking lot. I'm pretty sure that they have a pickup truck for the sole purpose of hauling their morbidly obese bodies around. YUK!

BREAKFAST TIME!!

I thought the sign said 37 km to Vernon.

They apparently don't like metric here. I was confused, doesn't take much.

The road ahead...#6 is fine and dandy

Blood Badgers will kill you for 3 bucks

Not Metro Vancouver or downtown Chilliwack for that matter...

Okanagan Valley

Old hwy to Swan Lake Campground. Lovely route but a waste of time.

Tried to sell me a patch of grass. "A real Gem!" ...Asshole.

I bailed out of anger and heat. Duh!

The Situation Room

Cafe sign board. Sorta fitting

HWC visits Vernon

HWC gets into the thick of things...

DAY 5. Sat. 07 23, 2016

Nakusp to Cherryville
Time: 7:12, Dist; 130.6km; Avg Spd; 18.4km; Cal; 3619, Avg HR; 115

I started the day slightly earlier than normal. Fired up the hot plate and dialled up a fine serving of oatmeal. Got me out the door at 8:30, nice.
There was some confusion leaving the town, or trying to leave that is. I had to ask some locals how to get the 6 to Fauquier. There were a few weary souls strolling the fine town aimlessly. (Idiots!)
The ride was nice for a bit. Easy roads and fresh blacktop leading to the ferry.
I had a nice moment while in the line up for the ferry. A young girl in the car beside me asked me if that was my cat. Obviously she was looking at HWC on Shirley's handlebars. Looking back at the situation now, I could have asked the little girl to hold HWC (with Mom's permission of coarse) for a photo op. Rats.
It's a really short ferry ride (cable driven) but I had time to converse with an older dude on a motorcycle.
http://arrowlakeferry.com/needles_ferry.html
As this is a super popular route with bikers, I had many interactions with those Hog Demons. Anyway, as a motorcyclist, he had very relevant questions to ask me. Like what Im hauling, where Im staying and what to do if I run out of food or water. He also wondered how I was able to pack all that stuff on the bike. It was nice to talk to a person that understands the challenges needed to overcome while on a bicycle even if its from a motorcyclist.
Once on the other side, I thought that I could top up water etc at the town "Needles". Nope, nothing to be seen. My Google work didn't help at all. Very disappointing seeing as Fauquier was an epic fail as well.
Well, it seemed like failing was the soup de jour. I ordered several more cups as the day went on...
I ignored my #1 bike touring fact: "When disembarking a ferry, understand that I will probably be climbing for a while."
This helpful bit of knowledge was nowhere to be found in my grey noodle.
The punishment would soon begin...
I would climb a switchback, then as I rounded the hairpin turn I would yell out loud; "We're done climbing, Yay!" Then there would be another switchback. And another and so on. After a couple hours I began to worry and then started to get angry as I was running out of coolant. Also, the fact that I was alone (no traffic until the ferry let out) made me even more uncomfortable. It's nobody's fault but mine that I was unprepared for this relentless climb. Idiot!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monashee_Pass
Anyway I found a good place to pull over and have lunch. There was a small waterfall which made a fine refilling station. Lucky me.
When I resumed riding, I realized that I was at the top of my climb and was headed down now. As I headed down, I saw a summit sign and took a pic. I guess that I was actually a bit higher than the summit.
My doom turned to cheer! It was such a relief to be racing down on gravity power. All this downhill felt like payback. Like interest. I paid a few hours of 5km/hr. of riding and gained 20 minutes of free falling!
I rolled into Cherryville which is a nothing town but was happy to set up at the "Goldpanner Cafe and Campground"
https://www.goldpannerresort.com/
Cool cafe. Already thinking of breakfast.
Anyway got myself a fine site and the weather improved. (it was gloomy during the depressing climb)
So good to be off Shirley. No offence. UGG.
Had my 2 warm beers and freeze dried Teriyaki Chicken/Rice for dinner.
Did the shower and walk around. Nice place.
Had a relaxing camp fire. The tough day ended well. Was so excited about the breakfast in the morning ha ha.
HWC was just glad that my complaining was over.
God Dam endless switchbacks of Doom!!

The #6 looks great

Finding Fauquier...

Osprey in nest. One of many. They are protected here. Mighty demons of the sky!

Oh crap, nothing here. Not only that, but sign is crap as well.

New blacktop to ferry feels fine!

Happy selfie (Misery is not far away) Dumbass.

Sketch. Girl in ferry lineup spots the cat!

Bike parking. HWC was thrilled to see water. Actually, the walls of the ferry blocked her view, but could see when embarking and disembarking. Shirley was happy that the bitching had stopped.