Day 26: Osoyoos, BC -> Grand Forks, BC

Date: Saturday, June 10, 2023‌‌
Start: Osoyoos, BC (Border Motel)‌‌
End: Grand Forks, BC (Municipal Campground)‌‌
Distance: 130km

I hadn't slept well.  Maybe it was the AC droning, maybe it was the comfort of a bed, but I'd only managed about 6 hours of broken sleep.  I tossed and turned, hoping to at least doze but it wouldn't come to me...so I wrote another blog post!

I showered again.  Packed.  Oiled my bike chain and pumped up my tires for the loooong day ahead, and set off!.....into town for breakfast.  I passed by the local farmer's market as it was Saturday.  My choice was the usual kind of breakfast cafe but with an Indian twist, and I had the masala omelette!

Then headed out of town, ready to take on the 130km I needed to do in order to make it to Grand Forks.  The start of the day though would be the next major climb of Highway 3: Anarchist Summit.

I stopped to take some photos on the lake.  Osoyoos was only incorporated in 1946 (which might explain why it's WWI and WWII memorial only has 6 names on it).  A lot of the hotels and motels still maintain a sort of 50s vibe and have names like "The Starlite" and "Bella Vista" and "Sahara Courtyard".  Their signs are similarly neon and look like something out of The Jetsons.  It's nice that a town that has become such a tourist mecca has been able to keep that character though.  A few shots from town:

A stop at a sign post letting me know how far I was from both Calgary and the end of the ride (I suspect as the crow flies):

Heading out of town I could see the road cut into the hill in the distance as it climbed:

It was a 17km climb.  I started at 10:30am.

Osoyoos has a jewellery shop called "Elvis".  It's also loaded with lots of Elvis memorabilia.  When I was having breakfast that morning, they'd only been playing Elvis music.  One of the songs was "Burning Love"...and it became the theme song for my climb.  I listened to it about 50 times non-stop as I climbed.  It was perfect.

I can't listen to Elvis without thinking of a friend who died last year: Nicole Beaudin.  I had worked with/for Nicole as a student in the Office Of The Speaker Of The House Of Commons when I worked in Parliament.  She had worked in various offices on Parliament Hill for 50 years - FIFTY YEARS - and seemed to know everyone and everything related to Parliament.  She was something of a mother hen to the rest of us in the office, and everyone in that office relied on her in one way or another (yes Colette...even you!).  She had a laugh that could lift the gloom from any situation, and she loved to laugh.  It was infectious, and I loved to tell her stories and watch her shake her head at me and laugh at my tale tales.

I once called one of our co-workers pretending to be a constituent of The Speaker's and went on and on about nothing.  The name of this character was "Nigel P. Flannigan" and Nicole never forgot this prank and forever called me "Nigel" because of it.

Her great loves included her husband, her grandchildren, the Ottawa Flames, and Elvis Presley.  But ESPECIALLY Elvis Presley.  She had one of everything that had Elvis's face on it and could sing every Elvis song.  She'd been to Graceland and could tell you whatever you wanted to know - and even things you didn't - about Elvis.  Anytime I hear Elvis I think about her.

And so as I climbed up Anarchist listening to Burning Love, I thought of Nicole.  I thought of all the times I'd spent sitting on the couch in her office complaining about whatever, or telling stories.  I thought about how much she would have laughed if I would have described my feelings about climbing this silly mountain by bike with all this gear.  I thought about how much I missed her contagious happiness and her company.  And - listening to Elvis all the way up - I had a smile on my face as I thought about Nicole.

Pictures from the climb out of Osoyoos:

Eventually I made it up.  The 17km had taken almost 2 hours.  It was now 12:30 in the afternoon and I had only gone about 20km.  I still had 110km till Grand Forks.  It was time to put my heel into it!

It has been cloudy for the entire climb.  This helped me as I didn't have to deal with the heat of the sun, though it meant the humidity was around 80 plus percent.  The sweat on me wouldn't evaporate!  But it kept me cool.  When I reach the other side of Anarchist I found the rain and it would alternate between drizzling and then the road being bone dry as the sun would reveal itself momentarily and lift it all into the air.  I didn't so much breathe the air in as drink it in.  Practice for Ontario and Quebec I guess!

Once on the other side of Anarchist the world was again green with forests, but it didn't last long.  I was soon again in farmland.

I passed plenty more mexican restaurants and this flag that really made me think that the fruit/vegetable industry had brought a lot of Mexican labourers who had settled here.  NOTE: I think this is a good thing!

The countryside was stunning.  It was cloudy and partly raining, but it was still grasslands with old ranch houses that were long since abandoned.  At some point it rained while I was on a steep downhill, and when it stopped I dried within minutes.

I had lunch at a provincial campground where I chatted with the caretaker/ranger for the park: Bobbie.  She explained how to take the rail trail if I wanted to, and warned me of a serious climb right before Grand Forks.  This was welcome news as it meant that I at least knew it was coming!

I pushed on and passed quaint, pastoral towns like Bridesville, Rock Creek and Kettle Valley.  The road followed the Kettle River and it meant very little climbing for the time being.  Eventually I reached the town of Midway and stopped for an iced coffee.  The sugar and caffeine were going to be needed for the upcoming climb out of Greenwood!  The town was small, quiet, and pretty.  It - like all the towns in this area - sat on the river and in the valley, surrounded by the rugged rolling hills that typify the geography of the area.

I passed a border crossing into the US and was reminded of just how close I was to the US!  Every time I looked south I would be staring into it.  Like the place that I grew up in, these too were border communities.

Not too far down the road and I entered Greenwood.  I had to imagine the name reflected the fact that the grasslands had fallen away and were replaced by the solid green hills of boreal forests.  Greenwood was a former mining town that had once supported two newspapers, 14 hotels, an opera house, and thousands of residents.  It was the site of a copper mine.  But when the mine was exhausted it went into decline.  Today it boasts a lot of mining history (there are what look to be slag heaps or tailings all around) and a healthy tourism sector.  I couldn't stay long however.  I still had a long way to go - and a climb - before I arrived at Grand Forks.

As I was leaving the town I saw two cyclists coming the other way.  I stopped and chatted with them.  They were Steve and Rob, who had biked from Calgary and were on their way to Victoria.  Steve told me about some previous tours he had done, including once seeing someone going coast to coast on a unicycle!  Turns out you can't coast downhill on a unicycle because your feet need to be on the peddles to balance it.  The mind boggles...

We said our goodbyes and I soldiered on.

I passed more ranches full of cattle outside of town and eventually reached the climb: Eholt.  

It was formerly a railroad pass, and now the highway goes over it.  I climbed for almost 7 kilometers at a slooooow pace with dark skies threatening rain.  When I reached the top I gave a couple of hollers, knowing that the day was largely conquered.  I still had almost 20km into town but it turns out that wouldn't be a problem.  I was now going to stop into Grand Forks!

I didn't peddle for 15km, and kept a speed of at least 35km/h the entire way.  Eventually the town revealed itself down in a pleasant valley.  The skies were still very cloudy, but it never rained.  The area had lots of farms, orchards, and fruit stands on the outskirts.  As I got into town I found the old, Victorian style homes, small businesses, and a sizable population (about 4000).  It was bigger than I'd expected.

I planned to camp at the municipal campground, and found it quickly.  I registered and setup my tent.  A group nearby of off-road motorcyclists took an interest in me and walked over to chat about where I was off to.  I talked them up on their trip and they were from Alberta and BC and got together on weekends to explore forestry roads and ride around.  As quickly as I arrived, I left.  I'd seen a kind of snack shack on the edge of town that served ice cream and burgers and I was starving!  Tasty Treat did not disappoint with the burger and fries, and I woofed it down in under 10 minutes.  Unfortunately their soft serve machine was broken (and it was closing in 10 minutes which I thought might be the bigger issue) so I headed to Dairy Queen for my sugar fix.  One small blizzard later and I flew back to the campground on my bike.

The campground had showers.  Nice showers.  And I washed off the sweat and grime of a long day's climb.  When I went back to my tent I chatted again with one of the motorcyclists and asked if they were familiar with Grey Creek Pass, and it turns out they'd done it just days earlier.  It's usually snow covered till mid-June, but the high temperatures of May had cleared it.  They invited me to join them, and gave me some "Bumbu Rum" which tasted like candy.  The boys were in the Bumbu, but I only had a little!

I fell asleep, happy with the accomplishments of the day.  Another major climb done, and that much more of an incredible area of BC that I'd seen.