Never The End!

I am now at the Vancouver Airport staying at the hotel on the grounds. Tomorrow I head home to Arizona and my beloved husband Bob. While this has been a grand adventure, I have missed him terribly but I am so grateful that he loves me and understands my passion for cycling. 

This is the last blog entry for the Canadian adventure and I do have a few fun statistics to share. My dear friend Margaret and I have ridden 14 of the 20 days of my visit, but I really can't count day one as we only were able to ride for 10 miles due to rain. 

So here are the stats for 13 days of riding.

Total miles ridden - 568

Feet of Elevation climbed  - 33,904 - wow! 

NOTE: That is 37% of all of the elevation I have climbed this so far this year, so that is quite a bit of climbing!

Breaking it down a bit further of the total listed above we rode 6 of those days on our Rocky Mountain tour.

Total miles on the tour - 297

Feet of elevation climbed - 19,485

Special thanks to Hilary and Christopher for our time together in Victoria (and hosting an unbelievable dinner in Victoria) and then riding the Rocky  Mountain tour with us - such a grand adventure!

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Now, bear with me for just a bit as I do a bit of reflection and then close out this blog with the last ride we did yesterday in Penticton.

I think there are many things that make for great adventure. The first certainly being able to share it with friends. That includes Margaret, Hilary, Christopher, Patti, all of the new friends we made on our tour and certainly the "Sisters Of No Mercy" (see blog entry 7/12/16). An added bonus was being able to visit with Trilogy Bike club members in their Canadian homes - Ron & Carol Dunlop, Howard Brown, Murray & Nicole Allen and Terry & Agnes Wiechert. Thank you dear friends for hosting us along the way! Also big thanks to Patti and her cousin Stuart for their hospitality in Penticton. 

I certainly have learned a lot about touring and how to better handle the elements and how a climb really is just a climb, and it is all about putting one foot in front of the other. 

However I think what I most enjoyed about this ride is slowing down and enjoying the touring, our guide Joe said it best, 'there's asphalt all over the world and if you go really fast and keep your head down, that is what you will see. But if you slow down and look up you can see the world."

Thank you for reading my blog and check back in September for my Switzerland adventure with 24 of my Trilogy bike club friends.

Keep smiling!

Gail

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things" Henry Miller

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PENTICTON

We rode the KVR on the Penticton extension. We had ridden the KVR in Kelowna so it seemed fitting to end our ride as well. This is a former railroad track, turned trail and is mainly hard packed gravel that was fairly easy to ride with our road bikes. We rode to the wharf on this and then back along the road. 

This was a pretty easy ride, still with a few hills to climb, and a nice way to wind up our adventure. MIles ridden = 22, elevation gain = 1,614. 

Penticton is known for its wineries and vineyards and we saw many that were easily accessible from the trail. 

We saw vineyards and also some hops being grown, it was a very picturesque ride. I particularly liked this sign in a field of hops and the logical conclusion posted. Makes sense to me!

We rode to the lake and met up with Patti, Luke the dog, Hilary and Christopher at the wharf. No place to dock so we just gave them a wave and agreed to meet them back in town. 

After a bite of lunch and showers, we headed out for a bit of wine tasting. I mean really, when you are in wine country you HAVE to check out a winery! Saw this sign along the way, and had to have a photo. 

We spotted this Osprey nest, complete with chicks, along the way to our selected winery. 

We stopped at the Blasted Church Winery for some tasting. Blasted Church is a small Okanagan winery located between Penticton and Okanagan Falls, on the east side of Skaha Lake. This winery is named for a group of pioneers who, with dynamite and a little luck, successfully dismantled an old church back in 1929 and brought it 16 miles back to Okanagan Falls, minus a steeple. 

This ends the great Canadian adventure and I thank you for reading this blog. Remember...