Osoyoos to Kettle River RV Park
On the road by 7:10 am. To our destination by 4:45 pm. A long hard day! "Persistence" truly was the order of the day. A 30.5 km climb with one section of 8 km at 8% grade truly tested our stamina and determination. With a combination of riding and pushing our bikes (mostly riding), we conquered "Antichrist", oops I mean Anarchist Mountain. (Even though the first term is probably a more accurate description. What is with these names anyway? Sunday Summit???). The climb consisted of a series of switchbacks as we climbed up out of Osoyoos. At 30.5 km we reached Anarchist Summit (elevation 1233 metres). Our average speed was "single digit" for this part of the ride. Once again the views were fantastic as we rode through more cattle country. Thank goodness the next 35 km was primarily downhill. (That does come with a price probably with more climbing in the near future).
We are camping at the Kettle River RV Park 8 km past Rock Creek. We are in a "Yurt" and are able to sleep in a real bed tonight for the cost of a campsite! We learned a valuable lesson today in that we should pay more attention to our own information and go with our plan. In Rock Creek some locals gave us a "bumb stear" that cost us an extra 8 km of riding. Just what we needed to finish an already long day!!!
We met up with another cross-Canada cyclist today, Doug a retired school superintendant, who had also just climbed Anarchist Mountain. He is on a Burnaby to Istanbull solo bike ride by way of Halifax. Not your conventional route! He said that he had been hearing about us for the past few days. This really is a "small fraternity".
Today's ride was another confidence booster just like the climb in Manning Park was a few days ago. We are actually beginning to think we "might" actually be able to do this.
Daily Distance = 69.44 km. Time on the bikes = 6 hours 30 minutes. Average speed = 10.88 km. Maximum Speed = 51.93 km. Wildlife Sightings = rattlesnake (alive in campground last night).
Kevin = 2 Sue = 0
