Fall into Winter in Kelowna

Wow, 3 months since we last put anything up on here. Since it has been so long, here’s a condensed version of what we’ve been up to coming through autumn and early winter.

The weekend after going to see Dave Matthews play, we packed up and headed back to Rossland again! The chance to ride 7 Summits with a bunch of friends was too good to pass by. The trail was just as much fun this time as last, and it was really good to see how much trail maintenance had happened in the intervening month – the locals are serious about keeping it in good shape. This time, we finished the ride in sun instead of hail, so did the last stretch down below Rossland. Neil enjoyed this as it was a solid 5 km downhill blast on flowy singletrack. The next day just happened to be the Taste of Rossland event put on by local hotels and restaurants, so in between good local food we managed to ride some of the nearby trails in the forest and had fun on some of the structures built on them. Frances took over Neil’s full suspension bike that day and enjoyed riding it so much that finding her a new bike came to the top of our list.

So after a week of scouring the classifieds and trialling bikes from the bike shops we settled on a shiny (supposedly second-hand but practically new) Giant Anthem for Fran. We got a great deal since it was from the BC Giant Rep who was selling it to make room for the 2010 model – despite the fact that the little spindles of rubber hadn’t even been worn off the tyres! Maybe there is something to be said for changing fashions and colours after all....

The following weekend we decided to go riding again (what a surprise – it really was the summer of riding) to try out the shiny new bike. There was a mountain bike orienteering event at one of the XC skifields near Kamloops, so we stopped in at Merritt to try the singletracks on Saturday. The trails were great, with the usual (for BC) fun singletrack uphills leading to a fantastic downhill through a steep gully including a lot of boardwalks over boulders and scree slopes. Frances had a personal first there – her first structure!! It was a huge fallen tree across a gully that had been flattened out on top to make it rideable. That night we headed towards the orienteering and camped at Lac le Jeune Provincial Park, which had just officially closed for the season. We had our first frost of the season that night, which at the time seemed mighty chilly, though as I write this in December we have just gone above freezing for the first time in almost 3 weeks. The bike orienteering event was all on the ski trails, which were big enough for the groomer in winter, so the navigation wasn’t tricky. There was quite the network of trails, so the challenge was more about route choice and avoiding the all too friendly cows on the trails! We both had the fastest times of the day for our respective courses.

Tim Sikma then dropped by twice on his way past on an epic BC biking trip. In 3 weeks he managed to visit most of the trails that we have ridden this summer and a couple more too. While here, we rode a couple of my favourite local trails, which compared pretty well to the bigger stuff in the province. There’s certainly enough to keep me out of trouble in the evenings. While here, Tim also got to try out the Canadian medical system for us. He gave them a positive report, especially their fee charging skills.

Then we really started to notice the descent towards Winter. Lac Le Jeune was to be our last camping weekend for the year, as the temperatures dropped away and everything turned golden for fall.

Maples ablaze in the streets of Kelowna

Fall colours at Waterfront Park, downtown Kelowna (x2)

(PS Yes, that's Frances in the distance on her new bike :-)

Frances and Tony cruising the streets of downtown Kelowna as part of a Critical Mass Bike Ride

The second weekend of October was Canadian Thanksgiving - it is the last long weekend of the summer season, as well as being 1 year since we had arrived in Kelowna :-) We took off early on Friday to get ourselves (along with Tony and Linda) down towards the ferry out to the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound in the US. It was one of those weekends where everything fell into place perfectly: great company :-), the weather was lovely, the whales were there for watching, the trails we chose to walk were nice, we found a different beach front campsite each night, and ate at one of the best restaurants we’d been to on Sunday night. There’s something about islands away from the mainland that puts you immediately on holiday time – and that was very much the case for this weekend.

The funky form of the Arbutus tree that grows in coastal Pacific Northwest

Atop the watchtower on Mt Constitution, highest point on Orcas Island, and excellent 360 degree vantage point including Mt Baker, Puget Sound, Vancouver Island and the Canadian Coast Mountains.

Sunset at camp on San Juan Island

(random fact: San Juan Island is the only part of the US to have another country's flag officially flown at the same time as US occupation (the British Union Jack)- google 'War of Pigs', another example of stupidity in the name of claiming land)

Early November saw us down in Vancouver for a weekend exploring, but man was it cold!! A good time for inside activities such as the aquarium - we saw whales, dolphins and all sorts of cool fish while we were there.

The jellyfish tank!!

Now that the weather and darkness have stopped us going away so much we’ve been finding some fun things to do around home. Neil has found a yoga studio just around the corner and is really enjoying classes there, while Frances has started going to the new gym at the fancy new pool that the city has built 5 mins walk away from our place. The pool is great too, with waterslides, a 50 m lane pool that always seems to have plenty space for my slow swimming and the usual hot tubs and steam room. We have been to a couple of ice hockey games (one with Kurt and Bridget while they were visiting), and also one with Linda and Tony as part of their leaving Canada activity list. We had front row seats for this one, which gave a good impression of the real speed of the game. It was fun to be so close that you flinch when the puck comes your way! We also tried curling one evening, which turns out to be very difficult to be good at, but very easy to have fun trying at. Frances has also joined up with a couple of her colleagues to play guitar evenings for the residents at her work.

Frances up to her usual tricks trying to cross-country ski

An old tree snag seen on our wanders in the hills - this time of year it's pretty quiet in the forest - just the silence interspersed by woodpeckers going mad :-)

We finally got the first major snow in Kelowna itself for the season last week. So Neil's bike commute to work has become a bit more of an adventure :-) We've got fingers crossed for a white Xmas here in town.........



Hope you are well, thanks for staying in touch by reading this blog and have a wonderful Xmas wherever you may be!!!
xxx
Neil and Frances