The Slocan Valley is a lovely little area west of Kelowna with a deep history of silver mining. We headed over after work on Friday and set up camp for the weekend at Rosebery Provincial Park. The next morning we set off on our bikes from camp up an old rail trail , the Galena Trail, that runs 13km from Rosebery up a local river to the turnoff to the old mining town of Sandon (with the crossing of the river being made via cable acr with bike rack). We continued up the road to Sandon, with intention ultimately being to then bike up the 12km access road beyond Sandon to Idaho Peak – only catch was we were gaining over 1600m in that last stint up from Sandon.
Neil crossing the river via cable car - good fun!!
We stopped in Sandon for a look around and emerged 1.5 hours later after a very fun tour of the museum with Andy, a right jokester who could spin a great yarn. So we learnt that Sandon’s glory days were back in the early 1890s. Galena ore was discovered in the hills and several mining claims set up. Sandon Township grew to 6000, with the usual accompaniment of hotels, restaurant and brothels, and today several of the old buildings are still standing. Two separate railway companies developed lines into the town to pack the ore out for processing. Naturally there was fierce competition between the two companies, with the Kaslo & Slocan independent company being the popular underdog to the Canadian Pacific Railway. The K&S got their line in first which prompted the CPR to speed up their act in completing their line to Sandon. The CPR strategically built their station house directly adjacent to the existing K&S station house, so one night the K&S guys strategically wrapped the CPR house in metal straps and used their locomotives to haul the house off into the creek. The town was later razed by fire, then ultimately died in the aftermath of falling silver prices, assisted by a massive flood that ripped the heart out of the township (not helped by the fact that at the time of the flood, they had trained the river into a flume and boarded it over to form the main street of the town – whoops!).
After our exploration of Sandon, we began the grind up the hill to Idaho Peak. Well, let’s just say it took a while but we were rewarded with open alpine meadows brimming with wildflowers. And besides, it’s not like our car would have been able to get us up that road. We ditched the bikes in some trees and continued along the ridge trail out to a fire lookout, with amazing 360 views of peaks and lakes.
Indian Paintbrush in the alpine meadows atop Idaho Peak
Frances on the final trail to the Idaho Peak lookout
Made it!! Looking back along the ridge towards the Wakefield Trail.
Slocan Lake from Idaho Peak - we camped on the delta just north of New Denver (the silver town centre left in the photo)
Then came the really fun part – we now had to lose the height back to Slocan Lake and the Wakefield Trail was the perfect way to do this – single track through the forest, across old tailings slopes, through wildflowers.
Frances sets off on the Wakefield Trail - get ready for the smell of hot brakes!
Neil playing (no further comment needed really! :-) And no, the trail did not go straight down that way - that's just an old tramway piece.
Got to love the views, and the riding! Going.....
Going..........
Pretty much gone!
We flew down through the trail into a valley that spits you out in the town of Silverton, back on the bank of Slocan Lake. After a very refreshing swim in the lake, we continued back onto the Galena Trail and back into camp. We’d spied a Mexican-food cafe walking distance from the camp, near the end of the Galena Trail, so returned there after dinner to toast a nine hour day in the saddle with fantastic dessert, complete with the entertaining view of a young black bear on the neighbour’s garage roof, trying to steal cherries from their cherry tree (let’s just say the bear was a bit uncoordinated - the branch broke and bear came tumbling down – very funny :-).
A view from our swimming spot on Slocan Lake, looking back up towards Idaho Peak
We travelled back to Kelowna the following day, after an exploratory ride from the camp (trail directions provided by the bar staff at the cafe of the previous night). Found some very fun and flowy forest trails. Unfortunately, Neil’s front fork on his bike had been making some unhealthy noises the day before and not before long, Neil was walking his bike down the trail.
Hmm, should your wheel be pointing that way, if your handlebars are pointing the other way??
We drove home via the Arrow Lakes and Revelstoke, making the most of the ferry wait to go for a swim.
2 comments:
Neil's bike looks forked.
Haha! Looks awesome - would so love that sunshine right now! Can feel the heat, the cool water and smell the pine forest from the photos... :) xx
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