With the bikes back in the car, the next day we drove to the June Springs end of the Kettle Valley Rail Trail Myra Canyon section. We had been here once before, with the kids in 2002. The younger was 6 and still on the Trail-A-Bike while the older turned 9 that summer and was on his own small bike. This was the year before most of the trestles burned in a massive forest fire. https://www.myratrestles.com/history/2003-2008/ The trestles were rebuilt (though not to locomotive-carrying capacity) and the Myra Canyon section of the KVR reopened in 2008.
We first rode northeast to Myra Station, where there is a larger parking area and a bike rental outfit doing a booming business. Further on, heading towards McCulloch, the trail wasn’t as nice (it actually looked like a gravel road open to motor vehicles) so we didn’t go very far before turning back. Back at the car we decided to ride a few km further towards Penticton to see the Bellevue Creek Trestle. Unlike the fixed-up Myra Canyon section, the KVR is quite a bit rougher here, requiring some pothole-dodging (again, motor vehicles are seemingly allowed but we didn’t see any). It was tempting to carry on to Chute Lake, but that’s really too far for an impromptu out-and-back.
Today’s ride actually had a bit to do with cycle touring. I consider it research, actually, because if I’m stuck in BC again next summer I might ride some or all of the BC Trail which includes the KVR and more. The BC Trail is a bikepacking route with information available here: https://bikepacking.com/routes/bc-trail/ A guy from Lethbridge did it (actually, Victoria to Lethbridge) with his then six-year-old daughter in 2019 so I should be able to manage.
The railway contoured around Myra Canyon and you can look across to see the trestles on the other side of the canyon. If you look carefully, you can see debris below the trestle opposite. We noticed this in 2002--apparently when parts of the timber trestles were replaced, the old bits were just allowed to drop. There were lots of old, used timbers below each trestle.
