We moved on to a motel on the Okanagan strip in Penticton to do some favourite south Okanagan road rides. It was a bit different staying in Penticton; when we come in the spring with our friends we stay further south but we wanted to be within walking distance of restaurants so Penticton was the place to be.
Today we rode what I call the Colours Loop. We leave Penticton on Green Lake Road and ride it until it comes out on Hwy 3A after about 34 km. Left on the highway and up the hill past Yellow Lake where there's a rest stop with washrooms. It's about 7 km on the highway until Twin Lakes Road, where we stopped for lunch at the golf course. It's not a fancy place; we got premade sandwiches and bottled iced tea to eat on the terrace. Then back on our bikes to continue until the road connects to White Lake Road (sadly not contiguous to the White Lake Road that connects with the highway) and my favourite part of the ride. We turn onto Fairview White Lake Road and follow it until it ends where we turn onto Green Lake Road which bends back north and plummets down to the valley just past See Ya Later Ranch. We didn't stop this time but I and my friends usually buy from here because they once let us in, dripping sweat and wearing road cleats, to use their facilities and drink their ice water...
It's uphill to See Ya Later Ranch (an Okanagan winery) so Al waited for me. The angel dog on the See Ya Later Ranch labels pays homage to the beloved pets of founder Major Fraser. They even have a “Barking Lot” for visiting dogs to play in.
The paved route back is along Eastside Road but today, on our gravel bikes, we chose to ride the South Spur of the KVR back to Penticton. It was pretty good, though there was a short bit of soft sand for which I was grateful to have my chunkier tires mounted, and it seems to dead-end when it hits the highway coming into Penticton. There's a reasonable route along the Penticton Channel but it doesn't connect to the KVR spur. We discovered that there's a pedestrian underpass though it was hard to see (there had to be since the beach is on one side and a lot of vacation accommodation on the other side of the highway) and then most people ride the sidewalk past the airport to get to the channelside trail. Pretty sad.
Back in Penticton, we cleaned up a bit and took a couple of beers across the street to the beach. Penticton, along with a few other municipalities in BC, has passed a bylaw allowing "responsible consumption of alcohol" during certain hours in limited areas of specified parks. One such park is along the beach across the street from our motel so we can sit and have a beer as long as we finish before 8 p.m. How civilized!
After dinner at an Indian restaurant, we passed this interesting shop window.
