09.04.2011
The day was pleasant, a little cloudy, little wind, with a high reaching fifteen degrees Celsius.
We drove through the north end of Penticton to circle back north toward Naramata, passing by numerous vineyards.
We parked the van at a parking area near Arawana station (mile 125.73, elevation 1828 feet). Our bike destination was to near Glenfir station (mile 118.9, elevation 2572 feet) up a 2.2 % grade. We mounted our mountain bikes and were off to a few hours of biking adventure along the Kettle Valley Railway bed that in former times steam trains once journeyed. Along the way there are sitting benches to relax on and take in the extensive Okanagan Lake views. Looking south over Naramata is Penticton at the south end of Okanagan Lake and beyond is Skaha Lake. Looking west across the water is Summerland and north of Summerland is Peachland. Northward we were looking at the snow cover in the higher elevations of Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, a very rugged desert hiker’s wilderness. In 2003 a firestorm lit by a lightening bolt swept through the pine forests to wreak havoc and evacuating many Kelowna area residents and burning down many homes on the north edges of the park.
“The Kettle Valley Railway was established in 1914 as a transportation route for goods and people from town to town throughout southern British Columbia, Canada. The transportation route was a difficult project to complete because of the harsh wilderness conditions forging through thick forests, blasting rocks and building wooden trestles connecting hillsides.”
At about 3.8 kilometers was Little Tunnel, a 48-metre long tunnel, our halfway point.
Up toward the Glenfir station we arrived at a parking area just off the Chute Lake Road with several picnic tables and an outhouse. This was our destination on this trip. The rail bed trail continues on around a bend switching backing up southeastward toward Rock Oven Regional Park and the long curved Adra Tunnel. The Adra Tunnel is closed at either end due to the danger of rock collapsing from its roof but a restoration group is hoping to gather enough donated funds to repair it and open it for future adventurers. A bypass trail makes a shortcut to get around it and heads up eventually through the old rail stations of Adra (mile 113.19, elevation 3192 feet), Chute Lake (mile 106.47, elevation 3891 feet), Lorna (mile 97.6, elevation 4019 feet), Ruth (mile 91.18, elevation 4078), the summit (mile 85.9, elevation 4178 feet) and Myra (mile 84.0, elevation 4143 feet).
"The Rock Oven Regional Park is accessed by hikers and mountain bikers only. No road access. This portion of the KVR Trail follows along clay cliffs and through ponderosa pine forests and hills covered in cactus and sage brush. The rock oven trails are identified by the pull-out areas along the KVR. A good collection of ovens are located near the Robinson Creek area.”
The bumpy ride back was all downhill and in short order we arrived back to the van. We loaded our bikes and decided to drive back up to Chute lake into the high country we found to be still buried in snow though the gravel forestry road was clear and muddy in places. We drove right up to Chute Lake Resort for a brief stop and returned back to the picnic tables near Glenfir, our biking destination. Here we parked, brought out Josh’s chocolate cake with chocolate icing, lit the candles with hands to break the breezes and sang happy birthday. With some big appetites we devoured about a third of the cake. It was a great day of adventure!
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