| Author | Message | ||
     Ulendo |
hi guys - first attempt at a log for me, so bear with me. over the past 2 days I've been pre-running a KVR trip. not sure if I'm the first buell on the kvr or not, but the trip is pretty impressive -KVR railbad from penticton, up to the 3 remaining myra canyon trestles. June Springs Road, then McCullough forest services road up to hwy 33. hwy 33 ( parallels the KVR railbed) from McCullough, to rock creek. (rock creek is a brunch/fuel /food /pitstop for the trip) backtrack to westbridge, then its up the Christian valley to connect with the Kettle forest services road, and Kettle FSR all the way north to hwy 6. Hwy 6 is a BC destination hwy - the run goes from ~20km west of Fauquier, west to Vernon. Dogleg N in vernon ( still hwy 6) then onto the famous ( infamous??) westside road south to Westbank. for those in the know, you can toss a coin whether to call hwy 6, or westside road bcs 'dragon' run. from westbank its a 40 km hop back down the Okanagen lake to Penticton. total km :550, 2 destination hwys ( hwy 6, & westside road) 160km total of gravel, 40 KM of it on the KVR railbed, 3 rail trestles, 1 rail tunnel and (hopefully) a ton of fun doing it. I've uploaded a bunch of pics, but cant seem to get the coding down to display them here ( they're also pretty big - looks like some new photo editing software is in order, since I dont feel like spending hours cutting them down to size) subdirectory for them is located at kettle_run if someone can tell me how to link to the images, I'd appreciate it. ( for those who want to view them there at full size, the sequence of travel is pent ( penticton) bellevue, myra, christian valley, kettle valley, lumby. (Message edited by ulendo on September 03, 2006) | ||
| Buellnuts |
Last weekend we were all over that entire area. (Border Raid 06) For years we have been meeting a group of Canadiacs for a few days of riding on Labor day. Look at Storm Fronts (Border Raid 06) Bob | ||
| Sound_uly |
Hey Ulendo, What kind of tire are you running on the rear of that thing. It looks somewhat knobby. Would they fit a Uly? How do they perform on the street?  Inquiring minds want to know.  I too was running around that country last weekend with Buellnuts and crowd. Cool place to be! Ron, Ulysses in Seattle | ||
| Debueller |
Chris, Just noticed your post here. I went to your link and will take some time to look at them all. Can't wait for next weekend, going to be an awesome ride. Thanks again for going to the trouble of doing the route plan and pre-ride. I know it' gonna be fun. Jerry | ||
| Debueller |
Whoa!!! That curved tressle looks outrageous!!! (2nd item on list) Can't wait to hit that (Message edited by debueller on September 09, 2006) | ||
| Ulendo |
Buellnuts - took a look in stormfronts - if you were down around hedley, etc, thats a different section from where we'll be running. the Canyonlands in the Penticton / kelowna / Beaverdell section have to be seen to be believed. DeBueller - yup, you get to ride over that curved trestle. be glad its got the hand rails on it now - used to be open sided!! ( BTW - I hope neither you, nor your brother are afraid of heights!?!) Sound_uly - if you take a look in BB&D, I've just posted a thread about those tires. | ||
| Debueller |
No rails........sh*t that would be hairy! No fear of heights here. Love bein' on the edge. BTW, I talked to my bro last night, looks like he's going to make it. ttyl | ||
| Ulendo |
Great news jerry. as for all you others on here - (hopefully) heres the cut down images...going to go in a few posts, in sequence, so here I am, starting from penticton, heading N along okanagen lake.         | ||
| Ulendo |
from there, the old railbed moves up into the hills, past chute lake, and the area burned by the OK Mountain fire, heading into Bellevue canyon...        | ||
| Ulendo |
This area of the KVR is a large part of whats made it known as McCulloughs wonder - from bellevue, the railbed goes into Myra Canyon. not too many years ago there were something like 12 trestles, and 8 tunnels still standing in /& around myra canyon - unfortunately, the OK mountain fire burned most of the trestles, and currently only three of them are open to the public         | ||
| Ulendo |
from the canyonlands, the trip swings south, and heads down hwy 33 to rock creek - it was early am, cold, gray, and a drizzling in places when I pre-ran this section so no photos. Once at rock creek, its fuel up, eat, and head north east up the Chrisitian Valley, and Kettle Valley...dont get lost in this area...       the kettle valley forest service road comes north out of Christian Valley, and terminates on hwy 6, east of Lumby / Vernon. hwy 6 is a BC destination hwy, full of twisties - traffic was pretty heavy, so again, no photos, but a fun ride. Vernon is at the top end of the OK valley, so 1/2 hour trip down the edge of lake okanagen brought me home to kelowna...I can only hope the 'real' trip goes as well as the pre run.  | ||
| Debueller |
Great job with the photos, Chris. I can delete the ones you e-mailed me. They filled up my mailbox...no biggie, I really enjoyed them. I'm logging off now....I try logging on at home later....ttyl | ||
| Ulendo |
yah, well, - you got them all high res, so you can actually see what you'll be getting into. Cut down to fit here, the rest of you folks get some nice scenic shots, but you really cant appreciate the detail on some of these tracks, the scale, or just how remote parts of this are. | ||
| Buellnuts |
Chris, You start riding with a helmet on and that hair won't get Blown Plumb Off! Har har, Bob | ||
| Ulendo |
Ha Ha - actually, if you look at the photos of the christian valley /kettle valley section, you'll notice I actually run with 2 helmets: full face for on road, no matter what, but so long as its not 'technical' off road stuff, I kind of like the 1/2 helmet in the woods. ps: be careful about the hair jokes - you never know when someones had Chemo etc... | ||
| Buellnuts |
Chris, People going through Chemo need a laugh more than healthy people. So there! Bob | ||
| Blake |
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Ulendo!  | ||
| Debueller |
Ulendo, I wanted to thank you here on badweb for putting together an awesome ride. My bro and I particulary enjoyed the hospitality displayed by you and the people of Kelowna. Great bars and restraunts,lots of campgrounds and motels, OK lake (we tore up Westside road), Knox mountain park, freindly people, and great outdoor activies left us very impressed. The Kettle Valley railway was a great ride with great scenery and lots of interesting local history. Some of the ride was pretty rough but that's what I had expected and enjoyed. Some day we will return to Kelwona, when we do we'll look you up again. Thanks again for all the effort you put into a great ride I'll remember a long time. Jerry aka Debueller |
