On the road by 9:30am in a drizzling rain, we headed southwest to Sicamous, BC. Despite the extremely friendly ladies in the Sicamous Info Centre and the allure of a local festival and fireworks that night, we would only be stopping through to check out the beautiful Lake Sushwap- the beginnings of ‘Lake Country.”
We traveled along lake shores, eyeing Mara Lake and it’s forested, low-laying mountain backdrop. We scoped out a small beach area and made it in for a quick dip in the bath-tub warm water. As we continue to drive south, we pass through the towns of Enderby, Armstrong, and Vernon.
When Kalamalka Lake came into view, just east of Lake Okanagan, we stopped for another quick dip in it’s turquoise blue waters- in what we thought was Lake Okanagan at the time. Upon my checking out our BC map and seeing that the highway ran quite some distance from Lake Okanagan, I ask Storm “What lake did we just swim in?”
“Lake Okanagan,” he says with fair certainty.
“How do we know that? I’m checking the map and it really doesn’t seem possible,” I reply.
“The Gremlin. The Gremlin told me,” says Storm.
“Ugh the damn Gremlin. Well it’s wrong, that was Kalamalka Lake, not Lake Okanagan,” I say.
“That’s disappointing,” says Storm, “Now I can’t say I swam with the Ogopogo lake monster.”
Smith then chimes in, “Ah, yeah... I was looking at the maps before we went swimming and thought it couldn’t be Lake Okanagan, but I didn’t want to ruin your excitement about the Ogopogo.”
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| Kalamalka Lake, BC |
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| Kalmalka Lake |
As we reach the outskirts of Kelowna, Smith, a real estate appraiser, wonders aloud, “I wonder what every does here. All these big, nice homes. What drives this economy?”
“I know tourism is big,” I chip in.
Having seen sign upon sign advertising real estate agents, Storm says “Lot of real estate agents here, eh?” Storm pauses and we nod in agreement, and goes on, “Looks like they’re probably just selling houses back and forth, and employing themselves while they’re at it.”
We continue on, getting ever-closer to the heart of Kelowna.
“Oh man, there must be a big airport somewhere beyond that lake. Look at that jet going in to land,” Smith pauses, then goes on “Well, that, or we’ve just witnessed a major disaster and it crashed into the lake.”
We eventually pass by the Kelowna airport, at which point Smith then says,
“Ok, with an airport that size there’s gotta be something more going on here. We’re not seeing all of Kelowna. What is going on here?”
Having heard great things about the Okanagan wines, I was sure to pick up a winery guide book at our Sicamous tourist centre stop. We soon discovered that there was a "Bonitas" winery in the middle of the winery loop between Peachland and Summerland, BC. Buried amongst rolling mountains and dry, arid desert, Bonitas Wineries was a taste of luxury on a balmy, but cloudy summer afternoon. We tasted a deeply oaked and buttery chardonnay followed by a musky, cherry laden merlot begging you to grill up a steak. The winery overlooked the Southern part of Lake Okanagan.
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| Bonitas Winery outside Summerland, BC. |
After our brief, but flavourful stint in the heart of the Okanagan wine route we continued south to Penticton.
With plenty of time before we were "due" in Vancouver that evening, we spotted an enticing looking driving range. While Bob's Golf wasn't the snazziest of driving ranges, we were shooting into the rolling desert hills enjoying the warm air and some "exercise."
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| Storm taking his losing stroke. Smith won the Okanagan Golf Challenge- judging being on "overall flair." |
As we pull out of the driving range lot, looking out at the dry grassy land around us, Smith says, "This is probably prime territory for cougars, eh?"
"Why, have you seen a lot of bars?" asks Storm.
"No man, I mean the actual animal," replies Smith.
After our final gas fill-up (which ran us about $400 for the whole trip) in Penticton, we climbed into the Saturn one last time.... next stop:
VANCOUVER!
As we take in the sprawling dry mountains, the car quiet, Smith brings up Lake Okanagan again,
"I'm just going to say we swam in Lake Okanagan, okay?"
"Haha... okay, but the blog's been written and it says otherwise," I reply.
Pointing to the Gremlin, Storm then says, "You know, I think the lake must have been recently re-named then, and the Gremlin is just out of date. I definitely felt the Ogopogo. So that, or the Ogopogo jumped lakes."
The boys will have to read up on my recount of the adventures before they fill you in on their own "enhanced" versions- like the cougar that Smith fought off one dark night, or the talking Bass named Jim that Storm caught somewhere between Regina and Saskatoon.
We arrived in Vancouver Saturday night to a chilly 15 degrees, with the odometer reading 303,050 kilometers- making for a 5,476km trip end to end.
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| Our arrival in Vancouver in Kitsilano. Thanks to the Skuportergraham Houeshold for hosting us. |
It was defintiely not the most direct route, but it was one that showed us some of the best that Canada has to offer- crystal clear lakes, rolling hills, golden prairie plains, towering angry mountains, tasty beers, world-class wine, friendly people, and a landscape built for spontaneity and adventure.
While Storm flies home to reality tonight and Smith takes in the sights of Vancouver and Vancouver Island for another week, I'll be continuing on. To where... I'm not quite sure yet. But I picked up a bottle of Bonitas Winery Merlot that will pair nicely with a steak under the stars in some tiny town, somewhere.
I'll be making a visit to Vancouver Island, and likely heading up into Northern BC.
The blog will continue, but the posts less frequent while I spend some time enjoying the buzz of Vancouver.
Next stop:
???
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