Day 9 rest day in Princeton
Day 10, 16 July, Princeton to Chain Lake, 46km and 511m climb, 32 degrees
After taking a day to rest and recover in Prineton, it was time to ride again and what an excellent day it was. Finally off road for the entire day on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail or KVR. The KVR stretches 639km from Hope to Castlegar following a disused railway line (sound familiar?). Unfortunately the section from Hope to Princeton is closed which is why we had to take Highway 3. While parts of the KVR are well formed, the surface leaves a lot to be desired in places. Today for example, was all on fine sandy gravel. This made it very slow but with our wider tires we really enjoyed it. We have 2.6 on the front and 2.4 on the rear. We let a little air out and had no troubles at all with the ride (except that it was still really slow). The trail rose up from the valley at about 2% for the entire day so slow and steady was the game today. Fortunately it was mostly in the shade until after lunch. There was even a trestle and a tunnel, very cool!
We had another early start to avoid the heat which seems to be a good strategy. Looks like tomorrow will be a little cooler though so perhaps a sleep in is warranted. We are camped tonight at Chain Lake which has a lovely wee campground right on the lake front.
Today we met some amazing people. Up on the trail we met Lennie and his dog in his Canam side by side. We had a chat and then tonight he searched three campgrounds to come visit us. Two days ago we met Ernie outside the hardware shop in Princeton, he recommended we camp at Chain Lake and tonight he arrived to visit us with his wife on their walk around the lake. He then went home and came back with fresh water and cold drinks and we had a lovely chat around the table. The people camping opposite us have a benchtop, woodfired pizza oven so brought us fresh, hot pizzas. What can we say, what a great ending to a great day. That pizza was divine!
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