After being woken up by Zuimei’s call (which i didn’t mind at all) I slept for a little while longer justifying it as a reward for the previous days hard work. I was on the road by 7 though not needing to pack up my gear I was able to make a quick get away.
This time however I made sure to stop in Hedley for a good breakfast. The nice thing about the ride from Princeton to Keromeos is that it is a gentle downward slope. Pedaling is easy and you can coast for quite aways so maintaining a speed to 20-30 km/hour is pretty easy. With this in mind I made really good time to Penticton, turning off at Keromeos to go to Kaledon. Actually I would estimate 80% of the trip was downhill. As a result I found myself in Penticton by 1pm. Not really satistfied with staying there I called Dad and told him I would press on to Kelowna.
By now though it started getting sunny and in the Okanagan the wind tends to pick up when there is sunshine. So battling a strong gusty head wind I plugged away at it until i reached Summerland where I finally pulled off to eat and wait for the wind to die down. Although the wind didn’t die down, by the time I reached Princeton it was blowing in the other direction. Now I had the tailwind I needed for the steep climb to where the Coquihalla Hwy meets the 97.
The climb was arduous but I was feeling pretty good knowing I was going to make it to Kelowna in one day and be able to rest. I pulled into their driveway (walked actually because the hill is too steep) at 6:30 pm. So now I will rest here today and tomorrow and then out again on Monday. I will head North to Revelstoke and attempt to cross the Rockies at Roger’s Pass.
Statistics
Distance: 176 km
Average Speed: 20.3 km
Top Speed :59.3 km
Total distance: 549 km