April 5th, and what a great day for a bike tour! Weather was 12 C and nil wind. The start of the trail, just by Summerland Sweets, is a trestle that spans a very deep gorge and from the top you can hear the water funneling through. It is an awesome trestle and the view of the gorge on the east side and the vinyards on the west side are quite stunning.
I like this cycle as you can usually see horses wandering around the trail. I have heard stories of wild horses in the area but am not sure if this herd are them, or just released to graze along the trail. At any rate , it is nice to see them up close. They are pretty shaggy right now as they still have winter coats to shed.
The trail isn’t the smoothest. Actually , I think it’s the roughest I’ve been on. Lots of rocks, especially one km of LOTS of rocks. Don’t take this trail unless you are okay with that. Otherwise, the scenery is spectacular and you get lake views and rock faces to enjoy, along with riding through a well treed, sometimes bower-like, path.
It was not only the fact that this was our first trail ride of the year that made this outing special. My wife was riding her new ebike , and she enjoyed it thoroughly. No sore knee at the end of the ride or at night, so that investment is going to pay off this summer! It’s a lot more fun when you know you can get there and back, and won’t be suffering along the way or for the next few days.
We rode for 48 minutes, and covered 5 km down and 5 km back. That’s not much distance for the time, but as I said , that trail is quite rough and speed isn’t something you want to add to the uneven footing.
Anyways, it was a grand way to spend a hour together in a beautiful space, and we are committed to a trail ride once a week, in between our regular rides along the lake on beautiful (and paved lol) Beach Avenue.
At a few points along the trail you are treated to some vertical rock faces along with rock falls. I would guess they rise a hundred and fifty feet or so above the trail, and are pretty much straight up. This picture does not do the rock face justice. A rock climber might think this would be a piece of cake, but to me it’s a piece of rock that is too high and steep for me to consider scaling. I mean, this is straight up! One cool thing is that if you are a hiker you are used to seeing hikers’ mini inukshuks along the trail. Bikers like to make them too, apparently! I always enjoy a personalized effort such as inukshuk, and don’t consider them natural grafitti, but rather a good luck omen and nothing to be disturbed, just enjoyed. I’ve left a few myself along trails I’ve enjoyed.
One other very special type of scenery along the trail is the views of the vinyards. There are vinyards at the trail head when you traverse the trestle itself, and from the vantage point of the trestle the views are truly stunning. The vinyards on the west side of the trestle and the rocky gorge on the east make it truly a juxtaposition of developed versus wild scenery, and both are truly spectacular.
Further on down the trail you can see more vinyards and a winery along the lake. At this time there aren’t any leafed out vines, but before you know it, there will be a feast of green rows after rows … if you like well ordered greenery, this view will be a great one, but sometime in May, not quite now.
Next week will be another trail ride, and my wife was talking about the east side of Kalamalka Lake. We did the west side together last year, and I did the entire route one day on a solo ride, so I am looking forward to sharing the east side (the better half in my opinion; no vehicular traffic) with my better half (ok, pun intended ha!).
I’ll be writing an article on ebikes shortly. They are a game changer for so many people who want to get out on the road or trail but need that extra boost to help them do it.