Much as we liked Kelowna, it felt good to be back on the road. On our way to Kelowna last weekend, a café owner at Cache Creek had warned us against using Hwy 97C, the east-west four-lane highway over the mountains. He had taken that route only a week or so before, and rounded a corner to find a car overturned in the snow. “Not the sort of place you want to be taking two wheels”, he said. And, to give him his due, although we had not been in the ideal frame of mind to make the most of a scenic drive, the old north-south Hwy 97, had proven to be a very enjoyable route.
Departing the city today, however, we felt brave enough to take the advice of Chris, SWMotorrad’s expat British service manager. We had a rather chilly ride over “The Connector” to a place called Merritt, where we turned north onto Hwy 5A, for a beautiful 99km ride through open countryside. The only habitation we passed between Merritt and Kamloops, were the tiny communities of Nicola and Quilchena.
It was gone 2pm when we reached Kamloops, so we started looking for a t
ruck stop or diner to grab a bite to eat. Conveniently, there was one signposted on the turn-off for Hwy 5 towards Jasper. But there was no sign of a restaurant. Retracing our steps, we followed the signs from the main road to the clubhouse of a new golf course. “All Welcome”, declared the sign outside. So we parked our bikes next to the golf buggies and had lunch on a sunny terrace with panoramic views over the town.
We kept the golf theme going with our choice of campsite that evening. The best bet seemed to be the Valemount Golf Course, which allows campers to pitch their tents next to the practice area, after hours, and use the members’ washroom and shower facilities.