Saturday June 27, 2015

Another beautiful day in British Columbia, but hell it’s hot! We knew it was going to be a hot day, and got up earlier and was leaving the campsite by 7:15, no faffing about this morning.

We followed the Similkameen River and Highway 3 for most of the day. The route was mainly downhill with a few little hills to keep us awake.

The first Town we came to was Hedley. A very small town which was a major gold mining centre in its day and now relies on tourism.

We stopped at the small museum and chatted to a guy about the gold mining and copper mining in the area.

The Mascot Mine is perched on the side of the mountain. We had seen what looked like cabins from the road, but we were told that they were the mine entrances.

There was a telescope set up and Ralf took a photograph through the telescope – it turned out quite good.

I asked him why the Sunday market wasn’t open – Answer because it is Saturday!! I was totally convinced it was Sunday today.

We also watched a helicopter – water bombing a small forest fire above the Town.

We carried along Highway 3 and for the most part we had a good shoulder. We have noticed an increase in traffic, mainly campers and RVs, it is holiday season, we will have to be careful.  Of course we have to watch out for the giant sheep that inhabit this area, look at the size of the sheep compared to the car.

Before arriving in Keremeos, a fella warned us about gypsies in Keremeos. I was a little nervous about camping and having to keep my eyes on our gear all night. It turns out they are not gypsies, just scruffy seasonal workers.

There is a lot of fruit picking in the area and a lot of young people come here to pick fruit.

We arrived in Keremeos at 11:15 am, good time for 60+ kms. We were both hungry and decided to have a second breakfast, bacon, eggs and home-fries and toast, that kept us going for a while.

I went into the Tourist Information Centre and the young man was really helpful. He gave me maps of the area and told me where the camp sites were, he also gave me the Provincial Park map so that we know where the Provincial Parks are and where there is camping allowed.

The Grist Mill has camping but does not have any showers. We had passed an RV park and campsite on the way in to Keremeos, Ralf gave them a call and reserved a spot. The private campgrounds have been very reasonably priced, to date, with good facilities and free wi-fi.

We decided to head up to the Grist Mill before going back to the campsite. The Grist Mill and store was built in 1877. With hard work and careful research the Grist Mill and store is back to its former glory. It has an operating waterwheel and flume, the store has been accurately restored, and there is an outdoor summer kitchen. The gardens were lovely, they even had varieties of mint and I discovered a chocolate mint variety.

We stopped in at the apple house – it still smelled of apples. Then I looked behind the door and there was the plug-in scent producer – cheats!

It would have been really nice to have camped in this area, but with this heat, I need a shower at the end of my ride.

We spent about an hour wandering around the site and then headed back to the campsite.

The Eagle RV Park, where we stayed was below a large mountain.  After passing the Hope Slide the other day, we looked up at this mountain and wondered if we would get through the night.  The rocks look very precarious.  If anything happened to make this thing slide, we would be toast, oblivious, but toast.

On the way in to Keremeos we spotted the historic red covered bridge. We didn’t stop and check it out on the way in, but after supper Ralf decided to cycle back to it and check it out. The Red Bridge spans the Similkameen River, it is 310 metres across and is the last known covered bridge in Western Canada.

I was in bed before Ralf, who was reading his book and didn\’t get it finished until 10:45 pm. He did take this shot of the sunsetting on the rocks behind the campsite.

When he came to bed, I was fast asleep.  Ralf often complains that for a little person I take up an awful amount of space.  He took a photo of me to prove that I had my leg on his side and my arm on his pillow, in my defense it was hot and he wasn\’t in bed.