Kettle Valley Rail Trail Trip

My overall impression is that regular maintenance on the trail is spotty. I realize it's maintained by volunteer organizations but it would be nice if the gubmint gave them a few bucks each year to at least patrol the trail a couple of times to fill washouts and repair bridges. I made several wrong turns because signs on closed sections of the trail were still in place, despite obvious signs that the section was unused. The trail does attract tourist dollars. We saw several groups of riders, including one group of 9 who were from Langley and a couple from France even.

We left Myra last Friday, heading for Midway. Sweetums was on her bike, towing a trailer with the dogs. I was in the RV, dropping her off first, then travelling to a new site every morning and then biking back up to meet her before going back to the camper.

Day 1 we stayed at the Hydraulic Reservoir. It cost $15 for the night and half price for seniors, but I forgot to tell the attendant I was a senior so we paid full price. I managed to get 3k up a fairly rough stretch of trail before meeting up with Sweetums. Met one quad and two other bikers.

Day 2 we stayed at Beaverdell. We had planned to stay at an RV park but it was closed due to family emergency so we just boondocked near the old mine tailings. This was our longest day, about 55 km. I met Sweetums about 28k from Beaverdell. The trail was pretty good, but there were a lot of quads and 4x4's using it. Must have seen a dozen or so. We were tired when we finally reached the camper so we decided to only go about 35 k moving forward.

Day 3 we ended up at Westbridge, boondocking right beside the trail. Some sections were in really bad shape. Looks like no one maintains the trail. Several places had farmer fences blocking access. I met Sweetums about half way. It was a hot day at around 34 degrees, but the next day was hotter.

Day 4 we stayed in an RV site on the Kettle River, near the Midway Station. The first part of the trail was good, but it quickly deteriorated into a singly rutty track. It switched from old rail bed to side roads several times. At one point Sweetums texted me that she was on Kettle Valley Rd EAST, while I was not far from her on the same road but it was Kettle Valley Rd SOUTH where I was. So I reversed direction and found a road called Kettle Valley Rd EAST and went like hell to try to catch up to her. After a few kilometers I realized she wasn't ahead of me so I doubled back and found her, on the road I called Kettle Valley Rd SOUTH. Damned confusing! The temperature reached 37 degrees near the end of our ride. We were both sucking up all the water we could find to stay hydrated. When wwe reached Midway Station Sweetums decided we had done enough for this summer, so now we're off to Kootenay National Park to spend a couple of days before heading home. Last night we stayed at a campsite called Canyon something or other, just outside of Creston. Today we plan to turn off the highway near Canal Flats and follow the Kootenay River up into the park. I have my fishing license and might drop a line if the bugs aren't too bad.