Kamloops

It seemed to take an eternity to get out of the sprawling metropolis of Vancouver from downtown. The weather was cold, the sky overcast and threatening to rain. We eventually found our way to the Interstate (Hwy 1) and rode to the town of Hope where I decided to veer off the freeway and take the more scenic route to Kamloops. This took us through Fraser Canyon and basically retraced the historic gold rush trail.

The road was everything you expect from riding through a canyon with twisting corners, a gorge with river below and a number of tunnels through the hills to ride through, which made for an interesting and varied ride – and more importantly, there was not a lot of traffic.

We met a woman from New Zealand at one of the rest areas. She was originally from Northland and now lived in British Columbia with her partner.

The landscape and geography of the route varied throughout the ride. We started out with pine forests as we left Vancouver and then through the canyon the vegetation became more sparse and the landscape more arid looking. We pulled in to Kamloops just as a light shower came through – perfect timing!