Pedalling in the Okanagan

Sometimes when I’m riding, my interior monologue gets stuck on a channel, and no matter what I do, it just won’t switch off. Maybe that happens to you, too?

During three fun days biking around Kelowna, the monologue got a bit out of hand. Every time I hit a great stretch of road, a beautiful view, a sweet bike lane connection—which was often—my inner voice would pipe up in this faux reporter voice (where did it come from?) and narrate what was happening in a disbelieving tone.

Your trusty correspondent here, biking along Lakeshore Road and, oh, will you look at that, here’s a nicely paved bike lane. Let’s take this great bike lane and connect to this other bike lane and this other bike lane, which all have zero potholes, and bike out to this ridiculously beautiful vineyard with Okanagan Lake views.

photo: Matthew Wanbon

Maybe many years of getting bounced from one Toronto pothole to another has dinged my brain. Maybe I was overdue for a break, and I was just giddy. All I know is that the trusty correspondent wouldn’t shut up. Luckily, there was so much awesome fall cycling to do, and so many super-nice people to talk to—for many of whom, Kelowna is a chosen home—that the voice was forced to take some breaks. Thank God.

Day 1 Wine country’s iconic route

Kelowna is a growing region of more than 230,000 people in the Okanagan Valley, midway between Vancouver and Calgary. The area is known for its hot and sunny climate, its agricultural production, its wineries and, in recent years, its wildfires.

In spite of the wildfires, the city is a spectacular place for all types of cycling. Name your discipline—road, gravel, mountain, city exploring—and you’ll find it here. The city has 400 km of bike lanes, 60 of them separated from traffic. There’s even a bike lane that leads to the airport. Simon Fraser University’s Cities, Health and Active Transportation Lab, which maps bike infrastructure across Canada, puts Kelowna third in its roundup of B.C. municipalities with the most cycling infrastructure, after Surrey and Vancouver. The city is working to build out its all ages and abilities networks and to fill in the gaps in its infrastructure. It’s aiming to quadruple the number of trips made by bike by 2040.

photo: Christina Palassio

I visited in late September 2023, the day the MacDougall Creek wildfire, the largest fire in West Kelowna’s history, was classified as “held.” It still smelled a bit smoky when I deplaned, but the air quality health index was within safe limits, so I headed over to Cyclepath Kelowna to meet up with owner Garry Norkum and get fitted for a Liv Devote.

Norkum moved from Ontario to Kelowna about 30 years ago to open the store, and expanded it during the pandemic. The shop hosts a couple of weekly club rides, including a popular Thursday night women’s ride that pulls in several dozens of cyclists every week.

A few local riders had suggested the wineries route, a roughly 50-km out-and-back along Lakeshore Road south toward the vineyards that line the ridge above the lake. It’s a popular route with undulating, winding roads that keep the riding interesting, as well as sweeping views of Okanagan Lake. I headed out around 1 p.m., and I wasn’t the only Wednesday afternoon road rider out there. (Way to go on the work-life balance, Kelowna, said the trusty correspondent.)

Colin McKay co-founded Hopscyclists, a club that formed during the pandemic. He was all in on the wineries route. “You’re talking about a local legend here,” he said with a laugh. “Lakeshore Road is hard to beat. It’s so beautiful. It’s very quiet because it’s a dead-end road, so you don’t have many cars going the full length of it. It’s the most iconic route in Kelowna for sure.”

Some cyclists extend the Lakeshore ride into the 100-km Kelowna perimeter loop by heading into East Kelowna, Glenmore and Ellison, but I kept it on the shorter side so I could stop in at Barn Owl Brewing for a flight of beer on the patio on the way back. It was beautifully crisp out, one of those early fall evenings that make you feel like you have all the time in the world.

Biking back to my hotel, I got smiled at by a man driving an Audi. First time for everything, Kelowna, said the trusty correspondent.

photo: Matthew Wanbon

Day 2 You should have seen it coming

I geared up for a ride on the Okanagan Rail Trail early, while the mercury was still close to zero. The route runs 50 km from Kelowna out past the UBC Okanagan campus and the airport into Lake Country, toward Vernon. For 24 km, it edges along Wood and Kalamalka Lakes, giving beautiful views onto turquoise waters.

I started in Oyama to bypass a disconnected section of the trail that bumps riders out onto the highway for 7 km. It was a perfect riding day—beautifully sunny, not too hot. A ways in, I hit a detour that forced me away from the lakeside and up a climb to the service road above. The incline and the noisy highway beyond it didn’t inspire many happy feelings. But it was take the detour or turn around, so I dug into my equanimity and started pedalling. You can probably see what’s coming: when I got to the top, I turned around, and I got a stunning drone’s-eye view of the whole sparkling lake splayed out before me, with the trail running alongside it. Let me just climb this hill and turn around and oh, look, it’s one of the most beautiful lookouts I’ve seen, the trusty correspondent said.

“Sometimes it’s just like a blank space on the map except that there are tons of roads in this blank space. Until you go there, you don’t know.”

That night, there were several clubs out on the roads for their regular Thursday night rides. I met up with the Hopscyclists and chatted with Jocelyn De La Rosa, a software engineer from Paris who came to Kelowna in 2021 via Toronto. He rode 16,000 km in 2023.

“Kelowna is really great for road cycling,” he said. “Staying in the valley, we have access to some quiet roads to go on day rides. If people like mountain biking, they can access a few very good networks. For gravel, if you’re not against climbing out of the valley, which is kind of a requirement for gravel most of the time, the playground is really great.” De La Rosa has been mapping gravel routes along decommissioned forest roads, and contributed some Okanagan sections to Matt Kadey’s Great Northern Bikepacking Route.

“I like to explore,” he said. “A lot of those forest service roads are not on any maps online, so sometimes it’s just like a blank space on the map except that there are tons of roads in this blank space. Until you go there, you don’t know.”

photo: Christina Palassio

Day 3 Kettle mettle

Got out early on a fresh morning and headed out to the Kettle Valley Rail Trail to bike the trestle bridges in Myra Canyon. The KVR is probably the best-known cycling destination in Kelowna. It’s southeast of town and requires roughly 900 m of climbing to get up to its starting parking lot. The trail then flows along the 18 trestles between Myra and Ruth Stations, with sweeping valley views, chipmunks climbing up your spokes and bits and bobs of rail history. Ride it in fall when the leaves are turning and the crowds are gone and, this trusty correspondent assures you, you’ll be blown away.

Raquel Rodrigues is a mountain-biker-turned-gravel-and-road rider from Brazil who moved to Kelowna for school and never left. If she could ride only one route forever, she said it would be “anything that brings me to the KVR. There are three great options that you can climb from Kelowna through Crawford Park all the way to the trestles, and then there are several trails to come down. I prefer climbing from the Flamingo Flats, and then you can connect different trails all the way to the top. That’s the area that I never get tired of.” She also praised Knox Mountain Park for its trails, long mountain-biking season and views of the city.

After a morning up on the KVR, I descended back into town and looped around East Kelowna, where the apple orchards were overflowing, the climbs were medium-spicy, and there were those nice views again. I came back into town along the Mission Creek Greenway, a 26-km off-road path that crosses the city and gives you backyard views you can’t get by car. OK, Kelowna, now you’re just showing off.

There’s so much to enjoy about cycling in this area. The riders who live there love the place a lot and this trusty correspondent hopes to return before too long.

photo: Christina Palassio

Details

When to go
Kelowna gets 304 days of sun per year. Its location in the valley means that it warms up earlier and cools down later than other parts of the country. For good weather conditions and quieter roads, consider visiting in spring or in fall. Temperatures can hover around the mid-teens in most of October, giving many days of comfortable riding. Also, you can pull up to the harvest table and taste the agricultural bounty that the region has to offer, and get some leaf-peeping in to boot.

The Government of British Columbia is predicting an active 2024 wildfire season in the province. Conditions vary from region to region and month to month so check conditions before you go.

How to get there
Air Canada and WestJet both offer frequent flights into Kelowna.

Where to eat and drink
Summerhill Pyramid Winery (summerhill.bc.ca) is the first biodynamic vineyard in B.C., and serves up a range of sparkling wines. Also, try a vineyard tour and tasting at Scorched Earth Winery (scorchedearthwinery.ca). Barn Owl Brewing (barnowlbrewing.ca) has a good assortment of microbrewery beers, as does the Kelowna Beer Institute (kelownabeerinstitute.com). Skinny Duke’s Glorious Emporium (skinnydukes.com) is a fun place to eat with its retro ’70s rec-room vibe and an eclectic menu. Pane Vino (panevinopizzeria.com) in Oyama serves up a good wood-fired pizza. If you want to taste the local bounty, check out the farmers market in the Landmark District, which runs from April to October. Get your ice cream at Parlour Ice Cream (parlouricecream.ca).

What to do off the bike
Rent a kayak from the Okanagan Beach Rentals and paddle around Okanagan Lake. Get your golf on at an area course. Drive out to the Cardiff Miller Art Warehouse (cardiffmillerartwarehouse.ca) in Enderby to check out the works of Canadian sound artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.