Mother’s Day Madness on the KVR

Mother’s Day Madness: Cycling the KVR to Naramata

My Mother’s Day was perfection in my eyes as it was filled with wilderness adventure and a touch of madness (lunacy). My sister, Miranda, invited me to bike the KVR (Kettle Valley Railway) from Kelowna to Naramata (approx a 70 km trip) with her. We left at 8 a.m. from Ruth Station with the plan that our girls and their dads drive to Naramata with a picnic and meet us there around noon.

Peter (my hubby) dropped Miranda and I off at Ruth Station to begin our trek just after 8 a.m. It was a dreamy spring morning ride along the mountain pass. We kept up a fast pace as we were meeting our crew In Naramata in 2 1/2 h. The trail was empty for most of the journey. The forests were blooming with saskatoon buds and oregon grapes. The sun on the ponderosa bark made the air smell like warm, sweet vanilla. Spring rabbits, with brown coats and fuzzy white feet, leapt from the path.

Clueless on the KVR

(nerd might be too mild a word to describe the idiot?—with the backward helmet—smiling in the pic below)

The ride was perfect until we stopped for a short rest at Chute Lake and I took a picture. As I looked at the picture of Miranda and I on my camera, I thought: why do I look so extraordinarily nerdy? Then, it hit me: I had my bike helmet on backwards. Seriously, I almost ruptured my abdomen muscles laughing so hard. I mean, who is so clueless that they wear their bike helmet backwards for the first 30 km of a ride? To make matters worse, Miranda hadn’t even noticed! I guess she assumes I always look like a complete nerd and doesn’t question it!

I have no idea how or why I put my helmet on backwards and didn’t even realize my mistake until I saw myself in the camera playback pic. It felt no different and In my feeble defence, I ran out of the house in a rush to get to the mountain on time (stuffing an apple in my mouth for breakfast along the way), jumped on my bike like a wild woman and took off on the trails with Miranda…but, still…how could I be such a dork?

Old Growth Ponderosa Forest

We continued on our way, over top of Okanagan Lake, through an old growth Ponderosa forest. The ponderosa is one of my favourite trees. It is exquisitely beautiful: the trunk is various shades of orange-red with black geometric designs etched through the bark and the needles are long (sometimes near a foot in length) and green—they almost look prehistoric—and they smell so good! The bark smells of vanilla and the long needles like fresh pine. A forest full of ponderosa pines is always sunny, dry and aromatic–heaven!

At approximately kilometre 45—bad news—I blew a tube and tire. The tire actually fell apart and thus popped the tube. Miranda was prepared with her tire repair kit but the tube deflated instantly as soon as I hopped on. I had no choice but to bike with a flat tire for the next 10 km to the nearest road and call Peter to pick us up. Luckily for us, we were within about 15 km of Naramata, BC.

Lesson learned: always have a spare tube and tire repair kit on hand. I naively thought that 70 km was a short trip and didn’t properly inspect my tires pre-trip.

Peter arrived like a knight in a red 4×4 and we had our family reunion picnic on the beach in Naramata.

Despite all, the day was good because it included wilderness adventure and time with all three of my daughters + family and the humbling realization that I’m much nerdier than I could have even imagined.