June 9, 2023
I left Osoyoos after a fairly leisurely breakfast and climbed the switchbacks to the east of town into Monashee Boundary Country, the area that more or less parallels the US border.
Dropping down into the Kettle River valley, I hit some rain and decided to stop at the Rock Creek Trading Post for something warm. I met a Ducati rider out of Kelowna who had basically the same idea and also stopped to get out of the rain. Half an hour later the rain had mostly passed, and I continued on my way along the Crowsnest Highway. At Greenwood, I had planned to get off the main road and take a detour to Phoenix, an abandoned mining town where there is now a small local ski area. But the road is part dirt, and the combination of my 95/5 tires and wet weather made me decide to stay on the pavement. Small steps with a new bike and OEM tires…
Instead, I stopped at the Tunnel of Flags just outside Greenwood. It’s the remains of a one-lane road tunnel that used to be under the train tracks that once ran through here. When the rail embankment was finally removed, the remaining buried concrete from the original tunnel was discovered.
The weather continued to be “unsettled” but wasn’t too bad. I’ve definitely been through worse recently. Stopped at Timmy’s in Grand Forks where a group of BMW riders had also taken shelter from one of the intermittent rain showers. Nice guys, who took the joke about them just being out for a ride to Timmy’s in stride. We shared experiences with different routes on both sides of the border and eventually left together but then diverged. I decided to take the “long way around” over the Bonanza and Strawberry passes, then through Rossland, and finally on to Nelson on routes 3B and 6. That’s where my luck with the on-and-off rain caught up with me. After leaving Trail, the rain just got worse and worse. Eventually I pulled into the cover of a gas station in Fruitvale to wait out the sudden downpour.
When the rain tapered off to a light drizzle I hit the road, and as I proceeded north, it tapered off to nothing. By the time I got onto route 6, there was no sign of rain and the ride was beautiful, ducking in and out of the sun.
I arrived in Nelson only a bit soggy. So I cleaned up and explored the town briefly. Over dinner, I learned that Nelson hosts an annual Triumph RAT Raid in July. I now have an excuse to come back.