Kelowna - Myra Canyon

It's been a while since I've done a group trip with my friends. And when I say "a while", that's bit relative, since it's really only been about a year and a half since we did our last group trip to Hawaii. But still, a year and a half is a long time!

This time we decided to do something a bit more local, and headed to Kelowna for an extended weekend. Ashley was already out in the area visiting her brother, niece and nephew, but Steve, Jeff, Tom and I headed out on a Friday.

We rented a cabin/cottage through VRBO. This is my first experience with VRBO, and I have to say, it was quite positive. The cabin owner was easy to get a hold of, and more than happy to help us with any issues we had, big or small. And the cabin itself was quite cozy. It slept eight (although, it would be a tight eight!), and had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a fully appointed kitchen.

By the time we all arrived on the Friday, it was quite late, so we headed to bed, deciding to get an early start the next day. We woke up to blue skies and promises of a 25 degree day, so we headed to Myra Canyon to bike along a portion of the Kettle Valley trestle bridges.

Ashley, Jeff and Steve geared up.

I used to cycle a lot as a kid, but I haven't done much since High School (i.e. 15+ years ago). Once you learn, you never really forget though.

Trestle bridge.

The trestle bridges are actually pretty cool, and well maintained by volunteers in the area. There was an information board along the trail that showed that some of the bridges burned down during a forest fire in 2003, and volunteers helped to rebuild them.

Steve and Jeff heading into a tunnel.

Overall the trail along the bridges is 12km, one-way. I think it took us about two hours (including stopping and snacking) to ride the round-trip course. There were tons of people on the trail hiking and biking like us,

Crossing one of 18 trestle bridges.

The weather was perfect. It was warm in the sun, and cool in the shade. There was a nice breeze as we were riding so we didn't overheat (if anything it was too cool for me, I ended up having to put on my rain jacket-- but no one else had this problem!)

Taking in the view at kilometer nine.

If you're ever in the Kelowna area, and looking for something to do, I'd recommend checking out Myra Valley. We had a great afternoon out on rental bikes, and afterwards we headed back into the city for lunch, a grocery run, and some time at the pool.

The group calling it a day.

It turns out this was the only beautiful day we experienced in Kelowna during our four-night stay. We woke up the next morning to a plume of thick smoke that had blown in from the Washington Stickpin fire to the south. More on that in a post to come!