Day 5 - Penticton to Calgary
Written
at home in Calgary
Woke up at 5:45am in the
Penticton hostel with the
phone vibrating under my butt. Apparently it slipped out
of my pocket and ended up there. My ear plugs also fell
out onto the bed too, I must have been twisting and
turning quite a bit during that short sleep.
The bunk I slept on,
this place sure ain't no hotel - Click to enlarge
Everyone in the room was
shirtless and sweating like piggies and sleeping, the
room cooled down a little during the night and I didn’t
really feel like waking up either. But I had to get back
to Calgary before it gets dark and didn’t want to fight
with the traffic, so I had to leave early.
Filled up my water bottles
with tap water, I must say, Penticton tap wasn’t as good
as Vancouver’s, but neither tastes very good to be
honest.
The best way to start a long
driving day is by squealing the tires going 100 in a 50k
corner, at least that’s my excuse for the jogger who
stared at me angrily at the highway on ramp out of
Penticton.
Video: Leaving Penticton
Video: My MINI's shadow
Surprisingly there were
already a lot of cars on the road at 6 in the morning, I
guess everyone wants to beat the traffic as much as I
do. According to what happened the last couple of days,
I didn't need to speed at all and I’ll still be ahead of
schedule, so I took it easy and relaxed, looking at the
sun hitting the lake surface and watching other cars
blow by. But after 15 minutes of that I was thoroughly
bored and I was back into “Follow the leader” mode where
I follow the fastest car on the highway, so it’ll shield
me from a cop if there was one.
One of the many
logging trucks I saw near Penticton in the morning -
Click to enlarge
I wanted to buy some
cherries for my family back in Calgary, but most of the
road side shops were still closed that early in the
morning. It wasn’t until I drove past Vernon that I
found a little store open. Its one of those road side
little hut shops. Looked like a father and son ran the
business, they had some really fresh and good looking
cherries for $1.8 a pound. I have no idea if that’s a
good price or not, but I wanted some for breakfast
anyway! The cherry merchant gave me a little plastic
bag to store some washed cherries so I could have them
in the car, awesome.
Video: Cherries
Video:
Met a MINI S on the way
Now that I’ve found my fuel
in cherries, my MINI needed some as well. Another $47 to
Shell and I was good to go all the way to Calgary, or so
I thought. From Vernon I turned into Highway 6 towards
Nakusp.
Start of highway 6
between Lumby and Nakusp - Click to enlarge
Video: Lumby to Needles
Video: Lumby to Needles, road work
The start of the highway is
a winding road through farms and villages. I was stuck
behind some slow SUV towing their boats so I was pretty
bored for a while. Once I got past them the fun starts!
The road got twistier and once into the hills and
mountains it was just an epic drive. If you like pulling
Gs in a car, this is the place to be. With next to no
traffic, lots of elevation changes, banked corners,
hairpins. It was just a blast to drive on this road.
There was this downhill section for about 10 minutes
where there are almost no straight sections at all, it
was so much fun and so involving to drive. After that
there was a very nicely paved 2 lane road leading into
Needles, that road was incredibly smooth and allowed me
time to relax and reflect back on the awesome road I was
just on. In fact, that road was so much fun I almost
wanted to give Dixon a call just to tell him how great,
it was, lol.
Video: Smooth section 80km before Nakusp
At Needles I caught the
ferry to cross the Lower Arrow Lake. Everyone else on
the ferry seemed to know each other, so it seems like
almost no one other than the locals use these roads.
Video: getting on the Needles Ferry
On the ferry at
Needles - Click to enlarge
View of the lake on
the Needles ferry - Click to enlarge
From there was another great
twisty bit of road to Nakusp, I honestly don’t remember
too much about this road, perhaps the last section was
just too exciting and overwhelming. But this stretch of
road didn’t bore me either. I got to Nakusp (say that
name quickly 3 times, I don’t even know how to pronounce
it) at about 10:05am. I knew there is a ship leaving
Gelena bay (45km away) crossing the Upper Arrows Lake
every 60 minutes at half past the hour, so either I
drive fast to catch the 10:30 one, or take it easy and
try to get the 11:30 one. Well, I made it to Gelena bay
by 10:26 and caught the 10:30 ship right on time :)
Video: getting on the Gelena Bay ferry
The ship across Upper
Arrows Lake -
Click to enlarge
On the ship I had some time
to relax and take some pictures of the beautiful
landscapes in southern BC. The weather was absolutely
perfect out on the lake. I chatted with this couple from
Vancouver who were visiting family in Revelstoke. The
man asked me if its safe to buy camera stuff on ebay and
we chatted a little about Calgary and BC.
The Shelter Bay ship
going the other way - Click to enlarge
There were these birds which
kept flying in and out of the ship while we were out on
the lake. I soon found out why, they actually had a nest
right in the ship itself!
Bird on the ship -
Click to enlarge
Birds nesting on the
ship - Click to enlarge
I played more “Follow the
leader” from Shelter bay to Revelstoke, and I’m glad I
did. The car I was following apparently had a radar
detector and wisely braked just in time near Revelstoke
at a 70kph zone to avoid a ticket. If it was me leading
I would have probably not slowed in time. Phew!
My planned route was to take
Highway 1 (Trans Canada) from Revelstoke back to
Calgary. Boy, it sure was a boring stretch of road. Lots
of traffic got in my way, plus the occasional cop
presence meant I couldn’t get anywhere quickly.
Video: The very dull Highway 1 near Revelstoke
The worst thing was all the
constructions that went on at various places. Some of
the 2 lane mountain passes were occupied by slow semi
trucks which drove at a snail like 30-40kph while
everyone else was stuck behind them. The only high light
from this section of the trip was the Rogers pass view
point, which was pretty sweet. With a SLR hanging down
my neck I kept having people asking if I could use their
camera to help take a picture of them. I enjoyed doing
that, because I felt that I could help them make a
picture better than most of them could anyway.
Video: Rogers pass tunnels
One of the tunnels
near Rogers Pass - Click to enlarge
Rogers Pass roadside
view point - Click to enlarge
Bridge construction
near Rogers pass - Click to enlarge
Funny road sign on
one of the bridges - Click to enlarge
One of the funniest road
signs I saw a couple of times during this trip was the
one pictured above. What's that supposed to mean?
Should I drive near the trucks or wait for them to fall
over? LOL.
Video: following big semi near Golden
Just before Lake Louise I
saw a bunch of cars stopped on the side of the road,
that usually means there are wild life near by. So I
stopped as well and snapped a couple of pictures of
there gorgeous white mountain goats. They even put on a
little show by ramming into each other on the cliff.
Mehuhhheehhh!
(Translation: Get away from me punk!) - Click to enlarge
And the big guy wins,
naturally - Click to enlarge
These two looks on
while the drama unfolds - Click to enlarge
With all the construction
traffic and the need to stay within the speed limits, I
was home right on schedule at 4:58pm. I even spent 20
minutes taking a break and re-fueling at Canmore.
Video: 200 meters from home
In total the MINI used 210
litres of fuel in 3090km of driving, killed thousands of
bugs, ran into 2 birds, and generally performed
absolutely flawlessly. Surprisingly I never got a sore
butt, perhaps I took enough breaks along the way.
I would do this trip again
in a heart beat, but probably won’t stay at that stuffy
Penticton place next time. I love Vancouver and BC, and
honestly, I wanted the trip to last forever (well at
least another 3-4 days)
I'll never forget this
trip, and when I've got another $400 to spare, I'll be
back! Hopefully, next year.
Statistics for the trip:
Total money spent: $250 gas, $100 hostel, $45
parking and other fees, $40 food, $9 cherries, $4 Canada
flag for the car
Total hours slept: 20 in 4 nights
Total hours driving: Around 40
Did I get myself killed?
No
Did the car get stolen? No
Killed by internet friends? Nope
Ran away with a girl in BC? I'm hoping
maybe next trip...
10/7/06
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