Today's route was southern Penticton to Ok Falls to Oliver and on to Osoyoos and then back again. My phone was drained out of power during the western ascent out of OK falls on the way back, so it is missing roughly 13 km of tracking as I know longer had the phone's GPS to track me. The pictures are from the bridge separating Northern and Southern Lake Osoyoos facing south.
Leaving Penticton on the Eastern route of Lake Skaha was fairly uneventful with low winds coming off the lake, which was nice. Between OK Falls and Oliver the route is about 22 km and always seems to be the hardest part of the ride, however this year it seemed to be go by quickly and I reached the southern end of Oliver with an average speed of 29.5km which is my fastest 40 km this year. Between the Oliver and Osoyoos there where a couple of road constructions stops and a lot of strange people wandering the highway. In general the route from OK falls to Osoyoos heading south would be considered more of a descending route. The official stats for the first half of the ride where; 57.9km in 1.55min with an average speed 28.9km
Heading back seems to all ascending, and wind. Just like last year, the wind is the worst between Oliver and OK Falls. In comes in waves and for moments goes away and you make up some ground only to be by another wave of wind that seems to take the speed right of you no matter how hard you pedal.
Final stage, OK Falls back to Pentiction I had decided earlier in the day to mountain climb and take a longer route back this year and complete a circle around Lake Skaha (last the year the wind killed me between Oliver and Ok falls and I only managed to ride between Penticton and Oliver and back before "loosing my legs" along the eastern side of the Lake Skaha which I thought would be easier). In truth, I thought that the western route out of Ok Falls would give me a long down hill route heading back but I had forgotten just how much climbing the route has and overestimated how much descending you get. Still I managed to hit 100km in Oliver with enough energy to climb away and head upward and on ward for the last 18km.
Well there you have, finally completed this route after a year of saying that I would. It would be nice to see how easier and faster the route would be riding in a group or at least with 1 other partner as opposed to going it solo. Sharing the wind breaking alone I think would help immensely.
Name: Penticton-Osoyoos
Date: 2010-06-30 8:07 am
Distance: 105 kilometers
Elapsed Time: 4:04:03
Avg Speed: 25.8 km/h
Max Speed: 55.5 km/h
Avg Pace: 02' 20" per km
Min Altitude: 145 m
Max Altitude: 473 m
Start Time: 2010-06-30T15:07:59Z
Start Location: Latitude: 49.461217º N Longitude: 119.578555º W
End Location: Latitude: 49.378718º N Longitude: 119.613211º W