Quick hello

[Nia]

Welcome Nia,

I recently moved back to Ontario after almost 10 years in BC - 7 years in the wonderful sunny Interior, and 2 in dreary Maple Ridge. It was the depressing fall and winters in the GVRD that drove us back to Ontario. Stay in the Interior.

I hope you have a hybrid or moutain bike that you can use on unpaved trails. The Kettle Valley Railway offers some great day trips or extended tours. It's a nice ride down to Osoyoos (some of the ride is on Hwy 97 though - watch for motorhomes).

Have you gotten use to the sound of sprinklers yet?

Happy riding.

Sharon

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Where in Ontario did you go back to? I'm oringinally from Kitchener Waterloo....never had the joy of roadbiking out there though...
I bought a used Mountain bike for the occasional trail...so the kettle valley is on my list to do!!

...the sprinkler...oii!!! lol they are as common as tourist around here!!! (i think i'm allowed to say that since i was one for the longest time!!)

...i love the oliver region!! what an awesome ride from ok falls to osoyoos!!!

[Road Rash]

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Where in Ontario did you go back to? I'm oringinally from Kitchener Waterloo....never had the joy of roadbiking out there though...
I bought a used Mountain bike for the occasional trail...so the kettle valley is on my list to do!!

...the sprinkler...oii!!! lol they are as common as tourist around here!!! (i think i'm allowed to say that since i was one for the longest time!!)

...i love the oliver region!! what an awesome ride from ok falls to osoyoos!!!

I'm back in my hometown of Sault Ste. Marie. I went to the University of Guelph, so I'm familiar with the K/W area.

When we did our multi-day tour on the KVR, we took friends from Ontario along. We spent our first night in a campground in Osoyoos. The sound of sprinklers kept them awake for hours, while it lulled us to sleep.

Where we lived in Lillooet was quite arid like the Okanagan (often rivals Lytton for the Hot Spot in Canada title). The road biking was pretty much non-existent as the highways are described as some of the scariest in the province in a car - no shoulders, very twisty and quite mountainous - but very scenic. The mountain biking was excellent, there is a great heli-biking business in town if you like spending all day on a single descent. If you ever want to go to Whistler, take the Connector to Merritt, then Hwy 8 to Spence's Bridge, Hwy 1 down to Lytton, then Hwy 12 to Lillooet and Hwy 99 to Whisler. It's one of the best drives in BC (alot less traffic too). (Sorry for the travelogue)

We would probably still be in Lillooet, except the gov't office where my husband worked was closed shortly after our daughter was born and he got a job in downtown Vancouver. We hated the weather, the commute and the expense of living in the lower mainland, so when the opportunity to move back came we took it. We now have the same income, with a ten acre hobby farm that cost less than our three bedroom townhouse. We have a ten minute commute (30 minutes by bike), our daughter is in a great french immersion program at school and we are close to family - yay free babysitting!

We do miss the mountains, but the cross-country skiing is much better here than in the mountains and much safer. I don't miss wearing avalanche beacons at all!

I hope you take every opportunity you have to travel around BC, Alberta and the neighbouring States. There are some wonderful places to see and people to meet. My only regret is that we didn't take the ferry up to Prince Rupert or drive up to the Yukon while we were out there.

Sharon