Day 6

Taking a day off in Hope felt like a strategic retreat. We woke up to that familiar B.C. drizzle and decided to let the local TV weather personality justify our decision to stay put. Looking back, I can see how much we needed that pause—not just for our legs, but to mentally prepare for the Kettle Valley Railway. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon at the local library, a quiet little oasis where we could touch base with the 'real world' through our online journals.

I remember walking through Hope and being fascinated by the chainsaw carvings—there's something uniquely Canadian about a place declaring itself the 'Chainsaw Carving Capital of the World'. Pete Ryan's salmon sculptures were genuinely impressive. The real work of the day, though, was deciphering the Kettle Valley Railway book. As the lead organizer, I was trying to map out a route designed for people going the other way. Reading about washouts, the Coquihalla climb, and 'ingenious' (read: exhausting) ways to cross fences, I felt a familiar surge of youthful confidence mixed with a brand-new sense of dread. We thought the Trans Canada Trail was supposed to be a finished highway for bikes; the book suggested a scavenger hunt through the wilderness.

Before dinner at Skinny's Grille, we scrambled through the 'Sasquatch Caves' behind the motel. Looking at those house-sized boulders now, I realize how precariously they were balanced. It was a bit like our trip at that point—held together by passion and luck, but we were finally ready to see what the KVR had in store for us tomorrow.

We wake up long enough to see that it is overcast and drizzling and that is enough for us to curl up for another hour or so of sleep. Once we do get up, we turn on the television in our motel room and get the weather forecast. Thundershowers are predicted for today but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. Later in the morning it stops raining and we decide to risk walking into Hope to get lunch.

After we finish lunch, we head over to the public library where we spend some time updating our online journals. Scattered about town are numerous wood carvings sculpted by a local resident, Pete Ryan. All of them were carved by using chainsaws! It has earned Hope the title "Chainsaw Carving Capital of the World". While walking around Hope I am completely surrounded by mountains on all sides. Clouds are rolling and spilling off of the tops of the mountains.

I walk back to the motel where we play a couple games of cards and a game of Scrabble. Outside our room, there is a sign that reads "Sasquatch Caves" pointing toward the mountain behind the motel. Blue, Wendy, and I decide to go and investigate. The side of the mountain is very sheer and at the base is a pile of enormous boulders that have tumbled off of the mountain. Some are literally the size of a small house.

The rain showers that were forecasted have not shown up. But this has given a Blue a chance to closely examine what the book has to say about the Kettle Valley Railway trail. It appears that for most of tomorrow we will be riding on the Coquihalla Highway which was built on top of the old railway. The coming days sound like a lot of very slow and hard riding. Sections of the trail are washed out or unpassable because of rock slides and the book mentions many detours. This is starting to sound much harder than we had anticipated. We go out for supper at "Skinny's Grille" and have a very good meal. We pack up as much of our gear as possible in hopes of an early start tomorrow.