:: W4B photography's companion blog ::

:: Thursday, June 07, 2007 ::

June 3rd part 2
Drive into the Okanagan continues.
I continued after the collision into the Okanagan via the town of Osoyoos which is in wine growing country. the terrain reminded me very much of the southern California area. Santa Monica mountains. Very arid. And Very Hot. Temp here started to climb. And it would stay hot the couple of days I was in the Okanagan. at least 35 or 36 C. Not a clould in the sky and quite humid.

there were bears too:





I stopped in Trail BC as my sun screen was done and I needed more. and of course more gas and more Timmies. I scored a local paper and read about a bridge that was the subject of recent debate South of the city. It was old, with a wooden roadbed and on a route to the US that there was thought of increasing traffic on. Century old bridges are cool. Even if I go the wrong way looking for it. :) The Waneta Bridge is south of Trail on Hwy 22a. The cantilever 'Cooper Grasshopper' style bridge, was built in 1893, and has been in continuous use since. Originally a rail bridge, then rail and car, it was converted in 1947 to vehicle use only when a second span was made for rail traffic. It may be one of the oldest bridges in BC.





There was a tunnel out in the open that went no where but probably did once in 1913 (outside of Greenwood BC)



Pastoral scenes viewed from the top of Anarchist Mountain.



Layers of mountains above and to the West of Osoyoos at the bottom end of the Okanagan Valley - including an observatory in the foreground. I am finding balancing light conditions tough when the sky is bright and the trees are dark green....



and last, to illustrate the quick drop in elevation, this is how much the air pressure crushed my water bottle when I was down in the bottom of the Okanagan. crappy picture with the light n so on - and my windows needed de-bugging at that point, but interesting. I saw this last going into Las Vegas from the high desert in California on a long straightaway.



the drive up the Okanagan from Osoyoos is a pleasant one on world class roads. cycling on them, and on the tight steep Tour de France like switchbacks there and above Kelowna would be awesome. It is an easy drive with the lake on the right. I got into Kelowna around 10pm I think and met up with Angel who was super generous in offering her couch to crash on for a couple of days. I didn't really take any pics in Kelowna aside from one or two as it was too damn hot to be out and about. Still super high temps, no breeze and so on. We did a couple of walk abouts of downtown, I did a ton of laundry, and hanged out at a coffeeshop book store called Mosaic where the barrista was quite friendly and liked my tattoo and didn't think it was real as the detail was that good. :)

More to follow.


Carpe Diem

:: Mike Wood 12:33 [+] :: 1 comments
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1 Comments:

Hi there

FYI, the tunnel was part of the road until about 1998 when they did some construction on the road to prepare for the filming of Snow Falling on Cedars with Ethan Hawke that was released in 1999. The flags painted on the side of the old tunnel where painted by the cast and crew of the movie.

If you are ever passing this way again, there is an old mine between Grand Forks and Greenwood called Phoenix. Granted I do not know you but you seem like someone who is interested in everything and it is very interesting!

By  Anonymous, at 2:55 PM  

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