Lori wrote this post, but we never quite finished the editing and posting… Now it’s December 29th, and it’s time to get it done! The original post was written in mid-September. Here goes!
One of the magic things about traveling the way we did is that we had a general daily plan with locations that we wanted to see/visit, including general dates when we want to be there, but we often left the specifics to serendipity. Our next campsite was exactly that, serendipitous! With my birthday looming two days away, we were driving to 100 Mile House on our way toward Kelowna and the Okanagan Valley. So when Dan said that we were too far from our “dartboard” destination, the task was to find a campsite, and soon, so start googling. And I scrambled.
We settled on a campsite at Lake Helena near Lac La Hache. It was a long, windy, bumpy gravel road which made us doubt our choice, but we persevered. We pulled in at 6pm, road weary and hopeful for a level place to camp within view of the lake. We were so lucky, someone had just left the “best” site on the lake for us. Gratefully, we settled in and listened to the loons welcome us home.
We spent two nights at Lake Helena and a super idyllic day paddle boarding, watching the loons and enjoying the perfect September lake life. We pretended that this could be our ‘forever campsite’ for a day. Since we arrived two days before my birthday, this consigned me to reneging on my birthday plan of not driving on “my day” on September 13th. Instead, on my birthday, we made a long mad dash for Kelowna. It was a beautiful drive across amazing landscape. Including a very large copper mine, wild horses on a high plateau, and a long winding decent into the fire riddled hills of Kelowna on Okanagan Lake.
The campground we planned to stay at (no reservations, as usual in our adventure in the North) was packed. Fortunately, they had some overflow camping in a parking lot at the edge of the campground. After a crazy night in the overflow parking, we drove south to Penticton to a reserved campsite across from Skaha Lake. So much of this area has changed in the 20+ years since I competed in Ironman Canada here. I chased a few ghosts around as we ate at the lakeside grill, walked along the lake and finally paddled and swam in the lake. Maddie even had a quick beach flirtation with a little pug. So much fun.
This area is very beautiful and is the home of the Okanagan Valley wine country. We had a delightful couple of days, but we were also feeling the pull of home. As the sun waned on day three, we started making our way through the valley to the border crossing at Midway. Our fate was clear once we arrived in Midway: We were not ready to say goodbye to our grand adventure this night! When we arrived at the border, it was “shut”! Turns out, our 5:30 p.m. arrival time was 30 minutes too late, and we were after hours.
We turned away and headed into town, where we had seen a sign for the town campsite. Unfortunately, the campground only accepted Canadian cash, and we were out of Canadian coin. We did have US$, but the campground manager found pity on us and returned our US$22 and gifted us our last night in Canada. What an amazing stay!
The next morning, we tipped over the border to the border control officer’s hearty “Welcome Home!” greeting and made our way to Spokane. At the Spokane Costco we refueled and I picked out my b’day present (an Oura Ring). From there, on to the beautiful drive through the Palouse region of Eastern Washington, south and east through beautiful Idaho and the Basin and Ranges of Nevada. In three nights’ time we would be home.
