Kimberly May 11 2022    

Barry and I drove out to Kimberly from Kelowna yesterday.  It turned out to be a 550 kms drive which took a lot longer than I had thought but then we were in Barry’s motorhome so we were not the speediest vehicle on the road.  I was also surprised at how much snow was still piled up along the road on the passes.  Okanagan pass was particularly bad where the snow banks were well over 8 feet.  When we arrived at our campground Ken Coburn was already there and met us at the office as he was using the wifi. 

It was really cold last night and even this morning it was only 3.0C.  Kind of chilly to be heading out so we had a leisurely breakfast and rolled out of camp at around 9:30.  By then the sun was well up had some power to keep you warm.   As today was the first ride day we had elected to ride down to Cranbrook following the bike trail and have lunch in the A&W there.  From there we headed back up the bike trail to Kimberly.  In Kimberly we hit the A&W there for a large root beer.  The campsite where we are staying is called the Kimberly Riverside Campground however it is really just outside of St Mary.  This is about 10 kms south of the actual Kimberly town site.  Fortunately it is all downhill to the campsite so we had an easy return home.  It was a really good first day as we made a total of 68 kms and had a total climb of 508 meters. 

Although it was quite cold this morning when we left it did warm up to around 12 C. We were quite lucky and only caught a few little sprinkles of rain.  The sky had a lot of really black threatening clouds and we could see rain all around us. 

The campsite is very nice with great camping spots and good wifi.  The showers are free but the water temperature is fixed and is a little on the cool side for my taste.  I guess this is to keep the showers short.  As a side note Kimberly won the title of “best small town in BC”  this year.  Not surprising as it is a very cool place. 

Terry