Transcedence

Mission Creek
Okanagan Lake
Knox Mountain

I started out the day, riding ten miles at sunrise. I didn’t see any teddy bears today but I did pay attention, watching for giant black fur balls that might come out of the bush. The only fur I saw was a nice assortment of the canine variety. It was about 40 degrees and I was quite chilled through at the end of this ride. I was so stiff in my hands I could hardly get my riding gloves off. Thirty minutes in the 104-degree hot tub rectified this problem and the problem of hunger was nicely solved with an opulent breakfast of eggs, ham, raisin toast, juice, and fresh fruit, and tea. It is luxurious to be able to eat with impunity, given the amount of exercise I have been getting.

At midday I walked down to the waterfront to photograph the annual dragon boat races. These oversized racing sculls have 16 rowers, two columns of eight. These colorful boats with their large dragon mastheads made for fine images. There are three days of events with evening concerts. Dozens of arts and crafts kiosks and food vendors and a few thousand people gave a festive sensibility to the splendid waterfront parks. People arrived on bike, board, blade, foot, carriage, and a few even arrived by car. It is a grand transportation system that operates here.

Tonight I almost wish I had been in a car. About 6:00 PM it seemed prudent to launch myself up Knox Mountain on my bike. Last weekend we went up this mountain in a car and it did not seem like it would be too arduous on a bike. Wrong!! A 12% grade feels totally different in a car than it does on a mountain bike. Two years of daily abuse on the stair climber did not prepare me for this! I was panting like a hot dog in August when I arrived at the top. The sun was just setting below the horizon when the summit came into view. Kelowna is in a really majestic mountain setting, well worth the uphill work to see it again. The high-speed coast down the serpentine road reminds me of the incredible descent one gets in Hawaii after a long ride up in a van. In this case I did not cheat and did the uphill work before getting the free ride down. The 40-minute ascent yielded a bracing 6-minute plunge back to the lakeshore.

With a bit of smugness, I went back and had dinner with Dwight and Barbara, inhaling two plates of salmon and halibut along with fresh vegetables. As soon as I upload this entry, I pan to work on some ice cream.