October 19th (Afternoon)

I got a “freebie” ride today. Corrie had to take Taryn to ballet at 4:30 (ending at 5:30), so we decided it made more sense for her to go over and clean the office afterwards rather than making another trip down so we planned that I would meet them at her work instead of riding home. The cool part of that is it means I get basically a true “all downhill” type ride, hah!
As I had a bit more time than usual, I decided to do some exploring at first around the trailer park up in Pineview/Aberdeen. Instead of cutting through the trailer park like I usually do, I continued along the fire-road to explore where exactly it went. As I rode up and around the park, I noticed a couple of single-track trails going off to my left (towards the trailer park), while the road took me alongside a fence on my right. By the third single-track trail, I decided to find out where it went. It was a fun little trail that ended up taking me right down to the garbage and trailer storage area for the trailer park residents. Figuring this was a good, quick little trail but not quite what I was looking for, I turned around and climbed back up the trail and got back onto the fire-road. I continued along the road again until it went left, but a trail kept going straight. I followed the trail, but noticed it wasn’t very well travelled. I soon found out why, as it dead ended at the backyard fences of some of the rich Aberdeen residents! Oops! The large sign stating “Private Property – STAY OUT” was a clear enough message, so I turned around again and climbed back to follow the road… The road itself did wind around and took me to the end of Westerdale Dr which I followed to Glenmohr Dr. and then down to Howe. So, the fire-road indeed does bypass the trailer park entirely, although it is not faster or easier by any means. But, still a bit more riding on some dirt roads I guess?
After that, I took the usual route down to my entrance into Peterson’s Creek park off of Summit Dr. However, I followed the Tom Moore trail all the way along the west side of the valley, rather than turning onto the Billy Minor South trail to go down to the creek. I followed the west side ‘till the Billy Minor North trail where I used to descend into the valley. It was a blast to ride this old, familiar trail again. A couple of the switchbacks I actually made better than I ever had, with both more speed and more control. Along the top of the ride, I stopped to take a couple of pictures to post here.

Here’s a cool shot showing the canyon. This is one of the highest points of the trail, and for sure this is a section where you do NOT want to be sliding over the edge! It would be a long, hard hike back up…

Here’s a cool lookout (hence the bench being there). We’re facing North, looking down the canyon/valley out into downtown Kamloops, and then out towards Rayleigh.

Looking across the canyon to where my regular trails are. It’s hard to see on this poor quality picture, but you might be able to see two “lines” on the hill just in the upper, right corner (above the rock cliffs). Those are my trails. Come winter as well as the ice and snow, I don’t think I’ll be testing fate there…

The ride overall was really good. The brakes got more than a workout from the steady downhill that lasted from the old Merritt Highway (top of Summit drive) all the way to Corrie’s work. It is also fun to commute with traffic downtown every now and then, as it means a lot of sudden sprinting and then stopping, trying to keep up with traffic and not cause people any delays as they drive behind me. Fun, but not something I’d probably enjoy every day…