{"id":8,"date":"2008-05-09T17:28:31","date_gmt":"2008-05-09T21:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/?p=8"},"modified":"2009-03-19T00:14:46","modified_gmt":"2009-03-19T04:14:46","slug":"may-9-twin-lakes-to-anarchist-mountain-76km","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/?p=8","title":{"rendered":"May 9: Twin Lakes to Anarchist Mountain (~76km)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bikely map<\/a><\/p>\n

I woke up and it was cold enough (and the tent was damp enough both from the cold and from having been pitched in the rain the night before) that I was quite slow getting myself out of my sleeping bag to actually begin the day. This lag pushed my start time back to 8:45am from the usual 8:00am.<\/p>\n

In spite of the conditions in\/around the tent, it was actually a rather nice day, and I didn’t get terribly far before the turn off towards DRAO (note that DRAO was a point of interest for me largely because my friend Tim did a work term there) near this little vista:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Having gone on a bit, made the turn, climbed a little (but still steep by my Ontarian estimation) bit, I took this shot looking back to the highway:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

And got a few more pics of what was basically ranchland on the way to the observatory<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

upon approaching which, I was greeted by this sign (which struck me as surprisingly close to the observatory, but I guess it’s largely a matter of ridges, valleys, etc.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

and there’s the observatory, first as taken from the sign, and then a few other shots closer up:<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

One of Tim’s stories of DRAO involving Faraday cages around computers, I just had to capture the faraday cages around the A\/V and computer equipment in the Visitors’ Centre<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

and an obligatory big dish shot<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The rubber band holding my (borrowed) camera together also having broken, I seized upon the excuse to wander into the Observatory building itself (which was clearly signed as not open to visitors), find an administrator’s office (though not until I’d peeked into a few machine rooms and whatnot) and ask for a replacement (which I did, and was given).<\/p>\n

After this, I continued along the minor roads in the White Lake and Twin Lakes area towards Oliver. Note the ice pack still on the ground:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

And one of the minor country roads which I opted not to follow, since I wasn’t going to Oz<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

A few more shots as I continued along, towards (and into) the Okanagan Valley.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

And as I continued towards Osoyoos, I caught a glimpse of the mess of relatively steep grades and switchbacks by which I’d climb out of the valley: The Anarchist<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

looming a little closer<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

filling the frame<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

though for all the anticipation, it wasn’t that much of a climb. In fact, I was able to go for >1.5km at a time once or twice without stopping to catch my breath, and I don’t think that I ever did a stretch shorter than 300m (remember also that this is on a bike loaded down to weigh about 110lbs, and towards the end of the day)<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

One nice thing about riding up switchbacks along a really steep mountainside is that it affords nice views (and unlike riding down, one actually wants to stop and admire\/photograph them)<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Though like with any significant climb, there’s also the temptation to photograph the road too<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Though the view from the ridge (which is quite certainly not the top, end of the long continuous portion of ascent though it may be) is also rather nice<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Since the time was wearing on, and I’d misremembered the material I’d read on Anarchist Summit, I interpreted the pitch as an unsigned summit, and set up camp for the night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bikely map I woke up and it was cold enough (and the tent was damp enough both from the cold and from having been pitched in the rain the night before) that I was quite slow getting myself out of my sleeping bag to actually begin the day. This lag pushed my start time back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bc","category-ridingdays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rolling.melon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}