Day 12 - Leaving Ron's

Ron's ingredients

I slept good and late in Ron's dark cool basement. I wasn't going to get any kind of an early start today despite having all my things charged, clean, and packed. Yesterday and today Ron had spent time showing me his plan for retirement, which was to travel around on a recumbent bike pulling a canoe so he could traverse both land and water solely on manpower. Ron is almost 63 by the way and can probably kick your ass.

Ron is in the process of selling his home to fund his adventure and begin his retirement. He also showed me in great detail his venture into the food business where he made extremely healthy grain type travel food snack things. I've got a picture of all the ingredients I'll post when I get home. The things were quite tasty, and in a more crass world their slogan could certainly be "Makes you shit like a bear!" Ron claimed to have eaten probably 1500 pounds of the stuff and for the shape he was in I trust they are good for you.

I also got to weigh myself and all my gear on Ron's scales. I was down to 145 lbs from my usual 150 lbs. My bike with the racks was about 35 lbs and the 4 panniers and backpack were 55 lbs. We also found that my 4 water bottles when filled were 6 lbs. That's almost 100 lbs of weight I'm pedaling along! Anyhow, after breaking the "latest to leave" record of Ron's many warmshowers guests we both set off heading north for 10 km on a quiet side road then up a steep dirt path back to the 97 where we parted ways after I got my picture by the town sign.

I followed the 97 until the heat forced me to cool off on a beach in Peachland. From here I rode through the town of West Kelowna where I purchased some bear mace at Ron's advice. I got off the 97 and onto the more quiet and hilly Westside road. I checked out Bear Creek provincial park but camping was an unreasonable $30. It was up and down hills along the Okanagan lake until I decided to call it a day and camp in the woods between Bear Creek and Fintry park, within earshot of some resort where people drunkenly sang karaoke.

Okanagan lake