Departing Kamloops, I welcomed the dry climate and sagebrush pastureland so unfamiliar to eyes accustomed to the "north". Men in cowboy hats worked their tractors down the road and women tended their gardens. The terrain slowly changed into rolling farmland surrounded by taller peaks. I couldn't help but imagine I was driving through the Shenandoah Valley with the round and square hay ales stacked in fields and under barns.
I saw a slow moving bike ahead and immediately recognized it as a 50cc Piaggio scooter riding in my direction. I pulled a u-turn and caught up with the fellow traveler from Vancouver.
The rain began around Vernon when I paused for gas. It continued to intensify as I rose higher into the mountains toward the Kootenay Mtns. The deluge swamped the road, coursing down the pavement in snaking rivulets churned milky white by truck tires. By the time I reached the ferry to Fauquier, my lower half was soaked. Wet crotch does not a happy traveler make.
The rain continued until dark. I rode up to Nikusp for gas and some soup, then continued deeper into the mountains. I found a pull off for the old silver mining town of Sandon, following it up a smooth gravel road into the fog. A mine appeared on the right, the active Klondike Mine, then a series of derelict buildings. I set up across from town in a small pulloff by the river's edge.
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