Carter-Johnson Myra Canyon day trip!

August 2, the Carter-Johnsons and the Lochran-Rutkowski (Ben!) set out from Annis Bay to Kelowna for our second annual "Bike-Myra-Canyon-Adventure"!

The bike trail sits on the location of what was formerly a rail road track.  

It is a beautiful trip around the top of the mountains.  

One can still see evidence of the Kelowna fire of several years back, but it is looking good!

There were lovely puffy clouds in the sky, which helped to take the edge off the heat. 

 It was interesting how rapidly the temperature would drop as the path took you through rocky cuts in the mountain.  

I was (as usual?) rather obsessed with the amazing clouds against the deep blue of the sky.

 I think there might be 16 trundle bridges that carry one over deep gorges.   

They are both 'cool' and a bit terrifying!   The view is amazing, but i was a bit afraid to stop!


There are a number of benches set up at places along the path.  They are a great place to kick back, enabling quicker cyclists (like Steve and Alex) to have a nice place to rest while waiting for more cautious cyclists (like me and Ben and Duncan).

I was for sure the slowest person in our group, in part because i kept wanting to take pictures from various vantage points. 

Most exciting were the two caves you have to travel through on the way.   

what will be inside?

They are the coolest part of the trip.  

I mean cool both in terms of groovy-ness and in terms of temperature.   

It is a bit freaky cycling with with sunglasses on... there is a wash of cool air, and you plunge into what seems total darkness.   

Of course, Steve waited in the darkness of the first cave to shout "Boo" at me as a cycled by in my blinded mole-like state.   Exciting!  

I was happy to see that if I waited in the cave til my eyes adjusted, and then played with the settings on my camera, i could catch some of the gorgeous definition of rocks on the inside of the cave.   

I also loved the 'picture frame' look as you exited the other end!

The fastest person on this trip was Alex.   He was on his way back when I was 2/3 of the way in.   The only problem was, he told us, that he had left his glasses on a rock at the end of the trail...but was too tired to cycle back there.   could we pick them up for him?! 

Well... yes we could!  Indeed, when Duncan and Ben arrived at the end of the trail, they indeed found a pair of glasses waiting on a rock. 

And so, here is a photo of the FIVE of us at the end of the trail (you can see Duncan and Ben holding up Alex's glasses, so he could be present by glasses-proxy!)