Can You Climb Out of Kokanee Bay?

It rained last night, but I was tucked safely into Fiona's studio.  She does some work with mosaics...the one by her front door is beautiful!  After a wonderful breakfast, and a bit more chit chat, I hugged Fiona goodbye and headed south towards Balfour.  There were climbs and descents, climbs and descents all the way to the ferry.  At the ferry terminal, I was enticed by a bakery that had a line of people out the door, and bought a triple chocolate cookie.  Boo!  It was disappointingly dry and stale.  The sun, however, had made a glorious appearance, and I spent a couple of hours at the ferry terminal, people watching and enjoying the wifi at a little lakeside restaurant.  The ferry is free and makes a 35 minute crossing over to Kokanee Bay.  You know how ferry terminals always have those wretched uphills?  I was curious as to whether or not I could climb my way out of Kokanee Bay without stopping.  Seems I can...

I took my sweet time riding through Crawford Bay.  It is home to a variety of  artisans and craftsmen.  There was a broom shop (they made the brooms for the Harry Potter movies),  a pottery shop, a forge, and art galleries.  I would have liked to have stopped at the forge...I love all of that iron hardware, but there is no way I'm carrying it on my bike.  There will just have to be a time when I come back to this place by car.

The rollers south of Crawford Bay were pretty tame and about 3:30, I rolled into Lockhart Beach Provincial Park.  Great beach!  My grandkids would love sorting all of the rocks, keeping some as "special" and skipping others on the surface of the lake.  The wind wasn't particularly bad this afternoon, but there were whitecaps and I thought of Fiona swimming her way across the lake.  I saw three kayaks chasing each other and slapping water at each other with their paddles.  I waded in...but wasn't planning on going swimming.  I didn't have anyone to motivate me...:)

The park has nice sized sites, but no showers, no potable water and just pit toilets.  Ken the Ranger told me it was okay to drink out of Lockhart Creek...he does it all the time.  I'll pass.  The last thing I need is "you know what".

I'll have a short ride to Creston tomorrow and Ken gave me a detour/shortcut that he said would save me a long climb.  I'm going to try it...even if he does drink out of the creek.

I'm still waiting for that north wind.  Today it was out of the south all day long.  As I write this, clouds have rolled in and I hope they don't ruin my "afternoon sun going down behind the mountains with water shimmering in the foreground" picture.