With a somewhat exposed campsite, we were all up early to greet the sun cresting the mountain tops surrounding our camp here at Thirsk Lake. After breakfast and a quick wash in the lake, we began the process of striking camp and humping everything through the deer fence and hauling the bikes from their hiding place and up onto the trail (which at this point is a logging road).
It wasn`t far down the trail that we came to the store at Bankier where Roy and Richard tucked into some bumbleberry pie ala mode. They had had breakfast after all! I was more interested in bottled water from the cooler and I also snagged two bags of dollar candy from the counter. I sure like my candy and it was a surprise to me that I hadn`t thought before to stock up on some. The idea came from a couple we met cycling their way to Vancouver Island along the TransCanada Trail. We had met them yesterday shortly after dowsing our hot bodies into the Samilkameen River and while we could only pedal as far as Thirsk Lake, they were headed to Osprey Lake to set up at the campsite there.They joined us in Bankier and while chatting, they explained that they were pretty grumpy with each other last evening and the only thing that carried them onto Osprey Lake was their secret weapon - candy! I had found myself dissatisfied with the power bars that not only were melted beyond practical use, but were just not ``Doing it`` for me. Candy - now that was a good idea!
Around 4 in the afternoon we made it to the outskirts of Princeton where we planned to camp at a resort that Roy had visited on another KVR trip. It was an exhilarating ride downhill from Jura along the highway and I hit 52+k. and I know the boys were even faster than me as they pulled away in the distance.
The Castle Resort was everything we had hoped for except the swimming pool was closed and the office didn`t sell beer. But they did kindly offer to drive into town to get us some while we set up our tents. The place wasn`t very busy and they gave us free rein to set up where we wished. As we rode around looking for a viable spot, we passed the couple`s spot where they had already set up their tent and we discovered later that their names were Matt and Sheena and that they had taken the highway all the way from Bankier to Princeton and that accounted for the fact that they had made camp 2 hours ahead of us.
Matt and Sheena joined us for supper and we augmented our boil-in-a-bag dinners with fresh salad fixings that Matt and Sheena had purchased in downtown Princeton after they had made camp. Maybe it was the 2 beers I guzzled or maybe it was just needing rest, but after dinner, I couldn`t move from my horizontal position on our picnic bench. It may have appeared that I was sleeping because my eyes were closed, but in fact I was enjoying Richard, Roy and Matt and Sheena`s conversation about their many trips and I had strength enough to add the odd quip to pepper their discussion.
Before sacking out for the night, Roy showed us a gash in his rear tire that we would have to fix the next morning before we could tackle the trail. He figured that he had hit a rock on the quick descent into the outskirts that had brought us into the Castle Resort. We were left to ponder the tire fix as we bid each other good night and crashed in our respective tents.
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