2018 BC Epic: Midway, Rock Creek, Osoyoos, Princeton, Tulameen, Merritt.

Leaving Midway on July 8th, my thoughts turned to pontificating on where I needed to be in the next few days and therefore how much distance I needed to cover. I wanted to be in Vancouver on July 10 so I decided to go through the Okanagan Valley via Osoyoos on the road rather than sticking to the Epic route. That would save about 100k and scratch me from Trackleaders. The Okanagan was hot but I managed just fine unlike the day I rode to  Castlegar. The Kettle Valley Rail Trail near Princeton had some rough sections of rocks, washboard and erosion caused by motorized vehicles which was hard on this old body. If I was to do this again I would like to try a Lauf fork and Specialized CG-R seatpost to take the edge off the small hits. Paved Coldwater Road descending into Merritt was a nice way to finish the route. I went to the bike store, but it was closed. I had a nice lunch at a cafe on the main drag and decided I was done riding. Did about 1400 kilometers in eight days of riding.  The next day I took a greyhound bus to Vancouver and my son met me at the bus station with a submarine sandwich and chocolate milk. Awesome.

N.B. I think Greyhound is discontinuing all service in BC in 2019 except for the routes going to the US. Hopefully some other bus companies will take up some of these routes.