Living Virally: 5% of 40 Days and 40 Nights

Episode 5

So, week 12 of self-isolating has passed and the government is now allowing some of those prohibited enjoyments back into our lives; yoga, golf and limited restaurant/pub services. For me and best of all, my favourite coffee place has re-opened. An almost sacred place where I have passed many enjoyable hours reading newspapers and watching Penticton go by.

 During week 11, we enjoyed lunch with my sister at a local restaurant on the very first day they opened to the public. Change was in the air. We were required to wait outside for about 10 minutes before we were escorted into a virtually empty restaurant. Not allowed to choose a table and we were seated at a table that was clearly 2 metres away from the next occupied table.  We were offered paper menus to be destroyed after we were done with them; but encouraged to use our phones to download their on-line menu. No water glasses but bottled water was available for a price. Servers were a bit standoffish. (2 metres)  Our food was dropped off at the end of the table and we were expected to serve ourselves from there. Dirty dishes, the same way, moved to the end of the table where they would be picked up by a staff person wearing gloves and a mask.As a male I must admit to a bit of a phobia being around people wearing rubber gloves. To pay, we used our phone to scan a QR code left on the table which took us to a web site where we could peruse our bill and then use the phone to pay the check. Welcome to the new reality.

Un-necessary travel outside our home area is still frowned upon but week 12 saw us escape into the mountains for a two night stay at the freshly opened Chute Lake Lodge located 30 kilometres in the mountains above Penticton.  Our plan was to visit and bike into Myra Canyon and the lodge is located just a short 25 kilometre bike away from the entrance to the canyon. Myra canyon is home to 18 visually stunning trestle bridges.  We have traveled this section of the KVR on three previous occasions. 

Since the last time we traveled, 14 of the trestles were destroyed by a massive wild fire in 2003 and were quickly rebuilt over the ensuing years. But to our dismay, the canyon section was closed to the public because of the difficulty to maintain the required 2 metres distance while traversing the narrow trestles. Over 75,000 visitors visit the canyon each year, most through the warmer months. Definitely not this weekend.      Photo: myracanyon.com

So plan B was an 11 kilometre hike into Elinor and Naramata Lake. The trail into the lake is part of the Highlands Trail/ High Rim Trail but is also used as a Forest Service road and for half the route, a logging road. This unfettered access means lots of use by four wheelers, atvs and dirt bikes.  No quiet back country trails this weekend. 

If I have one word to describe this trip, it would be WET. We arrived early on Friday and enjoyed the last few dry hours we would experience, exploring the newly renovated Lodge, grounds with a little fishing on Chute Lake. From dinner on, we experienced everything from light drizzles to torrential downpours that viciously exploded onto the tin roof of the lodge. As we enjoyed a wonderful dinner in the Lodge on Friday evening, we watched puddles grow into ponds.

 

The rain continued throughout the night, waking us several times when it sounded like a steam train was steam rolling through our room. Waking, we discover that overnight the puddles had become more like lakes. Hiking boots or rubber boots was the topic of conversation over breakfast. 

 

As the morning wore on, the rain became a light drizzle. Chanting our mantra of “We won’t melt”, we headed out for Elinor and Naramata Lakes.  Thanks to all the vehicular traffic, the trail/road was dotted with huge pond size puddles requiring some deft footwork to get around them. The four wheelers and atvs were having a great time roaring through them at high speeds creating giant tsunamis like waves. The car washes in Penticton were going to see some serious business today. Lunch was eaten hunkered down under a tree to keep our sandwiches dry.

 

Saturday night was a replay of Friday night with a great meal and more rain. But hey, we didn’t melt.