Princeton/Okanagan trip

 We usually head into this area AFTER the September long weekend, when the tourists have gone home and the kids are back in school.
Our first night is typically spent in Princeton, but we opted for two days, as I wanted to check out a local point-of-interest, as well as survey the flood damage done to the KVR this past November.

The path to the KVR tunnel is now "multi-use" (with stipulations), so it's an easy drive to this destination.

Once through the tunnel, the area leading to the bridge has been blocked off...

Heartbreaking...half of the bridge is completely gone! The irony is that there is so little water flowing now, it's possible to cross the river just by rolling up your pant-legs.

After this, we followed Coalmont road for a few miles to the bluffs/viewpoint. You can see a large section of the railbed has been completely washed away.
Don't know when or even IF this will ever get repaired....

The following day, we set out for this fire lookout on Agate mountain...

There was a bit of smoke from distant fires, so the views weren't nearly as good as they should have been.

The "shed"...crumbling away.

As far as fire-lookouts go, this one didn't have much in the way of 'character'...just the usual graffiti and missing windows.

Even the outhouse seemed to be missing something....

Nonetheless, it was a fairly easy ride to here....mostly "C" with a bit of C+ near the top.

On the way down, we stopped at Wolfe Lake for a drink and rest...

After two days in Princeton, we relocated to Penticton where the goal was to travel overland into the Carmi/Beaverdell area and ride some of the KVR in that subdivision.

We followed Beaverdell road out of town....gaining lots of altitude in the process.

 

Stopped to take some pics at the Ellis Creek dam...shortly after this, the road becomes the Okanagan Falls Forest Service Road.

Google Earth had instructed us to head East at the 52 km mark. This road wasn't nearly as wide or well groomed as Beaverdell road, but it was still passable.
As we got further and further from the main road, this one became a bit less "used"...

After a couple of wrong turns, we found ourselves on the "correct" road....but I didn't like the name of this one....

This route would continue for about another 8 miles (all downhill) before we would reach Carmi, and I didn't feel too good about travelling two-up on a road that was getting worse by the minute...only to discover that it was named NO BRIDGE ROAD because there is a missing bridge two miles from the bottom!
This photo doesn't show very well the steepness or the condition of the road...there were some HUGE cross ditches and lots of trees across the path, suggesting that it had not been travelled in some time.

After another ½ mile or so on this road, I opted to call it quits...nobody knew our itinerary, and there was no cell-coverage here, so I didn't think it was worth the risk.
Along the way back, we stopped in at Idleback Lake for lunch and a break from the seat!

TW at Idleback lake.

We followed the OK Falls FSR back to the junction with Beaverdell road, but then opted to continue along...connecting to the Shuttleworth Creek road which would drop us into OK Falls.

Of course, once in OK Falls, it is obligatory to stop at Tickleberries for an ice cream...

This made for the longest ride I have taken on this TW...over 113 miles, and we didn't even achieve our objective.