Panamerican Peaks Project

Off the beaten path

August 3rd, 2009

Yesterday I ventured away from the main highway and took two detours. One upon recommendation of Peter and Diana, who I had met and spent some nice time over dinner with the day before. The other one to find some camping accomodation in a nice nature setting away from the highway.

The first detour was just South of Williams Lake, where the main highway goes over a big hill and the old road meanders around closer to the valley bottom.

One of the things that slows me down here are the many cattleguards, which I am crossing very slowly and carefully:

Friend Peter lives out here and shows me the very idyllic place of his landlady, a house with an interesting history.

After riding a couple of hours on the main highway again I reach 100 Mile House and stop by at the Visitor Center. There I discuss several options for a nice place within reach for a stay overnight. One recommendation is to detour towards Green Lake. A look at the map makes this seem reasonable, with moderate extra km to go. It is getting late in the evening, so the sun is casting long shadows again.

Unfortunately the backroads here are very hilly, and I take a wrong turn once, having to backtrack a few km and vertical m. It takes me 2.5 hours to cover 35km, definitely longer than I expected. Hence I end up in a race against time due to the sun setting earlier. Speaking of sunset: At one point the sun sits bloodred just behind me in the rearview mirror:

Another half hour or so of tiring up-&-down riding brings me to Green Lake and the Little Horse Lodge. The scenery is very pretty, with the moon rising and some thunderheads glowing red in the distance.

My only complaint with this backroad detour is that the German restaurant at the lodge already closed at 8pm, 1 hour before I get there … and they had German dinner specials that night :-((

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