Day 7 ? Kelowna, we arrive on time. Caught the 7am ferry out of Swartz Bay and it was only 60% full when we arrived at 6:30. The day starts well. Time checks hit the mark all the way. Traffic on Hiway 1 is terrible until Chilliwack but then thins out considerably. The Coquihalla east bound had paving going on when we went through three days before and we noticed the lines on the up track were extremely long. We figured we would outsmart the locals and run Hiway 3 to Princeton, then 5A and 97C into Kelowna. The route is only a few kms longer but the speed limit is less so most folks want to make time and will opt for the Coquihalla.
Ha, WE WON. The trip was at least as fast, we had no long tedious wait at the paving section, there was much less traffic and the route was absolutely more interesting. Hiway 5A is an outstanding drive. I have never been on it before and I would definitely do it again.
Like I said, we made Kelowna on schedule. 3pm. Debbie had time to get her bike into transition, get registered for the Tri and go to the pre-race meeting. Done.
We had made reservations at a campground a few kms out of town on Wood Lake, The Wood Lake Terrace Campground. It was getting close to dinner and we were a little edgy so we headed towards our abode. We didn’t have the exact location and Wood Lake, although quite small, is big enough when you do not know which side of the lake you want to access. Many years ago I had stayed on the south shore of the lake and assumed that the campground would be there. We drove by on the highway and did not notice any signage indicating that the camp we were looking for was there. The highway follows the west shore of the lake with a steep bank to the west and there is only enough room for the highway. Suddenly there is a sign ‘The Wood Lake Terrace Campground.’
WLTC is the only thing on the west side of the lake. There is the lake shore, the highway and then a terraced campground and RV area. I had a bad feeling as we drove in; the place just did not feel right. It was within spitting distance of the highway and the traffic noise was horrendous. Frankly, it looked more like a junk yard than a campground. I worked in a campground for about 15 summers and I know that there are many types of campers but at least ½ of these campers would have been asked to leave the campground where I worked at because of the condition of their campsites. There was junk and garbage strewn everywhere, the tents and RVs were in terrible repair. Some of the sites looked as though the occupants were living there and they treated the area as their own yard, storing whatever they had collected over their tenure.
As the evening progressed things got worse. Someone turned up the music. The music was not that bad but it was loud enough that the whole campground could hear it, even over the highway noise.
Then the folks across the road from us came home. There was 4 tents on the site. There were at least 14 people camped on the one site, all ages from 5 to 50 and none of them had any idea what quiet was. They also rivalled the highway noise until well after midnight. I think they won the db contest hands down.
We had decided not to hold the second night of our reservation and told the lady at the desk so. We devised a plan to rise 15 minutes earlier than our already early time of 5:30 am and pack very efficiently, cut out and still arrive at the Tri site early. We pulled it off to perfection. Hopefully, we made just enough noise to irritate our noisy neighbours.
I would not stay at this campsite again on a bet. If you are thinking of doing so please check it out before making a commitment.