We left Jasper on Oct. 1st around noon and had a big travel day ahead of us. After going 350 miles south we ended up in Kelowna in Southern BC. Kelowna is the north end of Okanagan Valley which, heading south, begins the heart of the the BC wine country. We were bushed by the time we got to Kelowna and we staked out a campsite at the Beaver Creek Provincial Park on the banks of Lake Okanagan.

The next day we made the short  trip down the wine trail. Our first stop was in the town of Oliver which bills itself the “Wine Capital of BC (and Canada).” To get the lay of the land we stopped off at the tourist info center and met Rhoda, a member of the Tahltan branch of the First Nation who live much further north in BC. She steered us in all the right directions: from where to best see the salmon running upstream to the best local wineries. We took a short hike along the banks of the Okanagan River and saw the salmon struggling to make it upstream.

We visited a few wineries along the way. Tinhorn Creek Winery featured an excellent Gewurztraminer, their signature wine, and Fairview Cellars, noted for their reds, had a truly outstanding Sauvignon Blanc, a white they produced on a lark.

 

 

Mitch was almost drunk by now but we kept soldiering on south to find the perfect red. We finally got to Osoyoos and Mitch wobbled into Moon Curser Vineyards, which the proprietor of Fairview said made the “second best” reds in BC after him. The “wine professor” went to work, and indeed ratcheted up his bar bill for the day. By this time he was giving every wine he tasted a 90+, and this was to continue for the next two days. Thank God for aspirin!