Desert cycling is a thorny challenge

I grasped the small hard two-pronged thorn with my fingers, tugged it from my bicycle tire, and heard the dismaying “pssssssst” as the air fizzled out.

We were warned by several people about cycling in a desert but didn’t take it seriously until we got four flats – all tires on two bikes – after riding just 10 metres along a dirt trail. Investing in puncture-proof tires is expensive but necessary where cacti and other thorny plants happily thrive.

Osoyoos B.C., where we’ve settled for the winter, is in the northern-most finger of a desert that stretches down through the United States and into Mexico. Sagebrush, rattlesnakes, sandy soil, cacti, low annual precipitation, lots of sunshine and high temperatures – it’s a semi-arid desert that humans have embraced in their names and architecture.

Cycling around town, you can’t miss the desert motif: Tumbleweed Spirits distillery, Sonoran Ridge housing development, Sahara Courtyard Inn, Cactus Flats condos, Desert Post Office, Sage Pub, Desert Sunrise Marina. In the 1960s, when the town was updating its look, it went with a southwestern theme.

A local history by D.M. Wilson described the red roof tiles, earth-tone paint, imitation adobe arches, old-world wrought iron work, and unglazed clay pots that “strive to suggest New Mexico, Arizona, or perhaps Portugal’s Azores Islands, whence a sizeable portion of the town’s population hails.”

The unavoidable thorny plant that did in our tires grows in vacant lots and along bike trail edges. I haven’t found its name yet, but we variously call it The Evil One, The Devil Plant, or Spawn of Satan. While researching plants, I discovered some others to watch for: puncture vine and longspine sandbur. Brittle prickly pear cactus – the only native cactus here – nestles into the bunchgrass in wild areas and thrives in gardens.

On the plus side, Bill made me learn how to fix a flat tire. Then we went shopping for four expensive puncture-proof – really, just puncture-resistant – tires. Reinforced with Kevlar, they boosted our confidence to tackle more desert cycling trails.

As we’ve explored, we’ve pieced together the culture and history of Osoyoos from the plethora of information panels, murals and historical plaques. (The Osoyoos Museum is closed while it moves into a newer building.) Here are our favourite desert cycling discoveries.

Trail Map

Irrigation Canal Trail (#16 on map)

The 4.3-km paved path runs along the Osoyoos Irrigation Canal, aka ‘The Ditch’ because it’s a 32-kilometre-long concrete-lined ditch that runs between Osoyoos and Oliver, the next town up the road, bringing water from the Okanagan River. The Ditch was built between 1918 and 1922, providing work for men returning from the First World War. Extending from The Ditch were 27 flumes and a giant wood siphon that brought water down into individual fields, allowing the orchards and vineyards to flourish.

We’ve cycled this path many times, along the unused section of The Ditch that’s overgrown with trees, shrubs and cacti. The trail passes orchards and vineyards, then passes under Hwy 3 through a tunnel to a section with native desert vegetation all around. California quails clatter and coo in the antelope brush (a shrub the size of lilacs) and dart across the trail. Sagebrush (a medium-sized shrub), bunchgrass, and brittle prickly pear cactus are the other dominant species. Plus, The Evil One, of course! We swerve around stray strands of that devil plant on the path.

The trail loops up a steep hill, around the small airport, then down and back under Hwy 3 to the start.

87^th Street (#31)

87^th Street is a long winding road with gentle hills that takes you from central Osoyoos out past Blue Sky Estate Winery, plus vineyards and orchards in their winter colours of burgundy, grey and tan – like a crazy quilt laid over a lumpy bed. In late October, the apples were being harvested and some grapes still hung on the vines. With the sun on our backs and glimpses of sparkling Osoyoos Lake, it’s a lovely ride. When we reached busy Highway #97, we turned around and retraced our route. 

See our video: 4 Fun and easy winter bike rides around Osoyoos.

Osoyoos Lake Waterfront

We often cycle along Osoyoos Lake for about 6.5 kilometres in three sections.

Section 1: Lakeshore Drive (#17)

From our place on Lakeshore Drive near Goodman Park (#3 on map), we step out our door, hop on our bikes and follow the paved bike path along the shoreline, past parks, Lakeside Cellars winery, beaches, homes and more parks and beaches.

A historical plaque identifies a rambling white clapboard house as the former home of John Carmichael Haynes, who established a customs house in 1861 at Osoyoos Lake to collect taxes from the thousands of gold miners flooding into the area.

At the end of Lakeshore Drive, we ride up a steep hill into vineyards, where we’re within spitting distance of the U.S. border (if we could spit about 300 metres). Lakeshore Drive originated as a trail used by Indigenous people, and then by the explorers, fur traders, miners and settlers coming north from the U.S. Historian D.M. Wilson said it’s the oldest road in B.C.; it was finally fenced off during Prohibition in the U.S. and the official border crossing established on the other side of the lake.

Section 2: Pioneer Walkway (#18)

When we head the other way on the Lakeshore Drive, the bike path takes us to Hwy 3 (aka Main Street) where we go west, past Junction 3 Coffee House with its excellent lattes, to a gazebo at the start of Pioneer Walkway. We’ve used the separated cycling and walking paths in all seasons, enjoying the lovely gardens, benches, fountain, information panels, and pergolas covered in vines. Mallard ducks love the grass and are not afraid to approach humans for handouts.

A historical plaque explains that Osoyoos Lake crosses into the U.S. and water levels are controlled by a dam there, but Canada still gets a say in water levels through an international joint commission that regulates the dam’s operations.

Pioneer Walkway ends at the bridge across the narrow waist of Osoyoos Lake. The Indigenous people used to build weirs of sticks here to catch some of the 10,000 salmon a year that migrate up the Okanagan River, through Osoyoos Lake to spawn near Oliver. The name Osoyoos comes from this spot: in the Okanagan language, sẁiẁs (s’oo-yoos in English) means ‘the narrows’.

We walk our bikes across the bridge, pausing to watch the American coots that bob in the waters, along with mallards, Canada geese and sometimes trumpeter swans. A nearby cottonwood tree by the beach often hosts bald eagles perched on upper branches, eating their prey.

Section 3: Gyro and Lions Parks (#14)

West of the bridge, we cross Main Street before it enters downtown Osoyoos, and join the paved path along the lakefront through Gyro Park with its sandy beach. At the far end, we merge onto Spartan Drive (named for the apple) that takes us past the Desert Sunrise Marina and Osoyoos Sailing Club, housed in the old train station that was moved to the site. The brick sidewalk has long stripes of dark brick to indicated railroad tracks. When the marina was rebuilt in 2011, the lagoon was dredged in January when salmon were absent and the ospreys were not breeding or rearing.

Then we’re into Lions Park and back onto Spartan Drive until it ends in a residential neighbourhood. According to a historical plaque, people didn’t start building homes and docks along the water until the late 1950s, when pleasure boats were still a luxury for most families. From there, we either retrace our path or go up the hill to 87^th Street.

Okanagan River Channel (not on map)

We transport our bikes just north of Osoyoos (to avoid cycling along the highway), turn right onto Road 22 and park near the bridge at a trailhead, where information panels describe the wildlife in the surrounding Osoyoos Oxbows Floodplain, as well as how the Okanagan River Channel came to be.

In the 1950s, to control flooding in the wetlands that form the flat bottom of the Okanagan Valley here, the curvy Okanagan River was straightened and narrowed, with dikes built along both sides and a dozen or so “vertical drop structures” aka dams or weirs installed to control the water flow. Wide flat dirt lanes atop the dikes are always busy with cyclists and dog-walkers for good reason.

We’ve cycled south about 2.5 km to see where the river flows into Osoyoos Lake. And we’ve cycled north to just past Oliver (about 18 km), seeing bald eagles and criss-crossing to either side of the channel using the walkways atop the dams.

Small ponds and short rivers dot the marshlands along the way: these are the oxbow lakes that were cut off when the river was “channelized.” Salmon were also victims, since they couldn’t get past the weirs, although they’ve been modified in recent years so now the fish can get to their spawning grounds. Since 2000, the Okanagan River Restoration Initiative has been gradually restoring the river to its more natural state, although much of it remains straight and narrow.

The trail ends just north of Oliver near the Jackson Triggs winery, where the Okanagan River Channel trail and the Kettle Valley Railway trail overlap. (This trail is also called the International Hike and Bike Trail, but I don’t know why because it doesn’t reach the U.S.)   

Themed neighbourhood streets

Apart from its numbered street names, Osoyoos neighbourhoods also have street-name themes. We’ve made it a point to cycle, walk or drive around all of them.

The flower neighbourhood (#12) has street names like Rose, Oleander, Jasmine, Yucca and Cactus. Other themes are trees (Ponderosa, Jackpine, Cottonwood, Tamarack), birds (Loon, Heron, Curlew, Kingfisher, Nighthawk), fruit (Spartan, McIntosh, Gala, Bartlett, Quince) and golf courses (Pebble Beach, Cyprus Hills, Augusta). Despite all the wineries around, there’s surprisingly just one wine-related street: Chardonnay Court.

We’ve learned a lot about Osoyoos simply by cycling its neighbourhoods:

• Any green lawns are irrigated. At least half of front yards are landscaped with boulders, river stone and gravel, as well as native plants that don’t require much water. We’ve admired many weird types of cacti and succulents.
• Quails are the only gang members we’ve encountered, as they roam the streets in hordes.
• Many homes have tall, oversized garages to store RVs, and there does not appear to be a bylaw prohibiting their storage in driveways, as there is in Ottawa.
• Just about every person we pass waves or says hello. It’s a friendly town.

sẁiẁs Provincial Park (#15)

Cycling is easy along the long thin finger of land that sticks out into the south basin of Osoyoos Lake, with a long sandy spit at the end. The 1-km peninsula was known for years as Haynes Point Provincial Park. But when an archeological dig uncovered some remains of the Osoyoos Indian Band’s ancestors, park management was handed over to the band and the name changed in 2015 to the original ‘sẁiẁs.’  

The paved peninsula road passes campsites along the beach, shaded by tall ponderosa pines and interspersed with mounds of native desert bunchgrass and antelope brush. Near the base of the peninsula, a gravel side trail loops through marshland where red-winged blackbirds trill and eagles circle overhead.    

Spirit Ridge loop (#32)

From Hwy 3, we cycle up 45^th Street, passing orchards, vineyards, and Adega on 45^th Estate Winery, and then into the Spirit Ridge development, owned by the Osoyoos Indian Band. Across from the Nk’Mip RV Park and the trail-riding stables, a dirt path leads up through the Nk’Mip Cellars vineyards. That’s where the Spawn of Satan first attacked our tires; since then, we’ve either hiked through the vineyard or cycled along the road that winds upwards through the rolling desert to the winery, the Spirit Ridge condos, and the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre. When we reach the metal sculpture of an Indigenous person astride a horse, we’re high enough up the valley sides for a wonderful view down to the lake.

Then we speed back down the winding hill and take a dirt path (lined with The Devil Plant) that connects to Cottonwood Drive and back out to Hwy 3. Cottonwood Park has dozens of sage shrubs where I forage for leaves; they enhanced our Christmas turkey dinner.

The morning after we last cycled the Spirit Ridge loop, my back tire was completely flat. The Evil One had struck again, with a thumb-tack-like thorn nestled into my ‘puncture-resistant’ tire tread. Ah, the thrills of desert cycling.  

Enjoy more pictures from our desert cycling adventures.