Every year for the last 11 years my friends and I go on a golf retreat in the first or second week in July. We pick an area of the province and go tour have a week of fun, golf and mischief. This year we choose to go back to Kamloops, and thanks to the great service by the group at Golf Kamloops the week was everything we expected and more. The "and more" is the subject of this post.
On Tuesday morning we were scheduled to golf at Sun Peaks at 9:20. We went to breakfast at the local White Spot and enjoyed the food and the interesting information about the Kamloops provided by a very knowledgeable waitress. I was driving but I had I thought, good navigators. We left with about an hour to spare and we expected to arrive at Sun Peaks about 9:00 Boy were we mistaken. We were talking, telling jokes and just enjoying the ride as we sailed through downtown Kamloops and onto the Trans Canada highway. As we drove I looked for the turnoff to Sun Peaks but we all missed it. We drove on and on and on, I realized that we had missed the turnoff somewhere and so when we came to the turn off to Vernon, I told the guys we were turning around. Those of you who have travelled this route know that the Trans Canada between Kamloops and Chase is mostly a four lane highway with very few opportunities to turn around. As we drove up to Vernon and past the last barrier I did a u-turn. The guys told me to stop as Ravi had a GPS on his I phone. So we stopped and we turned on the GPS, it was the first time he had used it but he was able to find us and directions to Sun Peaks.
Now to be fair, I had already started back to Kamloops by the time he had found the directions, I thought I was on the right track, and was surprised when I was told that I was going the wrong way. I thought the GPS must be right, so I found a place to turn around and started heading east.
We drove past the Vernon exit and along the Trans Canada until we reached a town called Pritchard. At Pritchard the GPS indicated we should turn left. We did and we then crossed a single lane bridge onto a two lane gravel road.
As we still continued to travel east, none of us questioned the directions given by the GPS, the road started to turn North into the hills, so I assumed that we would at some point (fairly soon) run into the main road to Sun Peaks. We continued along the road as it became narrower and narrower. At one point Ravi said stop you are going the wrong way, evidently I had missed a turn. So I managed to turn the car around and about one Kilometer back I came to a turn that was covered up by weeds and brush. According to the GPS I was to follow the now one lane road, so trusting technology, I continued. The road now started to wind into the hills. As we travelled Hardeep thought we should turn around, now I just thought he was nervous because the was not siding and the drop off on his side was getting steeper. The road continue to narrow and the rain had caused runoffs in the middle of the road. Luckily I have a small car with a high clearance, but I had to be very careful to stay out of the ditches on the road. The narrow path turned into what we thought was now a cow path.
As we were heading along at about 5k an hour a deer suddenly walked in front of us, stopped and looked very surprised as if to say "How come you are here, when there is no road". The scenery was spectacular but the road kept me focused. About two hours later we were starting to question the accuracy of the GPS system. Hardeep tried to phone Sun Peaks, but there was no phone service, but we did have GPS and we were still heading in the right direction according to the technology. So we continued on, I did not tell the guys that my gas which had been on 1/4 of a tank was now on 1/8th of a tank, so turning around was, in my mind not an option.
About two and a half hours into the hills we saw some loggers who were clearing trees from the road. As I drove by I stopped and said "We are lost, can you tell us how to get to Sun Peaks?"
The loggers looked a bit surprised and then said that we were on the right track but that we had about 7 more Kilometers to go with a few switchbacks and washouts along the way.
I asked if my car would make it and he said, if I was careful I would make it with no or few problems. The GPS still showed us we were on the right track and this having been confirmed by the loggers we continued, this time down the mountain very slowly. The switchbacks now put the drop off on my side so I began to understand why Hardeep had been so nervous.
The main road the logger had talked about was in fact a two lane gravel road, which we travelled for about 30 minutes until we hit the paved road, which took us to Sun Peaks. We were now over three hours late for our t time but because it had been raining (it sopped for us until the fourth hole) we were the first people out for the day. We enjoyed the golf and then the rain set in and by the fifth hole were were all soaked. We went in for lunch, after nine and the rain broke and we were able to finish the day.
We told the people at Sun Peaks where we had come from and they said, "That is not an authorized road and wondered how we had made it".
We found out later that GPS systems have a default setting of Direct Route, but that you can set them for major route. So we trusted the technology, did not read directions, did not ask for directions before we started out and travelled to Sun Peaks by an road less travelled. If I ever get a GPS I will take the time to understand it before I use it, perhaps advice I should use before I put too much trust in any new technology.
On Tuesday morning we were scheduled to golf at Sun Peaks at 9:20. We went to breakfast at the local White Spot and enjoyed the food and the interesting information about the Kamloops provided by a very knowledgeable waitress. I was driving but I had I thought, good navigators. We left with about an hour to spare and we expected to arrive at Sun Peaks about 9:00 Boy were we mistaken. We were talking, telling jokes and just enjoying the ride as we sailed through downtown Kamloops and onto the Trans Canada highway. As we drove I looked for the turnoff to Sun Peaks but we all missed it. We drove on and on and on, I realized that we had missed the turnoff somewhere and so when we came to the turn off to Vernon, I told the guys we were turning around. Those of you who have travelled this route know that the Trans Canada between Kamloops and Chase is mostly a four lane highway with very few opportunities to turn around. As we drove up to Vernon and past the last barrier I did a u-turn. The guys told me to stop as Ravi had a GPS on his I phone. So we stopped and we turned on the GPS, it was the first time he had used it but he was able to find us and directions to Sun Peaks.
Now to be fair, I had already started back to Kamloops by the time he had found the directions, I thought I was on the right track, and was surprised when I was told that I was going the wrong way. I thought the GPS must be right, so I found a place to turn around and started heading east.
We drove past the Vernon exit and along the Trans Canada until we reached a town called Pritchard. At Pritchard the GPS indicated we should turn left. We did and we then crossed a single lane bridge onto a two lane gravel road.
As we still continued to travel east, none of us questioned the directions given by the GPS, the road started to turn North into the hills, so I assumed that we would at some point (fairly soon) run into the main road to Sun Peaks. We continued along the road as it became narrower and narrower. At one point Ravi said stop you are going the wrong way, evidently I had missed a turn. So I managed to turn the car around and about one Kilometer back I came to a turn that was covered up by weeds and brush. According to the GPS I was to follow the now one lane road, so trusting technology, I continued. The road now started to wind into the hills. As we travelled Hardeep thought we should turn around, now I just thought he was nervous because the was not siding and the drop off on his side was getting steeper. The road continue to narrow and the rain had caused runoffs in the middle of the road. Luckily I have a small car with a high clearance, but I had to be very careful to stay out of the ditches on the road. The narrow path turned into what we thought was now a cow path.
As we were heading along at about 5k an hour a deer suddenly walked in front of us, stopped and looked very surprised as if to say "How come you are here, when there is no road". The scenery was spectacular but the road kept me focused. About two hours later we were starting to question the accuracy of the GPS system. Hardeep tried to phone Sun Peaks, but there was no phone service, but we did have GPS and we were still heading in the right direction according to the technology. So we continued on, I did not tell the guys that my gas which had been on 1/4 of a tank was now on 1/8th of a tank, so turning around was, in my mind not an option.
About two and a half hours into the hills we saw some loggers who were clearing trees from the road. As I drove by I stopped and said "We are lost, can you tell us how to get to Sun Peaks?"
The loggers looked a bit surprised and then said that we were on the right track but that we had about 7 more Kilometers to go with a few switchbacks and washouts along the way.
I asked if my car would make it and he said, if I was careful I would make it with no or few problems. The GPS still showed us we were on the right track and this having been confirmed by the loggers we continued, this time down the mountain very slowly. The switchbacks now put the drop off on my side so I began to understand why Hardeep had been so nervous.
The main road the logger had talked about was in fact a two lane gravel road, which we travelled for about 30 minutes until we hit the paved road, which took us to Sun Peaks. We were now over three hours late for our t time but because it had been raining (it sopped for us until the fourth hole) we were the first people out for the day. We enjoyed the golf and then the rain set in and by the fifth hole were were all soaked. We went in for lunch, after nine and the rain broke and we were able to finish the day.
We told the people at Sun Peaks where we had come from and they said, "That is not an authorized road and wondered how we had made it".
We found out later that GPS systems have a default setting of Direct Route, but that you can set them for major route. So we trusted the technology, did not read directions, did not ask for directions before we started out and travelled to Sun Peaks by an road less travelled. If I ever get a GPS I will take the time to understand it before I use it, perhaps advice I should use before I put too much trust in any new technology.
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