Check out the view from missing link on Trail of the Okanagans

A Facebook post by Trail of the Okanagans gives a panoramic view of what they hope will one day become part of a rail trail connecting Sicamous to Osoyoos and beyond.

Don Gemmell, president of the trails group, posted a ‘click and drag’ photo yesterday, March 23, of a section of the route along the West Bench near Penticton on the old Kettle Valley Railway.

“One day this may form part of the Trail of The Okanagans,” he wrote. “That will depend on the Penticton Indian Band who happen to be one of the seven parts of the Okanagan First Nation.”

Since the opening of most of the Okanagan Rail Trail from Kelowna to Coldstream in 2018, trail enthusiasts have been ramping up efforts to get some of the missing links filled in and there are talks underway with people in Washington State to link to trails there.

And about 50 km in the North Okanagan, from Armstrong to Sicamous, have been secured along an abandoned rail line but money is still needed to develop the trail.

West Bench Penticton on the old KVR . One day this may form part of the Trail of The Okanagans. That will depend on the Penticton Indian Band who happen to be one of the 7 parts of the Okanagan First Nation.

Posted by Donald J. Gemmell on Monday, March 23, 2020


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Rob Munro

Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics