Rotary Marsh Trail, Brandt's Creek Outflow to Lake Okanagan- Kelowna Waterfront-

• December 23, 2014

Finally did a hike with my grandson's today! Amie, Ollie, Deegan and I arrived at Rotary Marsh Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in the wetlands of Brandt's Creek at the Kelowna Waterfront at 11:00am. It was a brisk day, but as you can see, no snow on the ground!

 

 

I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a beaver working in the pond, but no such luck, but there were a lot of ducks swimming around. The boys were not disappointed.

The marsh trail meanders along the wetlands. On our walk along the pond, we saw many

different birds, including a large whooping crane! Unfortunately, the osprey hawks were not at home. They must migrate for the winter? Will have to research that one. We did see where they nest.

 

 

Can anyone see the Okanagan Lake Floating bridge in the background, or is Ollie hogging the scenery as usual! What a ham...

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

Our walk along the lakeshore included playing on a Gert Maas sculpture of a family enjoying beach life, a waterfall, airplanes, boats and the Delta Grand Hotel and the Dolphins sculpture. We ended up at the outdoor skating rink, but doofus Gwampa forgot to take a picture! The skating rink was packed with skaters. Amie found out that you can rent skates, helmets, and the skating helpers (you know the PVC pipe deals that novices can hang onto to avoid falls), for a family of four (4) for under $25.00.

The hike took about an hour. One thing about taking children on hikes, is that you learn to go slow and really appreciate everything, and take it all in.

Length of hike- 60 minutes
Difficulty- easy
Lessons learned- do this hike in spring when the beavers and osprey will be hard at work

Sovereign Lake Nordic Center, Silver Star Mountain

December 12, 2014

I was joined by Tom & Patti Bell and Sandy and Glenn Thompson for this snow shoe hike.

It was a sunny day. We all met at T & P's and traveled in together in Tom's SUV.

This is a view of Kalamalka Lake that I  took on the trip to Silver Star showing the cloud cover over the water.

We had a good trip up to Silver Star but we began to worry that there might be little or no snow. It was very brown! We got to the Nordic Center at about 10:45. There is a nice and rustic lodge where we paid our $10.00 fee. 

Here are my hiking buddies' in all there finery!

We set off on our adventure and found that our worries about not having snow was no longer a concern. It was not new powder and it was crunchy but dagumit it was snow.

We climbed some rugged terrain, mostly up hill, unttil we reached the cabin and consumed our food and refreshments. Ninety minutes to the cabin and ninety minutes back. We chewed up about 10 kms of trails. Here are more images from our travels.

We recommend warming up in the log cabin and having a break to get some food into your system for the 90 minute hike back. We spent a relaxing 45 minutes enjiying the fireplace and excellent food provided by Patti and Sandy.

A fun day and I know we will be going back. We talked about going to the Lookout on our next hike.

Total hiking time: 3 hours

Difficulty: Easy to vigorous

Hardy Falls, Beach Avenue and Gellatly Nut Farm hike

November 11, 2014

It was Remembrance Day, and after the ceremonies the sun was out, and a hike was in order in the afternoon. It had been a long time since Bonnie had been to Hardy Falls, so we left with Tia in the back seat of the Honda, and headed for Peachland. It was chilly (4C) so parkas and gloves were necessary.

Hardy Falls trail is located about 2 kms west of Peachland. It takes about 15 - 25 minutes to get to the water fall. The flat and level path is well maintained. You follow Deep Creek which flows out of the water fall, and then empties into Okanagan Lake at Antlers Beach. This is an active spawning channel, and although we did not see any salmon there were signs up and ribbon preventing you from going down to the creek. We assumed the tape had been put up during spawning season (to the end of October) when the creek would have been full of spawning salmon.

The water fall, although not huge or fast flowing, looked beautiful with the fall colors.

 

 

After the Hardy Falls hike we stopped in Peachland and hiked for about 45 minutes on the boardwalk along Okanagan Lake, and then stopped at "The Bliss" Bakery for a coffee and cheese/ham bun for me, and a pumpkin flavored latte and butter tart square for Bonnie, while Tia had a snooze in the Honda. Beautiful sunshine- but it was nippy!

 

On the way home, we also stopped at the Gellatly Nut farm and had a nice hike through the grounds, and managed to get a couple of plastic bags of walnuts for Bonnie to take home and roast for Christmas.

 

Forgot the pedometer- but left Bonnie's at 1:15 pm and had her home by 4:45 pm. If you have young children, all three of these "hikes" (Hardy Falls, Beach Avenue and Gellatly Nut Farm) can easily be done by children as young as 2 and all can be done by stroller.

 

 

 

 

 

Hike from Black Mountain to Bonnie's house

Can hardly believe that it was November 1st! Woke up to glorious sunshine- but -2C.

Warmed up by Noon - a nice crisp 9C- and the sun was still shining! I had to return Amie's Jeep to her house (they are in Hawaii), and called Bonnie to ask if I could take Tia for a walk, and she decided to join us.

Instead of taking the easy route (down #33) home, we agreed to take a rural route through orchard country, which turned out to be an excellent plan.

Our hike took us up a couple of steep hills along Black Mountain Drive, which is a left turn off of Highway #33. Black Mountain Drive dead end's at the end of Hole #10 of the Black Mountain Golf Club. There were lots of golfers out today (some were wearing shorts!).

I guaranteed Bonnie she would find a golf ball- and sure enough- she found a Wilson Staff ball across from hole #5! The steep climb up to the golf course got our heart rates up, but after reaching the dead end at Hole #10, it was all downhill!

The golf course looks great! At the dead end, we jumped a gate, and went down a service road, and ended up on Swainson Road.

 

 

Bonnie and Tia are on a steep section of Swainson Road. This image is looking north in the general direction of the Airport. We 'raided' an orchard and munched on our apples for energy! Actually, the harvest is over- and we found some apples that were still hanging from a tree. They were delicious!

 

We followed Swainson, to McKenzie and then cut through some orchards, and then took Webster Road to Bonnie's house. I hope the next photo gives you some idea of the beautiful colors, and the lovely farms and orchards on this very scenic hike!

 





 

The hike to Bonnie's took 75 minutes, and by the time I got home, after dropping Tia and Bonnie off; I had hiked for 105 minutes- so almost two hours.

 

I took my pedometer:

 

Steps- 11,670

Kms- 9

Kcals- 725

Time- 1hr 45 mins

Mission Creek Greenway- Hollywood Road South to terminus at Gallaghers Canyon

Saturday, October 25, 2014

The sun was shining when I got up this morning. I checked the hourly forecast, and we were going to have excellent conditions until 1:00pm.

I called Bonnie early in the morning, and (as always!) she was willing to tag along with me. We arrived at the parking lot at 10:45. The parking lot is at the intersection of Hollywood Road South and Belgo and East Kelowna Roads. There is a large parking lot, and well maintained restrooms in the parking lot.

The trail is well marked, wide and in good condition. Good footwear is essential if you are hiking all the way to Gallagher's Canyon and Layer Cake Mountain, at the end of this trail.

Off we went. Beautiful this time of year. The trees are colorful- and there are many great viewpoints along the way. The creek is still running very strong and although not as high or as fast as the spring run off, the volume of water in the creek bed is amazing to me. Where does it come from?! There are rapids in certain parts of the creek and mini-waterfalls.

There are numerous bridges that span the creek.

The trail is pretty flat, until you get to the end of the bridge where the 'old trail' was. This 'old trail' was fenced off and closed due to a steep cliff  where large rocks have fallen and covered the trail. It was considered too dangerous to keep open (more on this later!).

 

The trail is well developed, and the municipality continues to upgrade it. Bonnie, Tia and I found this rest area that is still being worked on. We will have to come back again next summer so we can find out what this rest stop looks like when it is completed.

 

We are now at the part of the trail where there is a long, steep climb out of the canyon, up to the canyon ridge, which runs along Gallagher's Canyon and Pinnacle Golf courses.

 

 

 

We have just climbed a very steep set of stairs. Beautiful colors. If you look at the lower part of the photo, you can see the 'old trail' that was closed off. We had seen a deer walking along this trail as we ascended the steep climb. In the distance, in the right middle top part of the photo, you can see the ridge line of the canyon. This is where Hole #7 of The Pinnacle Course is located (the steep par 3- all downhill). We climbed to the top of the ridge, to the high mesa in the left center of the photo, which is where we ended our hike and started back.

 

 

On the way back both Bonnie and I looked at each other, when we got to the steep climb that replaced the 'old trail' that used to run along the creek. We both agreed that we had enough of climbing steep hills, and we decided to be 'rebels' and ignore the 'trail closed- do not enter' signs, to see what all the fuss was about! The 'do not enter' trail was at least FLAT!

 

 

This is WHY the trail was closed! Bonnie is making a feeble attempt at protecting herself from falling rock. We were not deterred! There was about 200 feet of the creek that was full of boulders that had come down the cliff that is above where Bonnie is standing. We had to climb over the boulders you can see in the photo but managed to get to the other side of this cliff and the trail without getting hurt or hit by falling  rocks! It was not easy getting to the other side, but other than wet feet, we were unscathed.

 

PLEASE do not even think about taking this abandoned trail in the Spring when the creek would be running at about the level of Bonnie's waist! This time of year is the only really safe time to take this route.

 

A very satisfying hike. It was cool and crisp- with some sunshine. Good exercise- and will definitely do it again. We met some hikers on the trail that told us about some other hikes that can be done from the golf course end of the trail, including a hike down to the creek where there are caves, rock ovens and a water fall and amazing rock formations (Layer Cake Mountain area).

 

The hike took us two hours. I took my trusty pedometer and here are our readings:

 

 

Steps: 11,599 (at least for me! add another 4,000 for Bonnie!)(another 10000 for Tia)

 

Distance: 9 kms (5.5 miles)

 

Calories burned: 702

 





 

Tia's Mission Creek hike.

September 23, 2014

Good day for a hike. Sun is out- but cool temperatures in the high teens.

Drove to Bonnie's to see if her dog Tia wanted to join me on a hike to the Mission Park Greenway. As usual, Tia's tail was in full wagging mode, and she patiently waited for me to hook up the leash.

We left at 12:30.

We hiked from Bonnie's, which is adjacent to the Rutland Sports Fields, and off we went. In 25 minutes had gone through the busy suburban areas, and were in orchard and vineyard country. Never get tired of the amazement of being in a completely rural area, with no indication there is a bustling City, just a short distance away.

We took Molnar, to Belgo and stayed on Belgo until we got to Hollywood Road South. This is the sign at the entrance to the parking lot for the Mission Park Greenway.

 

 

It took Tia and I 60 minutes to reach our destination,  and the distance was 6 kilometers.

 

We then hiked down a beautiful trail, and crossed the creek on a bridge, where we stopped to explore and allow Tia to have a swim and a drink.

 

 

 

It looked like rain clouds were forming, and since Tia and I had not brought any rain gear, we decided to head on home, instead of continuing down to the trailhead, which was still about 30 minutes away.

 

As usual, Tia was a great hiking buddy, and we made it back to Bonnie's by 2:30pm.

 

We had a few sprinkles of rain on the way home- and we were pretty tired but happy.

 

Took my pedometer:

 

Steps: 16,025

Kms: 12.5

Calories burned: 1070

Time: 2 hours



The fish are spawning!

September 21, 2014:

Mission Park Greenway- Sunday, September 21st
________________________________________

After lunch, while sitting in my condo, and not having a backyard to retire to and laze away the afternoon, I decided I had to get to my "new" backyard- the Mission Park Greenway.

Of course I did not want to pollute the beautiful clear air on this sunny day, so I left my car in the parking garage, and headed out the door! I decided to take a photo of "The Staircase" which I mentioned in a previous post, so you could appreciate how steep it is:

 

From here I walked Cactus Street down  to Monterrey and finally reached Springfield and Hollywood Road intersection. Another 200 meters and I was on the Mission Park Greenway. Distance from my condo 2.5kms and it took me 30 mins.

 

It was Sunday afternoon, and it was gorgeous, and there were a lot of people on the Trail, mostly families. There were children splashing around in the creek and couples and families biking/hiking/pushing strollers- just enjoying another sunny day in paradise.

 

I have walked this trail a lot, so I decided to cross the creek, over a bridge, and explore the other side of the creek. Here is the trail sign, the bridge, the "Bear" warning and a photo that another hiker took of me- so you could see the creek.

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 

On the other side of the bridge, I was able to get to a spawning channel, which had  been diverted from the creek, and was able to observe fish spawning in the channel. I took a photo, and if you look closely you can see the red reflection of the salmon in the spawning bed.

 

 

I continued hiking through the park on the other side of creek. It was beautiful. Lots of shade. I took a photo which I hope shows the beauty of the trail.

 

 

 

I walked the trail almost to Orchard Park Mall, and sadly left the park and walked back to my condo- but invigorated by my hike. It was an easy hike- flat and level for the most part.

 

My pedometer readings:

 

Distance: 9.5 kms

Steps: 12,120

Time:  100 minutes

Cals burned: 820

 



August 15, 2014

I know! These hikes are out of order- but I am still experimenting and hopefully I will eventually have all the posts in order.

On August 15th, Trudy, Glenn, Jan and I hiked to Patt's resting place, where we met Amie, Sandy and the boyz.

We met at the Okanagan Club Golf course. There is a trail that goes to the campus of UBC Okanagan. Many UBC students reside in  condos that boundary hole # 1 of the Quail course. We parked at the dead end of the road at the end of the line of condos.

The trail to UBC starts at the end of the row of condos, but instead of walking to the campus, we turned right between the third and fourth holes of the Quail golf course. The well maintained and wide gravel trail meanders along the golf course, in a northerly direction, towards Vernon.

The trail ends in a residential area known as Quail Ridge, and you then walk through the residential area, and eventually come out onto a view of the golf course where the Quail and the Bear golf courses merge.

You are over looking hole #14 of the Quail, and we walked to the northern tip of the golf course, where the green for #14 is situated. We went through a gate in the fence and onto the dead end road that heads down to the cemetery, where we were headed to visit with Patt, on the 5th anniversary of her death.

It was a cloudy day, and it was spitting rain here and there- but we did not need umbrellas. The road to the cemetery meanders through horse ranches. Lots of horses wandering around the fields on both sides of the road. Very nice and quiet- no traffic.

There were a few hills- but nothing too strenuous.

We got to the cemetery after a 45 minute hike, and visited Mom and Dad's grave site, before meeting Amie, Sandy and the boyz at Patt's resting place (see photo).

We laid some flowers and had a visit with Patt, and then travelled to The Jammery where we met with Tom and Patti and enjoyed a nice meal.

Initial hike- August 7th, 2014

My hiking blog is up and running (finally!) and I am trying to catch up on my posts.

I had no idea how to set up a log, so I started with some recent hikes, and I am kind of getting the hang of it, so I am going 'back in time' to when this idea all started- just from an historical perspective! So - remember- if you are reading this- that this will be out of order, but necessary, until I figure out how to edit this thing!

August 7, 2014

This was a great start to my intended hiking blog and start up to my 'club'. My niece Janine, and her husband Keith, had been travelling for a year and had returned to Canada. They were driving from Edmonton to Victoria, but stopping at my sister's ranch (Rhonda and Leo) in Falkland.

We had done the Enderby Cliffs hike with Janine and Keith last year, and Janine had liked it so much, that she asked me to arrange another hike when they returned from their travels.

I had done the Meadows in the Sky hike in Revelstoke a few years ago. The name of the Parks Canada attraction derives from an alpine meadow of wildflowers, which only blooms for the first two weeks of August every year. The timing was perfect!

We agreed we would meet Janine and Keith (and their friends Eduardo and Jen) at the base of Revelstoke Mountain, at the exit marked by the Meadows in the Sky billboard sign.

We (me, Bonnie, Tom, Patti, Trudy) drove up from Kelowna/Vernon and met with Janine and her crew at the pre-arranged time.

There is a 20 km drive up a winding road to the summit of the mountain. There were viewpoints along the way where we pulled off. Impressive views of the Cascade Mountain chain, valleys, the Columbia River, glaciers and the town of Revelstoke (see photos).

At the summit, we parked in the overflow parking lot (it was very busy- the main parking lot was full!) and off loaded our picnic lunch and Tom, Keith and Eduardo found a place to park on the road coming up to the parking lot.

We found a nice picnic spot, beside a small lake. The alpine meadows were in full bloom. It was a nice sunny day. We got caught up with Keith and Janine (had not seen them for a year!!) and had a few laughs (and one bottle of red/white wine!).

After lunch, we packed everything away, and climbed up a steep hill for about 25 minutes to the summit of the mountain. Along the way we stopped to take photos of the alpine meadows (see photos).

At the summit of Mount Revelstoke, there was a trail to the Ice Box, a small "glacier" protected from the sun by the shade of large boulders (see photos). We took a number of trails (all moderately easy), but good footwear is required as you are climbing over rocks and boulders.

We hiked to a fire monitoring station, that eventually led to a view point overlooking the Columbia River- amazing!

On the way back to the parking lot, we took a different trail, which was pretty rugged, and steep (all downhill) where we had to be careful not to trip on exposed roots and ruts in the trail.

Once back to the parking lot, we took another hike to a remote lake, that was recommended by an employee of the park. It was through a forested area, and although not as spectacular as the 'Ice Box' hikes, it was very quiet, peaceful and invigorating.

We left Kelowna at 7:30 am, and when the hike was over, it was about 330pm. We all headed off to Rhonda and Leo's where we had a BBQ and arrived home at about 10pm.

I did not bring my pedometer, but enjoy the photos!

(Oops! photos were supposed to be down here! Oh well- will get it eventually)

September 20, 2014

I will call this my 'House of Rose' winery hike! It was such a beautiful day today, and the blue skies and warm weather was like a siren call to head outdoors.

Did not want to pollute the air, so did not drive anywhere- and just headed out the door! I walked down Highway #33 to Molnar Road, and turned right on Molnar, and headed to the hills!

In about 20 minutes I had left the City behind and was climbing steep and long hills in orchard country. I would say this is a strenuous hike, just because of the long steep hills you climb as you pass through the orchards and ranches. I timed the longest uphill pull, and I hiked steadily uphill for 35 minutes.

When I peaked I was on Kirschner Mountain, on the west side of #33 Hwy. On the east side of the highway is Black Mountain.

As I started my descent back into Rutland, I took a winding rural road, hiking towards Mission Creek. I eventually passed by House of Rose Winery, where I ran into Amie, Morgan, Deegan and Ollie, who had been on a hike on the Greenway and thrown some rocks into Mission Creek! We had a good laugh as we were out in the middle of no where, as they had driven a 'scenic' route back to their house.

I continued passing through apple orchard country where I observed much work and activity as picking season is in full gear. I continue to be amazed at the number of large crates on the ground, full of apples, waiting to be taken to market.

The views of the valley, and Okanagan Lake are impressive. I followed the rural roads down to Mission Creek and the hiker's lodge and parking lot at Hollywood Road South and Belgo Road. I continued my hike along the Greenway trail to Hollywood Road south. I continued to the "Staircase", and ran the 108 step hike up a steep staircase to Dougall Road, the street that took me home. When I figure out how to attach photos to this blog, I will add a photo of the "Staircase" to this entry.

Left the condo at 2:00pm and got home at 3:45.

Pedometer readings:

Total kms: 10
Cals burned: 900
Steps: 12,780
Time: 100 minutes

September 18, 2014

Hike #2:

Bonnie & I decided to take her dog Tia for a walk today.

Since I am starting my hiking blog, I suggested we do the most well known Kelowna trail for our hike. If you thought Greenway- you were right!

We took two cars, and parked mine at Rotary Beach, and then took Bonnie's back to Mission Creek park, near Orchard Park Mall on Springfield Road. It was a very nice day- no weather to deal with.

The 8 km hike to Rotary Beach is flat and level, on a wide well maintained trail. Always a positive sign when you see NO garbage on the trail. The trail runs along Mission Creek the entire length. I commented to Bonnie how amazed I was that there was still a large volume of water in the creek that empties into Okanagan Lake.

I walk this trail a lot, and the volume of water in the Spring is incredible- and for it to continue to flow this heavily this late in the year is amazing. Where does this water come from? I cannot see any snow in the mountains?

The hike is well shaded by the trees lining both sides of the creek. You feel like you are out in the country, until you get to an open area and see golf courses, condos and city roads that you hike under, and then lose sight of city life as you continue the hike.

Ninety minutes later, we got to Rotary Beach, on Okanagan Lake, at Lakeshore Road. We got into my car, and drove to the end of Lakeshore Road, to the Upper Parking lot at Bertram Creek Park. We walked a short distance to a ledge, overlooking Okanagan Lake, with panoramic views of Kelowna, Westbank and Peachland; where we had a picnic.

We could see all the way from Black Mountain to Rattlesnake Point. Directly across from us was Mount Boucherie. We could clearly see the Okanagan Lake Floating bridge, and downtown Kelowna to our right. To our left was West Kelowna and Peachland.

We both commented on how fortunate we were to live in such a beautiful area.

After our picnic we returned to Mission |Creek park, where we off loaded Tia into Bonnie's car, and off to real life of cleaning houses, doing laundry and other mundane chores.

Pedometer readings:

Steps: 11,720
Kms:  8
Time: 90 minutes
Calories burned: 680

September 17th, 2014

Hike #1:

Participating: Me and Tia, Bonnie's dog
Start time: 9:00 am
Finish time: 12 noon
Distance: 17 kms
Terrain: Hike through Ellison area of Kelowna, through rolling hills in farming country
Difficulty: Moderate- but long- 99% on paved rural roads.

Went on a hike with Bonnie's dog, Tia, a Pyrenees/Collie cross. Bonnie was at work, and I walked to Bonnie's from my house, and leashed Tia up and off we went on a 15 km/3 hour hike!! We headed up McCurdy Road (in the direction of Tower Ranch golf course), and turned left into apple orchard and horse farm territory, for the majority of our hike.

Apple orchards were in full harvest. Countless bins full of apples in the orchards and lined up and stacked on the rural roads we hiked on. Yes, I did swipe one or two apples that were waiting to be picked up and taken to packing houses. I figured they would not miss two apples out of the tens of thousands in the bins!!

There were also many beautiful horses on many ranches along our hike- grazing in the fields.

We eventually ended up on the road that runs by Shadow Ridge golf course, and Tia went for a swim in the creek that runs along the road. She got a much needed drink of the cold running water.

Sadly, we ended up on Rutland Road North, and the constant roar of traffic and noise of the City, for the final leg home. We missed the quiet hike that we had through farming country!

When I dropped Tia off she was pretty bagged, laid on the grass, and after a good scratch on her belly- I walked the two kilometers home. Bonnie said she slept all night!

I took my pedometer- over 20,000 steps, 1450 calories burned, 17 kms walked in three hours.

PS: Today (September 18th) Ollie and I drove from Bonnie's house, took our route, and when we got back to her house, my odometer showed 15 kms in distance, and from there is was one km to my condo, so my pedometer is very accurate!

18 September 2014 19:45

Welcome to my blog about our weekly hiking trips in the Okanagan Valley

September 15th, 2014:

When I retired on August 4th, it was my intention to spend time doing the things I love to do.

About 20  years ago- when my mother was diagnosed with cancer, and passed away- I committed to living a healthier lifestyle. After going through a battery of tests and examinations, and having meetings with dietitians and other professionals, I knew it was time to reverse the damage I had done to my body in it's first 45 years.

Two themes kept being discussed with all of the professionals I met:

* Move it or lose it!

* Eat well- lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and lean meats- everything in moderation

* Ditch the fast foods and sweets, especially my beloved Raspberry Turnovers!!

Over the last 20 years I have hiked 100's of miles and been a gym rat for most of those years. I have completely reversed my diet- and now 95% of the time I eat fresh fruits, vegetables and lean meats. I have never been more physically fit- and I am about to turn 67 years of age.

Now that I am retired- I can spend more time getting out and exploring this great Valley we live in.

To that end, I have decided to hike a different trail each week - and invite other retired family members and friends to join me. Hopefully, in time, their retired friends will join us. We will see what transpires!

This page will provide details on our hikes, and the quality and difficulty of the trails we do.

This is the first time I have done a blog, so  have no idea how this will look- and who will look at it- but it will be fun writing about our adventures!

Respectfully submitted!

Don "Just Move It" Bell