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