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