Our first hike of 2015, was organized by Carrie, to celebrate Greg's 39th birthday. We had an enthusiastic group of eleven (11), and we met at Tim Horton's parking lot in West Kelowna.
We waited and waited and waited for Tom and Patti, and then got a text from Tom- "where are you guys? We are sitting here". He seemed a little upset, so we walked to the corner of the Tim Horton's store, and waved him over! We had been waiting for them on the other side of the restaurant!
Once we got organized, we all got into three (3) four wheel drive pick-ups to get to the recreational area, as we wanted safe and reliable transportation to this rural area, 15 kms up a gravel road north of Peachland.
We left the parking lot at Tim Horton's about 10:15am. It was a nice sunny day.
The snowshoe trail was not well marked. Greg and Carrie had hiked there before, so were the lead vehicle, and when he got to KM16, knew we had gone too far. We turned around, and found the trail head at the 14km sign. Trucks were parked on the side of the road, gear put on, and off we went. We started our hike at 11:10am.
We were the first ones on the trail for the day. There was fresh snow on the trail. The sun was out, and the snow was shining like diamonds. Here are a few images of the trail.
After an hour of hiking, we found a little grove in the trees where we stopped for lunch.
My hiking buddies were, from left to right- birthday boy Greg, Morgan, Tom, Patti, Glenn, Amie, Sandy and beside her is Bonnie. In the right front corner are Carrie and her cousin Brenda.
We built a fire, had sandwiches, desserts, white or red white and/or beer. We told a few lies, had some good laughs and after a good rest, put out the fire, and headed back to the trailhead.
We left the picnic spot at about 1:10. There were a couple of good hills to climb on the way back, but overall I would rate the hike as easy to moderate. Any hills we had to climb were relatively short and the rest of the hike was pretty flat.
We got to the trailhead at about 2:00pm, where we got our gear off, and then shared a bottle of champagne to bring in the New Year.
We then reconvened at Carrie and Greg's to get warmed up and have some snacks (thanks Carrie!), and we had the added pleasure of meeting Carrie's Mom!
I had taken my pedometer, and Tom won the contest for the closest guess to the number of steps we took on the hike (10,400). I must say I was SHOCKED that Greg's choice of background music was Country- much to Tom's chagrin!
A great day. Fresh cheeks- lots of Vitamin D- good exercise- good company. Looking forward to many more.
Here is a link to the Wilson Lake Recreational area.
Bonnie and I left her place at 9:30am and got to her place with our pizza at about 4:30. A nice day outdoors.
