At the request of a number of family members, our "retiree's" hiking club has morphed into "Don's Hiking Adventures", so we can invite working people to our hikes- and using the weekend to accommodate them.
To that end, we planned a hike in Okanagan Mountain Park, that Glenn Thompson & I had planned last Fall, but had to delay due to rain. The usual suspects were invited, but I picked a bad weekend, and regretfully, we only had four (4) hikers. Having said that the hikers were loads of fun, and we were all in awe of the terrain we travelled over, and we had a very satisfying hike.
Jan, Larry and "Barley" Plaxton and I met at Rotary Park, at 10:30 am, and then drove to the trailhead from there. You travel from Rotary Park on Lakeshore, and then at the lights with the intersection of Chute Lake Road, you turn right and continue on Lakeshore. Go past Bertram Creek Park, and then a couple of kilometers past the intersection of Rimrock Road, you arrive at a well marked (but small) parking lot.
The trailhead is across Lakeshore. Look for the bathroom and signs on the hill above the parking lot. We started our hike at 10:45.
My camera was acting up- so did not get a photo of the trailhead map and start of the trail, but the first kilometer or two are a steep climb. The trail is well marked but there are rocks embedded in the path, and roots that are above ground, and you must have good footwear. (NB: Click on the photos to enlarge them and see them in an album)
From the trail, you have great views of Okanagan Lake, and that is West Kelowna in the background, looking at Gellatly Bay and The Cove. This is a steep climb and I would rate much of the hike as strenuous- but worth it!
From the bridge we ascended more steep trails until we summited at the top of the gorge. We arrived at the top of the gorge at about 12:00noon. We stopped and had our picnic, which included a nice cold beer!
It took us one hour to get to our picnic spot, and 75% of it was uphill and pretty steep! Along the way we met a number of helpful hikers. One young man told us he had recently done a hike of the entire park perimeter, which he said was about 43 kilometers. He said it took him 11 hours, and he did it all in one day! Very impressed!
Our picnic spot. Barley was amazing. He put on twice the kms that we did and he did most of it running his ass off!
We were hiking through burned out forest that was destroyed in 2003. As you can see from this hillside, there is not much left. However, there is a lot of new growth, and just like the fire ravaged neighborhoods, there were still a lot of pine trees that were still standing, green and not damaged at all by the fire.
The wildflowers were in abundance. These purple flowers were every where. Lots of fire weed in bloom, as well as Oregon grapes and those yellow flowers (forget the name of them) were all over the place.
We took our time coming back down, and wandered off the trail in places to check out rock outcroppings which I am fascinated by.
We got back to the parking lot around 2:00. My only disappointment was my camera (my mobile phone) which kept cutting in and out, so I missed documenting some of the hike.
A very satisfying day. Weather was great! Sunny, but not too warm- perfect conditions for a hike. We hope to have many more for our next 'weekend' hike. Larry and Jan definitely interested in Enderby Cliffs and the trails in the park in Lake Country above "The Lakes" residential area. Lots of choices!
Length of hike: 8 kms
Time: 3hrs 15 mins
Rating: Strenuous
Advice: Bring lots of water, wear good hiking boots or running shoes, bring snacks for energy
Rating: 3.5/5- Signs/Maps were a little confusing. We ended up on a trail that I had not planned to take. When there were 'signs' there were no "You are Here" indicators on them, which would have helped us a lot.
No comments:
Post a Comment