Wilson Lakes Snowshoe Hike, Peachland, BC

January 3, 2015

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.

http://www.peachland.ca/cms/wpattachments/wpID343atID1503.pdf

 

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.

 

 



 

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