Month: October 2021

Keremeos is another little fruit paradise with many many orchards and vineyards. The town sits in the junction between three valleys…….superb, head on a swivel views driving up to the trailhead.

Another change in landscape…the terrain in this valley is more sparsely treed….

It was a tough walk…not technically difficult….but it was one of those straight consistent ever upward grade……with parts of the road being quite rocky, and a lot of the steeper parts were loose gravel.

As we walked up the switchbacks the views down into the valley just got to be more and more impressive. The cliffs up ahead of us on the trail, that we thought were the columns, turned out not to be as the trail led us off in the opposite direction.

Back into the tree line (yes we always have the bear spray with us now..) and then all of a sudden what is in front of you is the columns……

Its an amazing geological phenomenon….its hard to imagine that its a natural formation……..wow….

Totally worth the climb.

The hike back down through the sage…a lot of those bushes are old and gnarly…..and the smell in the air is sage sage and sage…..mmmmm.

Another beautiful day….and another very impressive hike for the archives…I hope you enjoy it even half as much as we did……

Next stop is the Peach Cliff loop…..

……and I’m going to add an extra little gallery underneath of some of the pix I did not include in the blog…….just in case anyone is interested…!!!😁

Big excitment for the day was meeting up with friends John and Marsha who were out in Kelowna for the week.

We started out at the farmers market in Kelowna…good market….We’ll be going back to this one for sure.

Scored some tiny fingerling potatoes …mmmmMMMmmm…. some roasting in their future.

The day turned in to an expedition around Kelownas neighbourhood of craft brew pubs. The good the not so good and the plain bad and ugly…!!!

The very first place (we can’t remember the name of..!!) but it was very uninviting …cold place with cold service…so we left again without even trying the beer…

Next stop was BNA brewing ( https://www.bnabrewing.com/ )…..a lovely little place…and not a bad start with the beer flights…….I think our favourite was their purple rain sour……and I cant believe I don’t have pictures…..so I downloaded a couple that were representative……we must have been having too much fun…!!! (and the steamed buns were yummy…!!!)

The next stop was the cider place….( BC fruit packers cooperative ) it had some very interesting things in the flights…we were excited………they were all……..awful…..!!!!

So……without ingesting more than we had to…….we exited to find the next pick…..Red Bird brewery

…interesting graphics…..very busy place……we did not like any of the beers…..(our flights included all their offerings)…..the best thing about this place was the washrooms….the walls were finished with 1950s local newspapers…….very interesting……obviously no pictures were taken….!!!)

Onward to Kettle River brewery…..

We all agreed…their marketing, branding and graphics were great….the food was ……decent…….the beer…….bleuch…!!!!

So, to the last place for the day, Vice and Virtue brewing ……. (https://viceandvirtuebrewing.ca/home ) given our experiences for the day…we were not hopeful……..actually we were more hopeful that we might find some decent food to finish the day with……

By this point in the day…I was no longer taking pictures…so these are downloaded images………hence the interior picture of the place crowded and unmasked…..

The beer was quite excellent …and their food was definitely cutting the mustard…..a good end to the day….( we even bought some cans for later consumption….!!!)

Such a great day and a true gift to spend time with some good friends…thanks guys….love you and miss you….

Next adventure is at Keremeos columns……

Brent mountain is up towards Apex Mountain Resort which is a popular skiing area. I’m told you can windsurf here at Skaha Lake, drive the hour up the mountain and ski later the same day.

It was a 20 minute drive to the trail head…….so off we trotted.

The road off the main road was a logging road. It was almost more entertaining than the hike. The road had many sections where the truck was reading the grade at 12 13 and 14% at times. With a sheer drop off the passenger side. ( It was a bit stressful for the passenger..) We got to a spot where the road was wide enough to turn the truck around without dying…so we decided that since the temperature of the transmission had reached 102 C ( and you could smell it starting to heat up a bit toooo much..!!) discretion being the better part of valour we should probably walk the last bit to the trailhead.

Turned out it was another 5km to the trailhead….but…we were there…so time to give it a go. We were actually pretty relieved to have left the truck where we did cos the road did not get any gentler…(potholes ditches and grades..!!)

The trailhead started at the tree line…..and got even steeper for a bit…!!!

The views were intermittent this was a much more densely forested spot than we have been in previously in BC….about a kilometer from the end we were starting to get just a little uneasy about bear signs on the trail…so again discretion won and we headed back down. We were high enough that there was a little bit of snow dusting as we walked back down.

……..and of course, I have to include my fungi finds for the day…….!!!

One of the glories I am finding about the damp forest environments….

We got back to the road and the big score for the day was up ahead of us on the trail….was it a bear was it a beaver….nope it was a big honking porcupine……(no he wasn’t honking..!!)

We tried to catch up to him a little to try to get some pictures…..but then…how dangerous are porcupines…..? We did not have enough internet connection to check….so we stayed back…….those things are big and jaggy…!!!

The transmission had cooled sufficiently when we got back….so we made our way back down the logging road…….and made it back to civilisation all in one piece…!!!

A quick stop on the road home to get (for Scott to get …!!!) some artsy shots of a little falling down cabin by the side of the road..!!!

Another great walk…and fine day out……….

Next up is a day at the Kelowna farmers market…catching up with friends , John and Marsha, and a celebratory pub crawl …..!!!!

We have been so fortunate on this trip. I’m not going to say that we have not seen any rain, but we have definitely not seen much of it…….we have managed to be in the right place to miss the worst of the hot and humid weather also.

So…with another very beautiful day in the forecast…the trail pick for the day was Campbell mountain.

The road up to the trailhead , ironically, took us up to beside the Penticton municipal dump…yeah…sounds like a great hike doesn’t it…!!!

These BC pines are quite different. The landscape is another variation of quite lovely…!!! We followed the edge of a canyon…with some pretty scary bits skirting around some of the gorges. The scariest part (for me anyway…) was the tire marks from mountain bikes….yup….this is a mountain biking trail…….I was challenged enough walking the path around some of those gorges…..no way could I do it on a bike……!!!

There were a couple of spots on the trail that had some fire damage. Its so interesting seeing the patterns of the fire….little pockets of burned trees in the middle of others that look to be completely untouched.

Spectacular view looking down in to Penticton……and we could see the trail we biked out to the brewery…….its a landscape that could be a painting with the perfect blue sky and shimmery lakes.

The trouble with climbing mountains appears to be….its a long way up….and a long way down….!!!

Kettle Valley Railtrail

After Campbell mountain down day seemed like a good idea………so the trail for the day was the Kettle Valley Rail trail …since it runs right through Wrights Beach (where we are currently camped ). Many bikes on this trail meant walking mostly single file on a trail that was wide enough to walk together for a change.

Next mountain on the list is Brent Mountain………

It has been many days of no real activity ( of the exercise variety) with the long haul across some of the mountains. One night stops leave little time for much other than driving, hitching and unhitching…… so….our first trip was a bike ride up to Abandoned Rail brewery. ( https://www.facebook.com/Abandoned-Rail-Brew-Co-103319455245059/ ) 30km round trip….seemed like a plan.

Its a new brewery on the north east side of Penticton with connections to the Paris brew. …..( the head brewer Peter Schultz, is a protégé of head brewer Christian Von Der Heide at Paris brew. We met Peter helping out at the Paris Brewery stall at the farmers market in Lions Head…a lifetime ago )….it seemed like a plan to bike to somewhere we might be able to get a beer….!!!!

From the campground at Wrights beach we can jump right on to the KVR (Kettle Valley Railtrail )….so we were able to follow the beach line around the south shore of Lake Okanagan…and then the trail continues up through the vineyards to where Abandoned Rail brewery is right on the trail.

The trail wends its way through a Japanese garden, historical ships and many sculptures along the way.

….and then up through the vineyards and apple orchards on the north east side of Penticton.

Turned out the brewery is still under construction….ah well….we may have to bike back up there another day…!!! Beautiful trail…!!!

We followed the bike path down through the town of Penticton and were rewarded with another find…………Tin Whistle brewery…….not to be cheated out of our beer. They have a patio but don’t serve food…instead they encourage you to bring your own. The owner directed us to the Thai restaurant (the Joy..) where we picked up very delicious take out to go with the beer. It was a good find…….and good beer…!!! Turns out the owners are from Ontario….so may be visiting the Paris brew on their next trip to family…!!!

Next hike Campbell Mountain trail…….

Next bit of the road….again…long haul up….then unbelievable steep switchbacks down in to Osoyoos……its impressive…..my legs were totally cramped up from braking all the way down…and I was not even driving….!!!

This might become the subject of a future post……the symptoms this cramp created and the solutions I found were…..enlightening…!!!

The road winds ever downwards into Osoyoos and is both spectacular with the views of the valley and the lake….and terrifying….. a steep winding road with impossible seeming switchbacks and hairpins….the pictures just cannot do this road justice.

Osoyoos is a little Shangri-La in the valley between the mountains. It’s definitely more temperate…and orchards and vineyards as far as the eye can see.

We had not managed to secure a campsite in Osoyoos so we were headed another 20 minutes north up the valley to Oliver and Gallagher Lakes campground. A very beautiful campsite….but one of the tightest spots we have had to squeeeeeze into so far…man they pack them in. Looking around at many of the other RV parks in the area….for such a vast landscape….the campgrounds sure rack ’em and stack ’em.

But another tick in the positive box was that we were in a site right next to a cute little Airstream Bambi.

Oliver continues the theme of BC we have seen so far….fruit and produce in abundance. The road is quite literally lined with grapes and apples. Wineries every hundred yards it seems.

The late summer weather is starting to fade a little and fall is quite definitely in the air. The US border is still not open and so it looks most likely that we will try and winter here in Southern BC and head back to Ontario in the spring if we can drop down in to the US to swing back around……and so the hunt is on for a spot…many of the campgrounds are fully booked…with the border still closed many regular US bound snowbirds have snagged all the spots in Osoyoos….

We might have found one on the southern end of lake Osoyoos from the beginning of December…

In the meantime we will head up to Penticton. Like many of the roads we have travelled…this one is tough to drive…..cos the driver has trouble NOT staring at the scenery instead of the road…LOL..

A winding road up the side of Lake Skaha to Wrights Beach campground. I was not hopeful for this one….but the site they put us on was just spectacular…..

We decided to stay for a bit and have a bit of a home base here. Penticton is a good sized town with everything we need and 4 craft breweries, what’s not to like ? There are also a ton of great trails and walks close by….great spot to be…

Its windy here ..but its a south wind and warm…..Lake Skaha is beautiful….I cant stop staring at it as I walk to the laundry….I’m going to injure myself one of these days from not looking where I am going.

Pulling out along the valley was very pretty…..then……..we got to the Kootenay pass……1800 metres at the top of the pass…….its a long haul up……..and seems like an even longer haul down…..Oh Boy….its a road….. Kicking horse had one runaway truck lane…..Kootenay had at least 12….I stopped counting…….!!! The haziness is not smoke…its pouring rain…..!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kootenay_Pass

Just to make the point there are avalanche gates as you approach the top…… a breathtaking journey….both beautiful……and terrifying with signs that said 6% grades for 8km…….8% for 4 km….and it seems to be a never-ending down as you gaze down into the valley…and up ahead to more mountains.

I don’t think I had ever really appreciated the scale of these mountains…….not just the size of them but the scale of the landscape they cover.

We did a one night stop at Country Hideaway in Grand Forks…….lovely little spot…….would defo return in the summer…

The park is tucked in to one of the meanders of the river, far enough off the road to be really quiet….but close enough to still be convenient. Best showers so far….the owners were super nice …lovely park.

Mike…the owner said we still have some big hills before we get to Osoyoos……..my eyes are wide in apprehension of what’s next………the trip over even more mountains to Osoyoos.

We stopped for a sandwich break in Greenwood. There was a convenient spot to pull off the road and we were getting hungry. (As soon as we stopped…two other rigs pulled up beside us…….LOL…it was a good spot…!!!) It turned out to be a very fortuitous stop. Greenwood was a little gem.

Turns out….unbeknownst to us …Greenwood had a big role to play in the internment of Japanese Canadians in wartime as the first town to offer to take in those forcibly removed from the coast. The town imparts a real reverence for the relationship it developed with the Japanese families it homed in a mutually beneficial arrangement to repopulate the town. https://www.greenwoodnikkei.ca/page7.html

It had originally been a mining town….but its smelters were shut down and the town was dying…….the xenophobic actions of the Canadian Govt towards the Japanese living on the Pacific coast and their forced removal saved the town it would seem.

…..and the town has this fascinating ‘American west’ vibe…even in its currently run down state. I’m not sure how much of its recent disrepair is COVID related……but what a great little stop….

Next big score in Greenwood…..a trailer friendly gas station at the other end of town…..so quick gas fill up and then next stop will be Gallagher lakes in Oliver BC

And so…..we pulled out of Lost Lemon a little reluctantly…..it would have been good to have spent a bit more time here, but we also need to get a bit further west so that…if we can’t get across the US border for a milder winter….we can find a slightly warmer spot in Canada. We have already given up on getting back to Ontario before the winter hits. The original plan was to arrive in the west in time for the border opening so we could swing south and back around to Ontario. Latest news is not optimistic for that to happen anytime soon. So we continue west.

The drive through the Crowsnest pass to Creston is as we expected low rolling grades…..and we dropped quite a bit of elevation……..it felt like we were going mostly downhill to Creston.BC… (apparently the best place to retire according to surveys in 2015.)

The weather is definitely milder here and there are so many fruit stands…every second driveway had a sign selling fruit and veg.

Arrow Mountain rv park…not the nicest one we have ever seen…….its attached to a Ramada hotel…..the free hot showers were…….rustic….I was going to take a picture….but that would have meant going back in there. It was clean enough ….dont get me wrong….but ….it was a concrete block building…inside and out…..Inviting it was not……!!!

No security, no gate ….water sewer and 50 amp sevice……lady was keen for us to winter there…….mmmmmmm….nope…We did stay for a couple of days since…once we were there and unhitched…we still wanted to see a little bit of Creston.

Pretty little town with lots of fun sculptures scattered around…..and an abundance of local produce…

..Time for a hike…….this one was quite different…..very little elevation and very different landscape, ….a very beautiful walk…..Creston marsh trail….

Creston Marsh trail.

We met a couple just finishing up the walk as we were starting…we had just been discussing whether or not we needed the bear stuff…….the chap we met said there had been bears sighted on this trail in the previous week….so….valley floor….with bear spray and bells….!!!!

Turns out Creston Marsh is also a birding spot……there were a family of pelicans on the water…but we were too far away to get pictures……we did spot some turtles popping their heads out of the water……no bears…!!!!

Very different to our usual…but a super walk……

As lovely as Creston Valley is…we were not sorry to pull out of the campground here….So off we headed for the next part of the trek across the bottom of British Columbia through the Kootenay Pass………..and then came …..the Kootenay Pass…….!!!

Don’t ask me why….but we felt the need for something a bit more challenging for this last walk from Lost Lemon .

The North York Creek Plane Crash trail is a 20km hike according to Alltrails…..we found it to be a bit more….!!!but it seemed likea worthwhile effort….

The plane crash happened in 1946……but apparently still has quite a bit of evidence/debris around the site. ………and of course….now we have our bear spray and bear bells…!!!….so a longer walk/hike seems like the order of the day.

As we have come to expect…..the drive to the trailhead was an ‘interesting’ road. Alltrails suggested you could get your vehicle further up the trail than we were comfortable with (even with the ground clearance and 4 wheel drive….and dry road conditions…!!)……and the whole trails is used by ATV’s and scrambler bikes…so its an easy trail to follow (by easy I mean that you can easily see where it goes……the hiking part gets a bit more challenging in places…)

I have to laugh as I edit my way through these pictures…….none of them are posed…Scott does a lot of racing ahead of me…or up a side path or hill…..or lagging behind to take these shots……I just keep plodding along……grumbling a bit on some of the steeper hills….it has to be said…!!!

Again…as I have said so many times on this trip….the views are spectacular…….

…and once you actually make it to the top……(its a looong way…..!!)….it is truly amazing……..The view itself is spectacular….but once you get to the site…it is amazing how much of the debris is still very evident…..this happened 75 years ago…!! ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GaCXQgR9Iw )

Its also quite surprising how much colder it is at that elevation…….time to go back down…….making lots of noise as we go……cos…again…lots of bear prints….!!!!

….and of course……..some fungi along the way…….!!!

We were…….tired..( Editor. Could it be the 5 hours of fun ? )…at the end of this one……Kind of the opposite end of the scale from Turtle mountain….but just as rewarding…….

Its been a great stay here…great campground…..and for anyone that is interested…..here is the Lost Lemon legend … (https://mysteriesofcanada.com/alberta/the-legend-of-the-lost-lemon-mine/)

Next stop Creston BC…….

After a day off to recover from the Turtle Mountain shenanigans….the day coincided with the Blairmore farmers market….a small but well attended market. Not a lot of vendors but enough to get us restocked with some Mennonite eggs and veggies ( and some Okanagan fruit ) so worth the trip…

Next hike…

Coal miners lake.

The trailhead was in Livingstone (park?) right on the boundary between Alberta and BC. Another challenging road to drive up…….(slowly, cautiously and thankful of 4 wheel drive…!!!) Once we got to the parking area……it looks like a great spot for wild camping….if you have a tent…or an RV with some ground clearance..!!!

…the trail was a fairly wide path obviously used by ATV’s…..but still not an easy one to walk. Lots of loose rocks, a couple of creek crossings that resulted in clean shoes…..and some mud puddles demonstrating both adult and baby bear footprints……

This yielded some pretty serious discussion about acquiring some bear spray…….We did not see any actual bears…and …ironically did not see much wildlife……you take the trail that is recommended for wildlife sighting….then have to make a bunch of noise to avoid surprising any bears…!!!We are pretty sure we saw moose tracks, definitely some bear prints and either a big dog…or something of that ilk had trekked through the mud spots also.

It was also a day of my favourite little guys…..in many varieties

I really need to get myself a good mushroom book……or an app or something….cos Im pretty sure at least some of theses would make good soup….!!!

The top of the hike was at the lake (Coal Miners lake..!!) a little man made lake that must have been part of a coal mining operation at some point in the last hundred years……It would have made a lovely camp site……but I’m sure we were there at the right season to NOT be eaten alive by bugs…!!!!

Next couple of days we were forecast for rain….and with some of the hikes we had been doing……it seemed like a better idea to drive to Fernie for a look around…..

Halfway along the valley….we just had to stop in Sparwood…after seeing the signs for the’ Worlds Largest Truck’…..!!!!

Fernie is a lot like Paris in many ways……lovely little town with lots of small stores on a main shopping street…….but with the addition of some spectacular mountain scenery around it……

There are some really lovely buildings…and a couple of good outdoor stores….that sell bear spray……Yes…we did purchase some…!!!

….and then we came home and watched multiple vides on how to use it……!!!!

All ready for the next big hike…..Plane Crash trail…..!!!!