Nov 26th, Naramata. Kettle Valley Rail to Little Tunnel

After a little break for the holiday season……and some record breaking cold , snowy weather in BC (!!!), here’s the first of the last few adventures of 2021, clearing the decks for a whole new set in 2022. No plans yet for a direction, we’ll see which way the wind blows us.

Happy New Year everyone….!!!

I have to say I did not have particularly high hopes for this one…….the last couple of hikes…though they were great fun…really did not deliver on the views we promised. So this one ….mostly…… was a fairly gentle elevation gain for the gradually diminishing weather conditions we are facing.

We definitely had a good day for being out…..it was a spectacular blue sky day ( with a few of those fake little cotton candy ‘Toy Story’ clouds scattered about)…and by following the rail trail we knew the grade was not going to be particularly challenging.

The view, strangely, for not having to work too hard for it, was breathtaking……

But as much as the walk does not challenge physically….you just have to keep stopping and staring because it just a non-stop fantastic visual feast the whole way.

The traffic was mostly bikes…there were a lot…..it would be a great trail for biking further…..we may have to come back and do the next stretch up to the Adra Tunnel. Its a much longer tunnel and most of it is now collapsed….but it sounds like an interesting site. As it was…we were headed to the smaller Little Tunnel…a very impressive engineering marvel …!!!!…I wonder how many broken limbs, squashed digits happened and lives were lost in its construction as well just the run of the railway blasting out the cliffs and filling the gullies….

Just beyond the tunnel we could see some huge rock ledges….the furthest one had what looked like a picnic table on it….and it seemed impossible to get to……but a little further on there is a marked trail called the Ladybug trail which weaves back across the rocks to where the table is, and another marvelous vantage point…..

We passed signage for “Rock Ovens”…apparently built for or by the workers who built the railroad. We were very tempted to do this side detour but we had a time deadline on this particular day (birthday party for a friend….Happy Birthday Stephen…!!) so we decided to investigate a little and come back another day….

Rock ovens….https://discovernaramata.com/parks-trails-beaches/rock-ovens-park

And so to the return journey…..

Overall…it was a ‘good for the soul’ day. BC` continues to astonish me with its spectacular beauty. It just never gets old…!!!

Next trip is the not particularly inspiringly named “Peat Bog Loop”…..what could go wrong there…!!!

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