Month: August 2023

Well, we did try to go to the Scottish Festival in Penticton. We did not even know it was a thing ’til we stopped off in the Penticton Art Gallery for a look. The lady in there said to us ‘Oh you must be here for the Scottish festival…!!’ Like it’s the only reason two people with Scottish accents would be in Penticton……haha..!!

In the end…. we had to do a bit of a musical campsites shuffle around the campground (a whole ‘nother saga) and by the time that all over…it was a bit late for the Scottish thing….so we pulled up our chairs and had a beer instead…!!!

The next day…it was a hot one…. the challenge for the day was another redo…. This time the hike we had to abandon last spring because the rocks we needed to climb were still covered with ice. The last straw had been Scott’s knee impacting heavily on one of these rocks…….and much expletive-izing later…we headed back down.

As would seem to be the usual pattern with these things…….the general direction was up….!!!

We quickly gained enough elevation to be rewarded with that clear view across Skaha Lake

…and then there is a section that goes pretty much straight across the contour line…I remember this being quite mossy and marshy the last time we were here

It was a beautiful climb for sure….but a lot of it was on the outer edges of my comfort zone……

It always surprises me just how well my hiking boots grip……I always expect to slip….but rarely do.

It has to be said …that even without the ice this trail was a challenge with the climb up the rocks.

There were a few moments from the blogtographer suggesting that the picture he wanted was further over on that slipperier, steeper, shinier part of the rock…….while I was already sliding on the bit that I was on…..there may have been some suggestions involving anatomical acrobatics sent in his direction at those moments….maybe…!!!

In these situations the guy with the camera ends up with less spectacular shots than he would like….!!!

….and has to make do with the scenery as I refuse to hang off the edge of the cliff by my fingernails…LOL…

Eventually we got to a section where the trail had been closed because of the burn (the other side of the hill from the Sauerkraut trail) so…..reluctantly (!!) I had to admit defeat (no not gleefully…LOL…) and we set our way back down again. Some spectacular views of the lakes from up there tho’ .

…but then you have to pick your way back down those rock faces…..!!!

…with the occasional stop to stare out across the lake…..

…and soon enough we were back down into the greenery and the backside slide down the dirt back to the truck……

The day was starting to heat up. We were thankful we had started early….and then headed home for a cold beer…!!!

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Still in Penticton as the summer kicked off and the weather was heating up. We had decided to stay put in Penticton until after the Canada day weekend……. being crumbly old retired people we generally try to avoid travelling on holiday weekends, and also wanted to make sure we actually had a spot with power with the increasing heat ( yup…the cat needs air conditioning…LOL).

As it was too hot for hiking, the plan for this day was to go back to the Ornamental Gardens in Summerland. Last visit was in the early spring when we could see that there was an exceptional range of flora ….but not much was happening as it was still rousing from winter slumber.

This time the gardens were full of life…flora and fauna and many dancing butterflies….

The original house in the centre of the garden is surrounded by a rose garden. The fragrance as you walk through the roses was quite heavenly…..

The lookout to the rail bridge was much greener than last time we visited…..

The butterflies were plentiful…….but it took a bit of chasing to catch them sitting still……

The colours and perfumes ….abundant and beautiful……

I kept losing the photographer as I wandered, and he stopped to capture images.

The lower part of the garden has a vast collection of pines and firs of all sizes and shapes…….

and an even vaster (!!) collection of cacti………this time many were in bloom.

There is such incredible delicacy to the flowers that those big scary prickly cacti produce…..

Not sure what the weird pod tree was….but it was pretty…!!

The day was an extravaganza of shape, colour and smell…… and a lovely shady place to spend a hot day.

The visit this time fulfilled our expectations. It’s a beautiful old garden that has delightful little fairylike nooks…..

It may not be high on the list of tourist spots, but if you find yourself in the area the gardens are easy to access right off the highway and well worth the time to visit.

Well…after all that excitement of Cathedral park and after a couple of days of recovery…….a leg stretching exercise was in order. We plumped for a redo of the Skaha Ward 1 Trail that we trekked in March of last year….(following the major wildfire destruction from the fall of 2021 which occurred just before we arrived in Penticton.)

(I forgot to turn Alltrails off when we finished the hike……..but it handily shows the road back to Wrights Beachcamp.)

It was an opportunity too cool to miss….to go back up and see just how much had changed in a little more than a year, and Skaha Bluffs Provincial Park is always a great starting point.

Experiences we have had with other wildfire sites….Waterton from 2014, Hells Canyon in South Dakota from 2002…… prepared us not to expect much change.

Here in Skaha the picture was quite different…

Setting off from the parking lot the trail winds up through the ponderosa pines headed for the south end of the park and a bit out the other side.

It was a hot day……and with tired legs still from Cathedral meant a slow pace chugging up the hill….. ( I think I can…!!!)

The familiar path, Sauerkraut.……in the interests of keeping it different…we trekked the trail in the opposite direction to last time.

The first part of the path is up through a fairly leafy green area of forest….the next hill over from the burned area.

…and once we got high enough we began to see the evidence….but a little more hidden than last time.

The spring following this fall burn, the willows that were fervently sprouting a year ago…had become thick bushes almost completely hiding their blackened core……….but now a year later, more of the flora was bursting to life…..

Even the stark blackness of the burned trunks had softened to browns and whites…with this carpet of lush lime green growth and abundant wildflowers ( and bees)

We were glad to have started out early in the day….that sun was hot….

Walking across the scorched rocks, the contrast between the burned stumps and the almost joyful new growth was impressive.

It was a harder climb going this way…….or maybe it always seems that way on the way up

As we made our way around the front of the hill, the views down into Skaha are ever impressive…

…and as we made our way around the end of the loop, there is more bare rock and black lumps………but I remember this bit last time being mostly ash underfoot…..

It gets hard to follow the trail through this area…and we were trying especially hard to keep to the trail being conscious of the fragility of the ground as it recovers

At the top of the bluff you can still see the rock faces scorched white from the heat…..but even up in that section…the soil underneath is knitting back together firmly.

Last time we lost the path through this section and ended up scrambling a bit….. it was easier this time…..

Up over the top we met a crowd of curious goats.

They were quite unafraid……sniffing and stepping a little closer……having seen signage about aggressive goats in other areas we were not about to find out if these guys were going to be unfriendly….we (I .. !!) skirted around them.

They were quite unfazed by our presence….(does bear spray work on goats?…

………..any available big sticks were too burned for my illusion of defense😂 ..!!)

We continued picking our way through this more damaged section of the trail….

Do you remember the holes made by the exploded stumps ?……..they are healing nicely……

It was almost unbelievable how lush the surrounding forest on the other side of the ridge had become. Literally buzzing with life.

…and there was an abundance of wildflowers….

….the path became a thick carpet of clover and grasses…….

As we started down, the path follows a little creek…….now we were becoming snack food for the abundant mosquito population……

…..so we cut a couple of corners and hit the path down to the parking lot a little sooner…..

……. and another photo redo……!!!

…… heading down this path towards the parking area….as we turned around some of the tight switchbacks…..now I remember how steep this path was last time…..haha..!!

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Cathedral Park part 2. The Rim Trail

This entire experience in Cathedral was quite ‘out-of-this-world’. Be warned….there are going to be a LOT of pictures…… ( please click on them for a clearer view )

Following part 1 of the adventure ( click ) where we had made it to the shoulder of Pyramid Mountain, the path dips down to the shore of Ladyslipper lake. The regular trail heads up around the west shore of the lake…….. and then up……….

I had been a bit too smart for my own good here. In order to shorten the rim trail to make it more manageable in our limited time, I used Alltrails to map out an alternate path that went to the east side of the lake. This would almost prove to be our undoing.

To begin with it was a clearly defined path……

….but it quickly became clear we were on a goat path…..’cleverly’ we made the decision to continue as it looked like it was going pretty much where we expected it to, plus we would have the opportunity to practice our mountain goat skills.

A bit of a rock scramble towards the end of the lake made things interesting….but still quite manageable…lulling us into a false sense of security and completely unprepared for what we would shortly face.

After crawling across a rock field at the top of the lake…..we were face to face with a fairly sheer climb up the valley to the rim. about 600m of it. At this point we are certainly not turning back…..but I am now seeing my error…!!!

The path was more of a …..well a ridge of rocks and scree…. Note well…..Alltrails uses satellite images to follow trails when you draw your own maps. The hiccup here is that the sheer edge of a rock ridge looks like a path in a satellite image……!!!! This realization was not my favourite moment…..!!!

But here we are…..and you don’t ever achieve anything in life without a bit of discomfort or even heart-stopping terror……so…let’s give it a go…!!!

I don’t know how it looks to you….but it was a hard climb. It became gradually steeper until we were using hands and knees to keep going….

The next two pictures are (L). looking up to that boulder and (R). looking down from it…..

….and then we were into snow …..In addition, all the way up the wind was bitingly cold and relentless.

If you look closely ……I am in the middle of this next picture……

I have to say…about halfway up…I did not think I was going to make it. There were a couple of spots that were near vertical…and the only grip was some grassy tufts that were tenaciously rooted into the rocks and gravel.

Scott was doing his best encouragement halfway…as the ice pellets started blowing at us and we could see snow clouds heading our way over the ridge below us….

No choice but up…so up we went……the only thing keeping me going at that point was the grim determination NOT to be one of those people that needs rescued…..

It was more mentally tough than physically, I think . My dear husband delighted in the photographs of me struggling in my moments of misery…..I knew we still had 400 m to climb……and my legs were not enthused at the idea.

But…no choice…pushes you on…and we made it to the top of the ridge

As you come up over the top edge of the ridge…..it’s a real WOW moment….. truly like being on top of the world…8300ft above sea level, surrounded by 80,000 acres of pristine, and difficult to access, wilderness. After the climb you try and catch your breath, but the views simply take your breath away.

…and you can see the different weather systems for miles in all the valleys in every direction….

Once we collected ourselves and thanked our lucky stars, we joined the path (the dull and far less challenging one we should have been following..!!) around the rim, path is a loose description as it’s a vague line between cairns.!!)

There was quite a bit of snow on the rocks up there which made walking rather dangerous, not quite sure of what you were stepping into.

We picked our way across the top…the views are beyond description……you can see forever up there and of the 610 named mountain peaks in BC, it feels like you can see about 500 of them (maybe a slight exaggeration) it really is like being on top of the world….

Even being on the edge of the rim…looking down the steep, steep valley into the glacial lakes below……maybe the last couple of years of driving and walking some of those scary, scary paths has altered my brains perception of those dizzying spots….or maybe it was just so breathtakingly beautiful that the vertiginous viewpoint is completely nullified…… but it was just ……. spectacular….like nothing we have ever seen before.

……..and then it was time to come back down to earth.

Even with the waves of weather blown in by that biting wind, ice pellets, snow and cloud there could simply never be enough time up on the rim …….

Down towards our 4th lake of the day, Glacier Lake.

This was one of the few occasions where going down was LESS scary than going up……

I am sure the distraction of the view down into Glacier Lake also helped…

The steep path gave way into a gentler incline ……

…and on very tired legs we made it back into the camp with about an hour to spare on our time limit.

As we arrived, there was a big group of high school students arriving in these amazing Unimog Mercedes ex-army vehicles. I am sure these little trucks managed the road very well……but it must have been quite the bumpy ride for this group of 17-year-olds. Quite the life experience for them….

The ride back down…13km and hour and ten……..and it was like a slow-motion rollercoaster….with mud puddles. Kudos to our driver……he was amazing.

Then back to the truck for the drive back down Ashnola……which is itself such a beautiful, remote, unspoiled place. We met a few wild locals on the way….

The only reason this place is not on more bucket lists is because most people don’t even know that it exists……..the photographs can only show a fraction of the scale…and the magnificence of this place….

We had high expectations and even those were completely blown out of the water.

Best $300 we have spent in a long time..

My only concern now is that the next places we go just don’t measure up….

We walked climbed hiked from 8.50 am to 3.20 pm…..with no real breaks other than me stopping on the way up the hill to wait for my heart to stop pounding enough to contnue…..and it felt like maybe only a couple of hours at the most.

(Editor. For those who have followed along with us, you’ll appreciate we have been a lot of places and seen many things. We’re often asked what our favourite is, and up until now although there are many we’d happy to return to, picking a No.1 was impossible. That changed with our visit to Cathedral Park which has a scale and majesty that is beyond comprehension and is a place we hope to return to many times. If you have, or can make, the opportunity to visit then please do, it’s an experience of a lifetime. I hope the photos give you enough of a flavour to provide the necessary encouragement)

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