Return to the burn. Skaha Ward 1 Trail.

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..!!

Extra Pix