Category: Travel posts

With a bunch of sunny days in the forecast…and a balmy +5 C promised for the day…the alltrails pick was for Bear Alley. It just sounded so enticing……and it looked from the map , like a hike that would keep us mostly in the sun.

The road leading in to the trailhead was sheet ice…and seriously downhill…..so we backed up a bit and walked down. Having geared up with my gaiters and ice trax…we trudged up over the hill again.

The point that Alltrails said was the trailhead was on private property with multiple clear signs prohibiting trespassing.( BTW..I reported it to Alltrails and they have since deleted the map ) Disappointing b/c the road ahead and the hillside we were headed to looked amazing. We had to drive back down to OK falls to get enough signal to find an alternate…..

The alternate today was Fire mountain, same parkland as Peach Cliff, but this one was a loop around Fire Mountain.

We found ourselves back among those majestic ponderosa pines. On the most beautiful blue cloudless sky day. (Editor. My favourite little spikey cacti friends safely buried below the snow )

We almost walked in to the middle of a herd of mule deer.

They did not seem particularly fazed by us as we quietly crept by , trying not to disturb them. ( in the last frame there you can see the little one jump the fence..!!)

Safely by them we headed on up through the pass. By this time it was warming up so the layers were peeled off and stowed. The snow was becoming icier as this is clearly a well travelled path……so much easier underfoot than the last couple of hikes have been

Further up the pass we met mostly eaten deer carcass on the side of the trail (bleuch…!!!). There were lots of tracks around, but it was hard to tell what they had been made by.

A little further down we met a lady with a dog who told us she lives locally…and frequently sees bears on that mountain. She was fairly sure the deer was a mountain lion kill, not bear. ( well now…thats re-assuring..!!)

It’s quite definitely bear territory when you look at the landscape around……did I mention the lady we met was carrying her bear spray in her hand…!!!

We did see more bear tracks further down the trail. It’s an interesting situation where you kinda want to see them….but you kinda don’t..!!!(sorry the pix of the prints did not come out very clearly)

It was a much easier walk than the last couple have been. The snow was probably not as deep to start with, but also trampled quite a bit more and frozen a bit more to make the path just a tad easier to walk on.

The requisite spectacular views were duly sighted and recorded…..!!!

The way back down was fairly sun exposed….so we ended up having to stay on the snow as much as possible because the exposed ground was very soft and muddy with the snowmelt.

Another very beautiful, very satisfying day out…..

Next post will be a conglomerate of a few trips down the side of Skaha lake…..

Extra Pix

Yee ha……the weather has taken a distinct change for the warmer……but still with snow at higher elevations. The weather network promised us a sunny day so I picked a trail fairly close to home that would keep us in the sun for most of the journey.

Lower Parker loop was the pick for the day. Another trail up by the observatory (DRAO) ……a nice looking loop according to the map….and Alltrails was telling me it had been travelled a few times in the previous couple of days. So off we went….!!

Snow tracking rather than path following on this one. The snow looks shallower than it actually is because the top layer is a bit frozen……

…….so the tracks we are following are mostly from snowshoes, but every half dozen steps or so…..your feet crash through.

It was a truly beautiful day…lots of sun and blue blue sky.

To begin with…its hilariously funny…as your feet keep disappearing….but it gets very wearing very quickly (as Scott described…its a bit like a reverse whack-a-mole where your legs suddenly disappear down a hole ).

The landscape did not disappoint, between the snowy line of the hills/mountains, and the strips of fluffy cloud giving us those calendar page vistas…..the skyline was spectacular.

We were grateful to be following the snow tracks, but even with them, by the time we got to the almost halfway point it had taken more time than anticipated. It is hard work slogging through the snow and we were starting to lose the light. (Editor. So Mho turns to me and and says that we’re less than half way and starting to lose the light and we should probably retrace our steps ….what did I think ? Well those of you who know me will know the answer.) The decision was made to complete the loop rather than backtrack…….

………and then the snow got deeper…..

So now we were almost leaping from step to step (still following someone else’s footsteps.) At this point we decided we were actually going to lose the light if we went all the way round..

……but it looked like we could cut off a section by striking out through the gully rather than round the next hill.

Best laid plans…..the snow (now virginal) was knee deep and deeper…..my gaitors had completely given up staying over my boots by this point…….so we waded through the snow…expecting it to let up any time soon….it didn’t…… LOL…I thought it was going to get shallower as I got close to this tree to fix my gaitors……NOPE…!!

It really did not help that we were killing ourselves laughing as we were falling all over the place in the snow. It still makes Scott laugh out oud when he looks at the pictures of me falling over, or disappearing in the snow….!!! (Editor. I had the unenviable task of ‘running’ on ahead to take photos looking back, then falling behind to take photos in the direction of travel and finally running to catch up again. Somehow we convince ourselves this is fun, sometimes not at the time but it always is looking back.)

Eventually we got to the fence line and the very welcome sight of snowshoe tracks on the other side..

Yes…that last picture is my leg disappearing…….again…!!!!

A quick check of the alltrails map suggested that this snowshoe trail should lead us down to our start point …and a trail to follow was much easier trekking than breaking a new one. (Another moment of appreciating what the pioneers must have faced…!!)

By the time we made it back to the trail proper…we were both slightly tired…..!!!!

It was a 6 and half km hike……but probably the hardest we have done…

….but so beautiful.

The next post is a day that very much reminded us of the ever present bear population….!!!

Extra Pix (this was a tough one to winnow down the pictures because there were soooo many good ones..!!)

A day of bright sunshine , but not necessarily warmer temperatures took us down to Vaseux Lake bird area again.

(Link to website for this sanctuary..!!)

It is such a spectacular little conservation area right on the side of the highway (highways through the Okanagan is what would just be called a road anywhere else in the world because through the valleys there is generally one road…in and out……that was one of the big issues with the flooding late last year……there just are not many roads…because there are a lot of mountains..!!)

It was one of those blue sky days that we love…so we drove down hoping maybe to find some birds….wrong season I suspect. There were some swans on the lake…a couple of intriguing whirrs of wings through the undergrowth…but not much other than scenery to see.

From the south end of the area….on the north end of the lake….as you look down you can see the sheer cliff of McIntyre bluffs…..its kind of chilling to see just how vertical the drop is.

With nothing else in the plan for the day we decided to stop in Okanagan falls and take a look at the trestles…with a view to biking down (28km round trip) with some warmer weather.

With not much else for entertainment on this frigid day it seemed like a good idea to drive back up the east side of Skaha on the return to Penticton (highway 97…the main highway is on the west side)

Its a lovely road….a narrower, sinuating backroad (with, much as you would expect, a radically different vista). About a kilometre before the Penticton boundary, we spied a small parking area with some Conservation signage. Had to stop…..after some stone skipping on the lake (see ……here )

We checked out the sign…and I had a look on Alltrails cos I couldn’t believe that I had missed such a promising looking trail…..to find no entries on that trail.

So …I learned a new skill on Alltrails and drew my own trail map to follow. (Woo hoo..!!)

The trailhead has a big information board on the re-establishment of the bighorn sheep population.

The trail itself was promising it started out with a fairly level trail heading south along Skaha……with the kind of views we have come to expect…!!

There was a little bit of bushwhacking to get us all the way over to the trail we were trying to follow…..

The trail was still making some promises We met a couple coming down that said thee was a bunch of mountain sheep at the base of the rock face………

We were headed in a slightly different direction tho…..It was yet another one of those walks where the terrain kept changing as we went up.

…and of course…the breathtaking views …

It also got snowier the more we climbed……but as it was a fairly steep ascent we were getting warmer rather than colder……as you see progressive layers of clothing being shed…!!!

The path became a rock face. A rock face interspersed with icy patches and the grade was still increasing at this point. (By this point we are both laughing out loud at our ambitions…!!!)

At this point, following someone connecting his kneecap (loudly) with the rock ‘path’, we decided it might be a better idea to go in another direction and follow a more lateral path…!!!(Editor. The peak in the distance of the photo above left was our goal, approx 4km of ice and moss covered smooth rock. The tap on my shoulder from mother nature was enough to convince me to try again another day )

So in the interest of ‘living to hike another day!!” ……we changed the plan and struck out a bit more sideways.. This tracked us back to the very end of the trail we did with all the pictographs .

…and going down is always a bit harder than going up…….!!!

The lake is so impressive, even from the lower elevations….

Another very satisfying day out.

EXTRA PIX

Well it started out as an idea. With the snow melting fairly rapidly here at ground level ..and having had a couple of days of rain, the prospects of muddy walks were not particularly appealing.

The promise in the weather forecast was for a reasonably warm daytime high of plus 3°C .(…you take what you can get…!!) and we have been shut indoors for a bit too long now…..so revisiting the KVR little tunnel seemed sensible…..nice even gravel path, easy elevation…..beautiful views that should be impressive in the remaining snow.

When we got there what we found was a snow covered, barely travelled path….about 8 to 10 inches I would estimate. So much for the nice gravel path. Oh well…!! ..it became an excellent opportunity to try out our newly purchased long gaitors..!!

Lets just say it was hard going…….

The weather network had promised sunny breaks in the early afternoon (the sun is still disappearing from the sky behind the mountains at about 3 pm ish…) so we were confident of some worthwhile views and pix.

It was really foggy. Heading up the trail, We were walking towards the fog/low lying clouds. It is a very interesting effect…that very clean line of the bottom edge of the cloud.

The views down to the lake make that effect much more dramatic……..especially as we approached the tunnel. Watching the other side of Okanagan lake…the sun broke through onto the water.

The glittery, ripply sunspot is truly something to behold. We gasped…held our breath a little, and raced, as fast as the deep snow would allow, to the tunnel hoping it would still be there when we got to the other side. The intensity, shape and colour of the light changes by the second as it moves up the valley and fresh openings cleave through the cloud cover. The silence only adds to the majesty of it all.

Being January 14th…it is also what would have been my fathers 101st birthday. Last year my niece and her partner organised a virtual run in memoriam..my (Macfarlane) tartan buff is from that run.

That sunlight display across the lake rewarded our efforts with an unfolding burnished, other-worldly spectacle.

We (I…!!) decided against trying the ladybug walk out onto the rock formations. Just a bit too icy and slippery (despite the fact that any pictures from there would (almost) have been worth it.)

The walk back down was vaguely easier….but it might just have been the psychological effect of knowing we were going downhill.(……and the knowledge that there was coffee in a thermos waiting in the truck.)

By this time our legs were…well tired is one word…….the constant unevenness and lack of traction are hard going on the hips and ankles. Interestingly its easier to walk in the fresh snow to your knees cos at least your footfall is even…and there is a little bit of traction. Walking in this stuff…… imagine staggering drunkenly for 10 km!!! ( Editor. Hmmm no idea what that might be like )

It was as beautiful (if a little veiled) as expected…….and despite the complainting…..it was great fun….!!!

The highlight of the journey down was the fleeting appearance of this little rainbow cloud…….I hope you can see it…..it was much clearer in life and we almost missed catching it on camera…..

The next trip out was a hilariously death defying trip up a trail we found on the east side of Skaha lake.

( PS if anyone is interested, here is the link to the same hike pre-snow.. https://osteopraxis.com/2022/01/02/nov-26th-naramata-kettle-valley-rail-to-little-tunnel/ )

Extra pix

Finally…after a deep freeze that BC apparently just does not get (more snow than BC has seen in years ) alongside all the other world craziness we seem to be living through……it got warm enough to get out…….WOO HOO..!!!

We had borrowed some snowshoes from friends to try it out……so the Mahoney conservation area seemed like a good spot to try them out. This is the same trailhead as the Hawthorne mountain hike…and crossing some trails we walked before on our “off piste” hike in mid December.

We swiffed about 400 m in on the trail…and decided we did not care much for the snow shoes. Off they came and we trudged back to the truck. Having stowed them safely we started again in just boots. (The hiking poles really helped….LOL…the ‘slightly’ packed snow is desperately uneven and challenging to walk on.)

It was a spectacular day, very fresh..!!! crisp and sunny with blue….. really blue sky. It was tough going on the hips and the calf muscles walking in the snow. Sometimes disappearing in the snow. (its hard to describe how much fun it is wading through deep fresh snow..I just love it…!!!) Luckily I had picked out a trail that was only 5 and a bit kilometres.

It was such a lovely day….and the snow…aside from the slightly packed trail from other peops snow shoeing……was about knee deep. I was very glad of my short gaiters….but it was not long before the fronts of my legs were soaked through and cold (like freezing cold..⛄!!) We were thinking it might be time for some full length gaitors…..

A couple of km in…the trail we wanted headed off in to almost virginal snow (there were tracks from someone being through on a horse )…..oh I do love walking in snow, and it was not long before my shins were soaked up to the knee…….but it was great fun…..

Sparkly, twinkly white and ice…….long shadows…and a surprising vividness to the red of the pine tree bark….and a tremendous deep azure blue in the sky.

Even though we had walked this trail before …it was completely different…( the pool in the picture below is the one we saw the beavers in a couple of hikes ago…!!)

It was had work trudging through the snow….but we had a blast…..and a lot of laughter along the way……!!! ( Our legs are gonna be sore for a couple of days….but totally worth it….)

I don’t think we will be in the market for snow shoes tho….

Next post will be the return to the Kettle Valley trail and a hike in snow up to Little Tunnel again.

Extra pix

Winter really hit after our Christmas Card hike in the snow above Naramata. The temperature plummeted to lows seldom seen in the BC southern interior. (https://globalnews.ca/news/8461151/snowfall-alert-bc-interior-december-18/ )

But someone in the trailer was really happy with the furnace pumping out heat in abundance…..

The roads just get prettier as mother nature photoshops the views with a fluffy white paintbrush……

We were quite pleased with ourselves for the job we (We being Scott…!!!) did insulating and skirting the trailer…..heat tape up the belly, fancy silvered bubble wrap skirt and our trusty propane forced air furnace. So far we have not had any frozen lines in or out.

We finally managed to get some of the beers from Abandoned Rail brewery and I am happy to report it is a most enjoyable beverage…Well done Peter…!!

The weather seriously curtailed our outside activities…thankfully Penticton has a really nice pool and it has remained open despite some of the more opressive covid restrictions elsewhere in the country. We have kept busy inside….with a few projects…..

….and we have benefitted from expert assistance…..

Christmas and the New Year came and went….and it was cold out there…….

We did accumulate a bit of ice on the inside of the windows…and the cat found himself a spot on top of the blu-ray player….toasty toes…!!!

The mail trips down to Osoyoos take us past the Vaseux Lake bird area……one of those things one drives past…….and you keep meaning to stop……Well on this day we did……and decided we should definitely stop another day….

January 6th was a huge dump of snow (for Southern BC ) plowing and salting is a bit of an alien concept here ….!!

The fun part was that it was cold enough that the snow stayed dry and crispy for over a week. It has warmed up to a more normal (seasonal) temp for the area now and the snow (at ground level ) is mostly gone as Ontario has now been buried and frozen…!!!

We have had a couple of treks out on trails on intermittent sun filled days…..those will be posts unto themselves….and some walks along the frozen beach by the campground

Driving here in the BC interior was such a pleasure in the warmer greener season……snow adds a whole different spectacle to the scenery….

January 17th was a wolf moon (i found out after the fact……)

January 18th was another cold but sunny day…so we took a trip back down to Vaseux Lake to see if we could get some pictures.

It was quite something it has to be said……

We took the opportunity to drive back up to Penticton on the minor road up the east shore of Skaha lake……and found a trailhead that was destined to become our next hike…..just across the road from the stone skipping site..!!

Next adventure will be a return to Mahoney….but past our knees in snow…!!!

Another break in the weather, we wait by the door ready to exit at a moments notice. Not so much that we need it to be warm….but we do need it to be somewhat stable.

I had scouted out this trail as it was a relatively low level hike….but promised good vistas… in an area we had not hiked yet and not far from home base. I included the second map as it shows where the hike is relative to Penticton…….

It was 4 Deg C in Penticton and a promised sunny day…..it was not 4 degrees up the mountainside…and we were on the west side of the valley…ie not in the sun..!!!

We started on ice..so I wore my ice trax for the first time and I would have to say……I like them..!! Even the parking at the trailhead was pretty steep on the start of this one. ….but the views started almost straight away…

Not the most challenging hike we have done, but a very pretty trail up the west side of the valley. It was all ice underfoot for the first half…and then a very satisfying ‘crunch’ through snow for the rest….

I keep on saying it…I know……but you have to stop and drink it in…walk a bit and then stop and stare a little bit more.

At the top of the trail there are two viewpoints and it is a truly magnificent view …….

We even had a little atmospheric moon showing through the blue sky to add to the majesty of the picture……

There were a lot of people out and about on this trail….and a lot of dogs…and a lot of unleashed dogs…..(but that is a rant for another day…!!)

The walk back down had us facing the lake pretty much all the way down…….it was a treat to be sure….!!

Another beautiful day in BC……..

The next hike was our Christmas card walk previously published Christmas Eve….the next post will be our first outing in 2022…..Mahoney Ecological Area and the East White Lake trail…….

A few Extra Pix

The plan for the day was to hike the Observatory loop. It kind of made sense, having spied the Observatory from Hawthorne Mountain, to take the ground level walk around it….

( The Observatory being the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory ..https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_Radio_Astrophysical_Observatory )

We drove up to the observatory with my trusty Alltrails map already downloaded….

….only to find, once we arrived, the Observatory property…and the trailhead for this hike….are currently inaccessible to the public due to the covids.

We had noticed another trail entrance further up the road on our way home from the last hike……but with no data service to search for another trail….this time it was navigating without a route using Alltrails…….how bad could it be..!!! how long was the trail, was it steep and were there any aliens visiting ?

The parking area was jammed with vehicles……and the signs indicated that this was another birding spot. We only saw a couple of actual people head off up the trail, and though we thought it might be busier than our usual hikes….we were here, so, off we trekked around the edge of the cliff.

Found this weird creepy ….large stripped skeleton…not a cow…(not a person) maybe a bear we thought…(or an alien…!!!!).Further investigation once home leads me to believe it was a pig of some kind…possibly a feral pig ( they apparently have a problem with feral pigs…Alberta Saskechewan, BC )

It was a grayish, cold day and a lovely trail. Then it started going steeply downhill. (….not a good sign early in a hike….cos it means you have to climb back up…likely at the end). We decided to keep on going to see if we could make the loop around the hill/mountain…..

As we passed through the trees on the way down the hill….there were a number of neat piles of branches scattered through the area……further investigation determined that this was a conservation effort to combat an invading beetle infestation……it looked like preparation for a bunch of socially distanced bonfires…!!!!

At the point we were pretty sure we were NOT going back up that hill……we found another strange structure that looked like maybe some prospecting of old (or maybe I’m just over romanticizing…!!)

After another little bit of a climb we stumbled on a pool where we spotted a couple of beavers..(we think…!!). They were initially startled when we arrived…but soon got back to their beavery business…swimming around…diving for stuff…..generally mucking about.

We trekked across part of the same trail we followed up Hawthorne mountain…..and it looked (from the map) as if we could get all the way up the valley……..there were a couple of ropey (slightly scary..!!) bits in the middle where we were a little concerned we might have to back track.

…but we found our way back on to another well travelled path that lead us all the way back to observatory…this time in the valley below Hawthorne….and another unexpected abandoned object in the middle of nowhere…!!!

Good walk…nice day…!!!

No bears, or lions, or jackalopes….!!! ( Or aliens )

Next trip out…..The Fur Brigade trail…!!!!

Extra pix

We set off to try our hand (or feet) at Keogan Mountain…the weather was warmer than it is going to be for a bit so we thought we would try this one. But…arriving at where google maps took us to the trailhead…it starts in the middle of a vineyard that states ‘by appointment only’ on the gate. (Boooo…..!!)

So a quick adjustment to see what else was around….took us to McIntyre Bluffs….the hike is through Willowbrook Parkland ( https://www.willowbrookparkland.com/ ) which is a private park that asks for a $5 per person …$10 seemed like a good deal for the day so off we trotted….especially when the signs on the gate seemed to promise us Lions and tigers and bears…….

With no real chance to research or prep this on…I was not entirely sure what to expect…..but the start through the forest was promising…..

The trail made some promises….Rattlesnake Trail leading to Rattlesnake Lake……quite lovely…but no snakes…!!!

The reviews said to expect some near vertical inclines on the path…….when one is 4 km in to a 10 km out and back hike…without having encountered any serious elevation yet….I was starting to get a bit worried.

It turns out that perception is everything….!! Yes there were a couple of short steep climbs on the path……but we have seen, and done, MUCH worse…..!!!

Once you get to the bluffs….the view literally takes your breath. We have driven by these cliffs many times and stayed at Gallagher Lakes at the foot of the cliff, and now we were at the top. It is a sheer drop down to the highway….but its a ‘top of the world’ kind of place and on this beautiful blue sky day…the view is all the way down the valley across Oliver. Osoyoos and the countryside beyond are just visible in the background. The world had become miniature in that moment…!!!

This was probably one of the busiest places we have been at elevation…there were two other couples that had brought their lunch for this spot….a stellar idea……!!!

We stopped for a water break and some snacks. As we sat basking, the wind that had been promised in the forecast started up…a warm south wind, but a strong one…so it was time to head back down……

For a last minute pick…it was a pretty good day I would have to say…

And given the wind that whipped up…we were quite thankful we were not up Keogan mountain…….maybe another day…!!!

Next trip was an attempt at the Observatory loop……(a crazy adventure due to another ‘access denied’ and last minute change of plan …!!!!)

Extra Pix

We had a break in the weather. The forecast had been predicting a miserable day….but the morning outlook was much better. It was time to load up Alltrails and see what I could find, with not too much elevation…(we have had a lot of rain…not that I mind the mud…its more the slippery stuff…I prefer my legs to be unbroken..!!)

I found this one…the Peat Bog Loop, 22 minutes from home. It looked like a good candidate ( although it did occur to me as we started walking, that the name…Peat Bog….might not be a good omen…!!!)….the park we were headed to was actually the one between Campbell mountain and Skaha Bluffs.

The access road up to the trailhead was death defyingly steep and winding (as we have come to expect…!!) and the view across the valley was truly awe inspiring (….there were a few spots on the road that were a sheer drop off….cliff going down forever …and no barrier….and a driver that delights in driving right next to the edge…!!!) Editor, if the customers ain’t screamin’ …. turn it up.

The trail description promised amazing views of the valley…if there is a spot with good views….we did not find it…..!!!

It was a mostly deep forest walk….with a relatively easy grade….very serene and very pretty but no magnificent blogworthy photo ops…!!! (other than maybe some enormous prints…!!)

Midway round had some lovely views…but too many trees to be as photogenic as some of the ones we have done to date..

Crunching through the snow…lots of squirrel tracks…no bear tracks..!!!

The little squirrel prints were super cute…you can see all of its little fingers..!!!

The photographer turned his attention to smaller details in the absence of our usual landscapes LOL……

It was a really pleasant forest hike…..and good to get out and get some air and some exercise. There is more bad weather coming up so it might be a few days before we get out again.

Next hike was an attempt at Keogan mountain…which is the start of the next story…!!!