Bloganagan

Drought Mountain Hike

It looked like rain early this morning and I was ready to bail (out - not the boat - although with all the rain we've had this bummersummer it could have gone either way), but the octogenarian mountain goat convinced me that the sun would eventually shine so I laced up the boots, collected him and pointed Happy Tot (my peppy little Yaris) up Drought Mountain. Locals in the Westbank/West Kelowna area probably know which hump I'm talking about, but for everybody else, Drought is the ridge behind Gorman Lumber. From the summit you can see the Peachland cutoff to the Coquihalla Connector in one direction and the whole of West Kelowna in the other. There's quite a network of trails on Drought, so we mix 'n' match. One day the hike may be 5-K another time it's six or seven. 

Jim's Trail Update

If you haven't read the previous post - Jim's Trail Superbowl Sunday - start there for the full story. But if you're in a hurry jump right to the pics.

... And so it transpires that six days later, Jim has managed to con together another hiking party (read work crew). This time the day is clear and mild – although it’s a little crisp in the wind. We’ve got a couple of rookies, Corrine and Rhonda (who have no idea what they’re getting into), Dorothy and Bill, a pair of Dad’s regular hiking pals (some idea), and me (fully in the know).

Jim's Trail Superbowl Sunday

Superbowl Sunday I agree to hit the trail with the octogenarian mountain goat who features large in my book Grandma Wears Hiking Boots. I figure I’m safe from a hopelessly extended safari because we have to be back in time to join Bruce at our neighbour’s for chips 'n dip and football. (Not that we have any idea who’s playing - but chips 'n dip - come on!) Sue, another of Dad's regular hiking buddies and a very kind person who mysteriously requires many more rest stops than usual whenever I'm along, joins us as we drive through a steadily increasing snowfall to the trailhead.

Grandma Wears Hiking Boots – Preview

Pincushion Mountain – Peachland, BC

No more excuses – I say, trying to convince myself. I could go on indefinitely finding reasons to keep tapping at this keyboard instead of tying on the hiking boots. Must get outside. The hiking partner parental unit gives me a nudge with a suggestion that Pincushion Mountain in Peachland is calling my name. Somehow, out of all the trails I’ve hiked in the Okanagan, this pretty obvious one has been overlooked. Let’s do it.

Hayman Lake – McDougal Rim

The phone message from my hiking partner (aka mountain-goat-Dad) sounds urgent. "The flowers at Hayman Lake are amazing – best I've ever seen them. Won't last long!" A mental picture forms. Hayman is a high country lake on top of McDougal Rim, the ridge directly across Okanagan Lake from the city of Kelowna. I know from experience that the flower show on the ridge usually peaks around Father's Day, so the timing is right for lupines, Indian paintbrush, columbine, maybe some chocolate lilies and a host of other flowers with names I can never remember. I pop on the headset and punch in the parental unit's number. While we talk, I start plugging in camera batteries and sorting lenses. I'm desperate to give my new 100mm macro its second field test. 

Mount Kobau

It’s got to be the best back road in the Okanagan, or at least the most expensive. The million dollar gravel road that climbs Mount Kobau, northwest of Osoyoos, was constructed in the 1960s to service the Queen Elizabeth II Observatory. Never heard of it? Not surprising, the observatory was never built, but the road still provides easy access to parking just a one-kilometre hike from the 1,870-metre peak. The short trail is steep, but my mother-in-law Dinora Kemp make it when she was over 90 (so no whining!).

Peachland Trail Lookout Ridge

Peachland Trail/Lookout Ridge delivers one of the best views in the Okanagan Valley - a sweeping panorama of the big bend in Okanagan Lake from Kelowna to Summerland. Four-season access makes this five-kilometre loop an ideal half-day outing for hikers, snowshoers, cyclists and horseback riders.

KVR Trail: The Trail Store

“How many in your family,” demanded a disembodied male voice.

I lowered the camera and refocused my attention from the painted sign, The Trail Store, on a farmhouse gable that peeked from among the deep green leaves of an autumn-ripe orchard bordering the KVR Trail in the South Okanagan, to the work-roughened hand that was thrusting a full, red apple through the deer fence.“Just me here at the moment,” I admitted.

“Take another one, anyway,” he said, dipping into the picking bag slung over his shoulder and passing me the mate to his first gift. “Get any good shots?”

If I had a Loonie for every time somebody’s asked me that …  But I guess it’s as good a conversation starter as any and I was soon thrusting my own hand through the fence to shake with Rod Hollett. “Come on around to the front,” he invited.

Okanagan Mushroom Safari

Roseanne Van Ee has eight of us circled in the parking lot at the Vernon Visitor Centre. My favourite naturalist/tour guide and owner of Outdoor Discoveries reads us a quote from one of her heavily thumbed field guides, this one by David Arora. “All that the rain promises … the miracle of mushrooms in their spontaneity …” It’s her way of telling us how lucky we are after days of poor weather to be setting out this crisp, October morning on a mushroom safari.