I broke some new ground this past weekend in Revelstoke. I was invited to join some friends and their family on an alpine hike in Revelstoke Provincial Park. This was quite different than most of my hikes in several ways. First off was the 26km paved road that gets you pretty much into the subalpine. We were on the trail head from the parking lot at 9:50am with several tour vans ahead of us. By on the trail head I mean walking the 1km paved road from the parking lot that is closed to all but the shuttle busses. As this was a day trip our packs were light and pace was fast. We weren't entirely sure of our destination as the fitness level of the group was undetermined. After 90 minutes of hiking well worn, fat trails we came to the Miller Lake fork in the trail (the brochure labels...
Had an interesting adventure this weekend. Myself and a friend ventured up onto the Okanagan Highlands above Okanagan Falls. The 201 forest service road was immaculately groomed. Unfortunately this didn't make a difference for some cherry picker workers from Keremeos who were hitch hiking do to low fuel levels while on route to a back country rave at Clarke Lake. Being the kind Canadians we were, we picked them up and delivered them to their destination. Then ventured on to Allendale lake which is totaly new territory to me. It's a man made lake with 6 forest service rec sites. We opted to venture a bit further and try to find a spot with less humans. This took us to Solco Lake. High in elevation and off the beaten track. We managed to find ourselves a sweet campsite that was isolated from the other inhabitants of the lake. Had a moose...
Finally got up Carrot Mountain in West Kelowna. Most hiking friends of mine have been up there and most seem to agree that it's a grunt. Compounding the grunt factor was the camera baggage. I was somewhere around 70lbs. Fortunately there is a waterfall about half way up that we were able to fill extra water bottles at so we didn't have to pack all the water all the way. This water source seemed to appear and disappear as we hiked. I suspect it is spring fed but we used the water for cooking and coffee and boiled it. The mosquitos in the valley on the hike up were positivley horrific. Once up top the southerly views are great over West Kelowna. The wind was absolutely howling so we were forced to camp away from the cliff edge to get some shelter. We chose to make a loop out of...
McDougall Rim is the prominent mountain to the west that can be seen from pretty much anywhere in Kelowna. It's gentle slope rises up to 1400m and is home to Hayman Lake which is actually more of a swamp. Below McDougall Rim is Rosevalley Resevoir which is a popluar hiking and biking destination. This is a sweet hike with spectacular views starting just after the 2km mark. It's a well used single track trail that climbs quite conistantly. It's not terribly steep but is long if you go to the top. There's no potible water and it's bear country so be prepared. Hiking access to McDougall Rim starts off of Bentley Rd. in West Kelowna above Bylands Nursery. After a couple of kilometres of private road you come to an obvious parking lot at the cattleguard. Mutliple atv/4x4 trails head up the hill to your right (north). If you stay right you'll...