Fall Walks: Greater Victoria

The seasons are rapidly changing with the Fall storms beginning to roll in off the Pacific one after another. Another series of storms are expected to begin arriving tonight, but Sunday and today have brought us unexpected sun and warmer than seasonal weather. Still sleeping with just a sheet and light blanket at night with the windows wide open, but I suppose that will change soon enough. Oh well...those who know me understand that winter is not my season, so I'm enjoying the delay probably more than others who will and should remain nameless!

I've been walking distance on fairly flat terrain the past week as I work to rehab an injury. I miss my climbs, but this has been off-set by the amazing fall colours I've found along trails boardering the lakes. The freedom to walk as and when I please has not become routine or taken for granted. It's still pure pleasure.

Pure pleasure...

Osoyoos: Okanagan River Walk, 18kms, 25C, warm autumn day

A Little Bit Like Spain...

Turns out that today the walk was indeed special. It was as close to finding a walk like the Plata as I have come across since returning home. Particularly the return journey when I walked on alone at my preferred pace. Very peaceful and meditative.

We started off in the morning warmth at about 10:30 and continued just over 9kms and into the mid-day heat. Given Annemarie has not been training a whole lot we decided to cross a bridge at that point and walk back on the other side of the river enjoying our own pace and time to ourselves. What follows are simple pictures from the day as we walked through the vineyards and orchards...we essentially had the trail to ourselves.

Migrant workers from Mexico were in some of the fields and orchards as we passed.  At one beautiful orchard as I stopped to photograph the colourful apples one of the workers offered to pick us each an apple and to bring it up to the trail for us...Annemarie commented that it was such a Camino like moment...and she was right.

The fall colors were outstanding, reflecting on the river that was so very calm in many areas.

All too soon it was over, but we decided to return here and walk the entire trail next time. Of course, we saw eagles and hawks and other animals...but no turtles. We consoled ourselves by driving north to Penticton to buy three bottles of the excellent Thornhaven Gewürztraminer that we had sampled the day before and enjoyed in past years...won the Gold last year and a bronze this year...still excellent! We then stopped in to taste some other estate wines and purchased a couple more bottles to put in the cellar:-)

Osoyoos: 24C, Sunshine and a Special Fall Day!

Scorpions, Snakes and Stomping (happily)!

We are visiting the primary wine region in British Columbia, some might say in Canada...except of course those on the Niagra Peninsula, but what do they know? More specifically, the southern Okanagan region just above the border with America...the only official desert in Canada. Beautiful country with lakes and of course dry spots...the desert part. Pretty cool how you can have the two together in one environment. There are rattle snake crossing signs too...I should have taken a picture.

You will just have to trust me on that one. When I was a kid I actually saw a rattler on a trail just north of here.

Anyway, today was spent sampling wines this afternoon at the Festival of Grapes called the 'FOG' for short. We arrived early for the festival as they were expecting about 4,000 souls during the afternoon. To kill the wait we decided to walk 8kms of the northern back end of a 35km route that we plan to tackle tomorrow from the south...probably 20kms. So we headed off along the Okanagan River only to discover large number of spawning salmon...lots of them.

The salmon were jumping too!

The walk was pretty scenic with lots to see and Annemarie even spotted a scorpion! I saw a non-venomous snake...all good training for our upcoming trip to Oz where I understand there is all manner of crawling, slithering things...oh boy. Another thought though, we will be in Oz for their fall which means that we can go to wine festivals and tastings all over again!! Nice.

Fall colors are beginning to show up all over the interior, more so at higher elevations, but it won't be long now before the snow flies...at least up here. Not so much at the coast on our island. 

As we were returning we began to hear the music from the FOG site and as we arrived the activities were just getting underway. There were over 50 wineries represented today, plus lots of food. A very merry afternoon! The large tents were decorated with scarecrows too!

I was the voluntary DD today so I guided my partner to the car...

...and we went touring from there in search of fruit stands which we found...a very nice older couple on a side road who had been orchard farming for over 50 years. The old gent gave me some sound advice about tending my peach and apple trees and his wife brought out the better produce from their cold room for us to select from. It was great.

Oh, and the stomping...there was a grape crushing team competition that was fun to watch.

Yesterday we walked along the lake and out into an area where the Province and First Narions are cooperating on an early burial ground excavation...they have even closed the main camp site where we had hoped to stay until further notice. A fairly exciting undertaking. This forced us into a lake side resort...oh well:-)

We then enjoyed the annual garlic festival that was held at one of the local wine estates and I was given very good advice about looking after my Russian Red garlic that Caitlin and I have planted the past two years. So when I return home this week I will put into effect the new techniques I've learned as its time to plant next years crop.

A good walk planned tomorrow and if of any interest I'll post again, probably the last until we return home Tuesday or Wednesday. Thankfully there have been walks of various lengths most days, not always long walks, but enough to sneak in to this Camino blog. 

Slocan Trail: Slocan, BC 24kms, 18C, sun and cloud

I know...this is my walking blog, but today a small shift as we didn't get to the meadows, but instead rented bikes and went riding. You all know how I feel about riders on walking trails, but this trail was pretty empty today...no walkers passed. I'll further support my decision to put this entry in the walking blog because I intend to return to walk the 30-45kms next visit to Nelson. It is a beautiful walk, and if one can avoid the numerous bears it looks like it could be a winner. So I'll return again, but in the mean time a few photos to help me to remember to do so. This is a historic train route to service the forestry and mining areas and was heavily traveled in the late 1800's. A very sad part of Canadian history was also played out along this route with the WWII Popoff Japanese internment camp located right on the route. There is an excellent presentation on the trail at the site of the camp where 1,000 Japanese were interned and put into forced labour. Of course things would have looked different at the time, and it is easy to criticize past decisions, but clearly a sad moment for many.

Any way, back to the present and a few of the sights from this gorgeous Slocan Valley...home of the world famous BC bud!!

We found an apple tree along side the trail with a single limb full of beautiful apples. Lots of fresh bear spore around the area, but no matter what they have tried the top most apples remained untouched. Of course our species has learned to use tools to assist, so we were able to use a long branch to knock down 4 beautiful, unblemished apples for a mid trip munch! We left the rest for the bears to figure out:-)

Then it was onwards through excellent scenery to the lake head and down a very old lake side trail that has recently been cut off by a rock fall in front of one of the tunnels...we wisely decided to retrace our route at this point.

A few shots of the Valhalla Mountains...some amazing hiking in the Kootenays and we will wait to walk the high meadows next visit.

Ken, this route was amazing and we could easily meet here and walk the last 30kms of the 45kms, or split it into two days of walking. Fairly easy as the trail is a former rail bed...but scenery to die for...and look at the trail. Neil, if you can get here you are welcome too!

Hope can you accept this entry from two walkers who also like to ride...if you can't...oh well...just stop reading!