Goat's Peak Hike, Kelowna, BC

Goat's Peak Provincial Park is a small park in West Kelowna near the shores of the Okanagan Lake. One of my colleagues at work strongly suggested me to go on this hike as it had nice scenery and not too many people. Joining me on this hike were my friends Kanwal and his wife, Sonal. The trailhead was a quick 30 min drive from our locality. 

We were on our way on the trail by 10am. It was a cloudy and a bit overcast day and there was also a forecast for a rain later in the afternoon. The initial section of the trail is pretty flat is a more of a casual walk with the open Okanagan lake on your right. To the left is a wall of rock running along the length of this section. There were some good views of the lake from here. The actual elevation gain started sometime later but a good 2 hours hike later we decided to stop at a view point and end our hike there. Here we sat for a while, took some photos and chatted for a while. But most importantly we took in the views there. Too often we get more involved with the task of actually completing our hike to the top and forget to just chill and enjoy the hike. 

We started our descent back from here when sometime into our hike down it started drizzling. We hurried up hoping that either the drizzle stops or we reach our car before the drizzle turns into a full on downpour. We found ourselves somewhere in the middle. We were still a bit away from our vehicles when it started raining heavily and by the time we reached our vehicles we were a bit drenched. Fortunately not too much for we had our rain jackets on.  Overall, it was a good half day to spend on a weekend. 

Mt Boucherie, Kelowna, BC, Canada

Only the third hike I did all summer this year! This time I went with an acquaintance I made on one of the WhatsApp groups. Mt Boucherie is an easy hike in West Kelowna. Pretty straightforward. It is 5.6 km long and has a 300m elevation gain. 

Kanwal and I

Knox Mountain, Kelowna, BC, Canada

Knox Mountain, often called Kelowna's Grouse Mountain lies right at the heart of the city. Situated in downtown it is minutes away from the core of the city. One weekend I headed over the mountain to do a hike. I was still feeling disappointed by my effort on the Sea to Summit Trail a couple of months ago so I wanted to get back in the hiking rhythm. It was not much of an effort. I enjoyed the early morning calmness and peace that comes before the crowds come in. A refreshing Sunday morning hike. As good as it gets! 

Sea to Summit Hike, Squamish, BC, Canada

Very rarely do I go on a hike randomly but this was one such instance. I was in Vancouver for the weekend and having promised my friend Kimi that I would join him for a hike, I had to keep my word. So Kimi, Divu, Suyog and myself headed out in the direction of Whistler intending to do the Parkhurst hike mainly to see the abandoned town. But midway we changed plans and decided to do the Sea to Summit hike in Squamish instead. I did not realize what I was getting into at that time. It was months since my last hike and I was a bit out of rhythm. Nevertheless we did it in 4 hours which was not bad considering it was a 6 km 900m elevation gain hike. Not going into too much description here. Ill let the pics do the talking(and the videos too). The views were stunning and the Gondola ride back to the base was thrilling as well. 

 

Mt Gardner Trail Hike, BC, Canada

Bowen Island is a small,well, Island near Vancouver. A sort of a weekend retreat for the people of Vancouver, it has a number of options to either relax or do some hiking and kayaking. Or if you want to do nothing you can just go and relax there.

Keeping in mind my systematic increase of intensity of the hikes I was doing while in Canada, I decided to do the Mt Gardner Trail on Bowen Island. It was a step up from the previous hikes of Quarry Rock and Lighthouse Park. In fact they were more of a stroll than a hike.  The Mt Gardner trail,on the other hand, has an elevation gain of around 650 Mtrs which is a decent climb for a day hike. 

My friend from University, Douglas who is from Guatemala, was joining me. He had done some awesome hikes before, including climbing some volcanoes in addition to doing endurance races. One couldn't ask for a better hike buddy. 

On the day of the hike we started quite early in the morning and reached Horseshoe Bay from where we were to catch a ferry to reach the island. Now, I like ferries, so I was equally excited about this part of our trip as well. Operated by BC Ferries, this journey offered excellent views of the surrounding mountains. The weather was excellent with the sun shining warmly above. Not too hot and not too cold. Just the perfect weather for a hike. The ferry itself was sparsely occupied.There were not many people around. We both stood in front of the windows like two officers on deck. This ferry called 'Queen of Capilano' is, as a google search told me, a 2500 Tonne vessel with a top speed of 12 knots. It can carry around 100 cars and around 400 people.  After a quick 20 mins journey we reached Bowen Island. As the ferry slowly glided towards the the unloading area of the Island it reminded me of the movie Jurassic Park with its tall gate. We made our way out of the ferry and following the crowd, headed to the town.

Here we were a bit confused about which road to take to reach the starting point of the Mr Gardner Trail. Douglas suggested we better ask someone instead of just following the map we had. So we entered a Bar and asked the guy there. He turned out to be very helpful, showing us the directions patiently. We thanked him profusely and left for the trail.

Following his directions we walked for quite a bit before we reached the starting point of the trail. but before we did we came across a beautiful lake. From afar we could see the trees stacked against the shimmering white of the water. As we approached nearer we could see the huge lake beyond the trees. There was some picnic tables at the edge of the water. It was a beautiful place. I remarked to Douglas that one can spend the whole day just chilling here. We roamed around the edge of the lake for a while and continued on towards the trail.

Soon we reached the base of the Mt Gardner trail. It was around 1130 am now. The elevation at this point was 66 MSL. The sun was still shining warmly above and off we started on our hike. It starts off a wide dirt road but soon narrows down to a trail. We trundled on for a while. Initially there is not much on offer just the tall trees and the quietness of the place. Perfect for some nice conversation. Specially when you have interesting people around. Douglas regaled me with his experiences from back home. 

Soon we reached a point with a clearing at the edge of the hill. This point offered spectacular views of the surroundings. We were delighted looking at the view. Douglas remarked aloud what I had in mind. This was better than what we had expected. So we took a short break here.  There were a number of smooth rocks offering a nice place to just sit down for a while and unwind which is exactly what we did. And there weren't many people on the trail and the solitude was wonderful. We met just 4 people the whole time. The sun was still shining warmly above and as we sat there, the blue of the seas in front of us offered a pleasing sight. Directly on the opposite side was the blue sea and beyond it, land. Far away, the snow covered mountains were visible. Now and then a gentle breeze was blowing. The whole scene was pretty relaxing.

It was 1310 now and the elevation at this point was 560 MSL.

Soon, we left this point and continued our way further up. Somewhere around this point we lost our way. We didn't realize it immediately but later found out when the trail disappeared. Some little bit of wandering here and there got us back to the right path.

Now we reached a point where the climb got quite steep. It was 1332 Hrs now and the elevation at this point was 660 MSL. We started climbing this steep section. There were a couple of ropes hanging down from the top. Someone had tied these ropes to the trees at the top. Though we could climb without using the ropes it proved very helpful later during the descent. 

After this steep section, a brief walk finally led us to the top. The view that greeted us at the top was spectacular. To our right, emerging out from the tops of the trees lining the edge was the view of the surrounding seas and the mountains beyond. At the edge was a platform to sit and enjoy the views. To our front was a tower and a small house. To our left was again views of the sea but it was not visible from where we were right now. We first headed to the wooden platform I mentioned before. Here we sat down facing the sea and enjoyed the atmosphere. First we had something to eat. And then took a short nap. The feeling was amazing. I lied down on the warm wooden platform stretching my legs to my fullest. I covered my eyes with one hand to shield them from the sun's rays. There was no sound anywhere except the sound of the wind ruffling the leaves of the trees now and then. With the sun above giving off its warmth, I slowly drifted off into a sleep that can only come in such places and situations. The last time when I fell into such slumber was many years ago back in India, when I fell asleep near a river bank, on the warm sand. I don't know for how much time I slept but when I got up and looked around Douglas was strolling around exploring the place. I called him over and we took some pics before heading to the other side of the top. This place offered some awesome views too. The most interesting thing for us was that we could spot our University from here. There was another viewing platform here and again we sat down and spent some time here. The elevation at this top most point was 724 MSL. We started our descent at around 1500 Hrs.

At around 1600 Hrs we reached the bottom and we made our way back to the Ferry terminal.

 Looking up the schedule we found out that the next ferry was still some 40 mins away so we strolled around the area a bit before finally our ferry arrived. . 

In a couple of hours we were back in our homes. It was a wonderful hike and much better than the previous hikes I did in Canada

In Brief
- Mt Gardner Trail - 650 Metres elevation gain.
- Takes about 2 hours to climb and 1 hour to descend.
- Highest Point - 724 MSL

A hike in Lighthouse Park, North Vancouver, Canada

After the Quarry Rock Hike we decided to check out another short half day hike nearby. I chose Lighthouse Park for this because of 2 reasons. One, I am fascinated by lighthouses and love to visit them.Two, its quite short.

It was a bright clear day when Suyog, Vinamra and myself started for North Vancouver. We took the public transit to reach the Lighthouse Park entrance. Here, on looking at the map we had two options, either we go through the number of trails to the left and right of the central trail or we take the central trail which would lead us directly to the Lighthouse. We choose the mid way, we decided to walk a bit along one of the side trails and then later join the central hike.

We started our walk through the wide path which slowly tapered off to a narrow one. The tree cover was thick and with the sun peeking in now and then from the thick cover. After some time, we came across a small clearing with just green grass everywhere. This was the Salmonberry Meadow.  I chuckled at the usage of the word Meadow for this patch. It wasn't exactly big enough to be called a Meadow.
After seeing the huge Meadows on the Roopkund Trek in the Himalayas this looked tiny.  Anyway this patch offered a nice stop and we sat on a fallen log here and rested for a while.  We resumed our walk and after some walking, we sensed we had reached the end as we could see clear skies ahead in the gaps of the forest cover. As we approached, what we gathered to be the end, we saw the Lighthouse jutting out from the forest. But before approaching it we took a detour to our left and this lead us towards the sea. There was no beach here just big stones directly overhanging the waters. It offered excellent views of the city and we sat here for a while just taking in the sunny atmosphere and having some snacks.

On our right was the beautiful Lighthouse. This place was named ''Point Atkinson'' by George Vancouver way back in 1792 and the first lighthouse was built here in 1874. The current structure was built in 1912 which still makes it more than 100 years old.  There are also a number of defense installations here built during the World War 2. We saw some of these later when we moved towards the lighthouse itself. But we found out that the main structure itself is not open to public which was disappointing. I love climbing up lighthouses and look around the scenery. We strolled around a bit looking at the few log cabins set up there and a few defense related structures but with nothing much to do we started on our way back. The whole hike was finished in a half day. Quite small but a refreshing getaway for university students during exam days.

Quarry Rock Hike, BC, Canada

Quarry Rock Hike is a tiny trail tucked away in the corner of North Vancouver. With a length of around 3km and an elevation gain of just 100 mtrs its good enough for a short half day outing. Having done 3 Himalayan Treks before and many smaller treks back in India I was desperately looking for a short hike to start things off here in Canada as well. One of our friends in University suggested I try Quarry Rock.

So one fine day(which soon turned to be not so fine) four of us started off for Quarry Rock. Sunil, Suyog, Divya and myself made up the group. We took the public transport buses to reach the quaint town of Deep Cove from where the trail starts. As we got down from the bus, the sky had turned dark and rain looked imminent. Before starting off, we had coffee in of the charming shops there which was bustling with the morning crowd.

The trail starts from an unlikely place. Near someones driveway. It has a small signboard saying its the Baden Powell Trail. From here starts a steep step of stairs. The first section was all stairs but later the stairs disappeared and the rough trail started. The whole section was covered by tall trees the kind of which I didnt get to see in India.  There is nothing else to write about. We crossed a few bridges over creeks and finally after an hour of walkin
g we reached the main view point of Quarry Rock. The views were spectacular. The dark and overcast skies gave the whole landscape a moody vibe but we enjoyed it nevertheless. We sat here for a while enjoying the views. But within minutes it began to rain again. Suddenly I remembered that we had packed some chai in a thermos from home. So we quickly took it out and right there, standing atop those rocks, in front of the awesome views we had some hot chai. It was wonderful. Soon, the intensity of the rain picked up and we started on our way back. After maybe 40 minutes we reached the base and we walked back to the center of the village. Here we spotted a nice park with a shelter in the middle offering views of the sea and the many boats parked near the banks. We sat here for sometime chatting with a fellow hiker who came with his dog. After almost an hour here we left. We boarded the bus back to downtown and thus ended my first hike in Canada.