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. 

 

A hike in the Golden Ears Provincial Park, Vancouver.

Golden Ears Provincial Park is an extremely popular park near Vancouver. Consistently ranking in every top hikes to do near Vancouver lists it is crowded to the limit  in the summer season. And so it was when we decided to do a day hike in the park last month. It was a miracle that we managed to find a parking spot right away so packed was the lot. There were cars parked in the shoulders of the road. Our group consisted of our MEL(Masters) friends. Suyog, Kimi, Elio, Namendra, Andres, Derek and myself made up the group. 

Since Derek and Kimi had been to this park before they knew short cuts which deviated from the marked trails. This made our hike much more adventurous. We hiked to the both of the falls, upper and lower. And later just chilled on a clearing near the stream. Overall it was fun and exciting hike.  

Heres a Video I made of the hike. 

Buntzen Lake Hike, BC, Canada

Buntzen Lake Hike in Belcara Provincial Hike is a pretty average hike. Its more of a walk around a lake with some minor ups and downs. Some weeks back some of my Master's classmates got together and we went on this hike. Theres not much to write about it. It was a quick and refreshing walk for us after the isolation imposed by the Covid19 pandemic. The best part was that it was drizzling on that day and it made the hike so much better. A group pic and a video of the hike is below to wrap up the post. 

A hike in the Cypress Provincial Park, BC, Canada

On one bright sunny day in February this year, before the onset of the Covid19, some of us friends got together and headed over to the Cypress Provincial Park for a walk in the snow.  There was still plenty of snow on the slopes. We saw people zipping by on their skis as we slowly trudged away to a nearby view point. The park is hugely popular among the people of Vancouver for its easy access to ski slopes. Relatively the number of hikers were very less. Our visit was short and quite enjoyable. Nothing out of the ordinary though which requires any lengthy description. I'll complete the post with some pics and a Video of the hike.