A walk in Myra Canyon, BC, Canada

Ever since I moved to Kelowna, I have been hearing about Myra Canyon a lot. Its a very popular weekend spot for the people of Kelowna. One fine weekend just in time before the onset of the heat wave in British Columbia, me and my friends decided to check it out. 

Myra Canyon is a part of the Myra-Bellevue Provincial Park in the Okanagan east of Kelowna. The main attraction of this place is the railway trestles that transverse this canyon. Back in the 1915 to 1960s there used to be a railway line running through this canyon. Called the Kettle Valley Railway, a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway, this railway ran from Midway to Hope. During it's construction the builders faced a big hurdle when they hit the Myra Canyon section but they more than met this challenge. Now a National Historic Site of Canada, the plaque there reads that it was a Canadian engineering achievement and the completion of this section of the railway provided a vital link between the east coast of Canada and the southern interior BC. There are a total of 18 trestles and 2 tunnels here. 

Places which mix history and natural beauty are always a delight for me. So I had to visit this place. So a weekend Thivya, Divya and myself finally made a plan to go. We took a Taxi and went to the Ruth Station Taxi lot which is one end of the Myra Trail. The other end is called the Myra Station. Below is a helpful map of the trail from the Myratrestles website.

There are remnants of the Ruth railway station here beside which the trail runs. The trail is actually where the tracks used to run. They have been removed and a walkable and cyclable route has been built. We walked on this path just talking and enjoying the sunshine. We finally hit the first trestle after maybe an hour and a half of walking. We took pics here and just enjoyed the views around. We continued walking and covered till the 8th trestle where we finally decided to head back. Sadly we couldn't go till the first tunnel as we were getting tired and since we had no means of transportation and were relying on calling a taxi we did not want to take a chance. We were back at the Ruth Station Parking Lot by 2pm and thankfully we got a taxi to go back home.

Overall, Myra Canyon is a good place to do some leisurely strolling and biking. This was more like a test visit for us and we plan to bike the entire way next time. 

Evenings in Nelson, BC, Canada

My new job often takes me to different cities and towns in the interior British Columbia. One such trip was to a city called Nelson in the Kootenays region of BC. Nelson, a city of 10,000 is the cultural hub of the Kootenays. Boasting of an impressive collection of heritage buildings it is the kind of city I love to visit. I was going to spend a couple of days here. Mostly working during the day I found a way to spend my evenings exploring the city. 

My first day of the trip started with me and a colleague's drive from Kelowna to Nelson. On the way we stopped at Grand Forks and only reached Nelson around 4pm. Immediately after checking in the Hotel I made my way out into the streets. Our hotel was located right at the end of the most happening street in Nelson, called Baker street. I strolled along the whole stretch of the street till the very end. Nelson, true to its 'hippie' image features a lot of boutique and offbeat stores. I was soaking in all this hippie 'vibe' when suddenly out of nowhere I heard the hugely popular Telugu song 'cheliya cheliye' play out somewhere. Turns out there was a big store selling Indian products and they were playing this song on the loudspeakers. I casually walked inside the store and had a nice little chat with the cashier about Nelson. Later, I aimlessly wandered around the streets here just going where my heart led me and by the time it was 8pm I had covered the downtown area and the river side area. This whole part is beautiful with some pretty old buildings and shop fronts. This was a delight for me as I love old buildings. I called it a day by 9pm and made my way back to the Hotel. 

The City Hall in Grand Forks

Random streets in Nelson

Next day threw up an unexpected surprise. For our work we had to go to the nearby town called Kaslo. Now from my previous googling about the region I know that Kaslo, apart from being very pretty, was also home to a very important landmark. Kaslo houses the SS Moyie sternwheeler. A National Historic Site of Canada, SS Moyie is the oldest intact sternwheeler in the world. Somehow in between my work I made sure to check it out and took a few pics. It looked magnificent sitting at the waterfront near the row of pretty shops. 

The main street of Kaslo

SS Moyie

We were back in Nelson by 5pm and this time I went in the opposite direction to where I went the previous day. I badly wanted to check out the railway station here and made my way to the quaint station. There was not a soul there so I strolled around the deserted area and finally sat down near the tracks. A locomotive was shunting far away and railfans know how dreamy is the sound of a locomotive shunting in a lonely area. I sat there for sometime lost in thoughts with the sound of the locomotive shunting taking me back to my travels in India. After my reverie was broke my a slight drizzle I quickly got up and left the station. I still had one place to check out and even though it was drizzling now I was determined to check it out. I had heard of a tram operating in Nelson and knowing the late hour I knew it was not operational at that time but I still wanted to just take a look at the tracks and maybe take a pic at one of the tram stations. Which is exactly what I did. There is a lot of history behind it but suffice to say that a volunteer group called the Nelson Electric Tramway Society still operates one section of the tram line along the waterfront. After this mission accomplished I made my way back, still in that drizzle, back to my Hotel. The next way we departed for Kelowna. Overall, even though it was a work trip, I made the most of it and it turned out to be a hit both workwise and my travel wise. 

The deserted railway station

One of the tram stations

A day in Muskoka, Ontario, Canada

In the early party of this year I found myself spending a couple of months at a friend's place in Ontario. The global Covid-19 pandemic made any proper travel trips impossible but right before I returned to British Columbia we made a short day trip to the famed Muskoka region north of Toronto. On this trip it was me, my friends Namendra and Sonali and their kids, Kittu and bubbles. We started off from Barrie which is where my friends lived. Passing through Orillia, past Washago we made our way to Gravenhurst. We made a brief stop at Namendra's office near Rama before making our second brief stop at Gravenhurst. One of the most beautiful villages I have ever seen with pretty shop fronts I wanted to spend more time here but due to our plans we resumed our trip sooner.  

We made our next stop in a town called Bracebridge. Here, to my surprise I found that there is a very old hydel power generating station. Built in 1894 it is one of the oldest power generating stations in Canada. We spent some time here taking pics and checking out the station. The region after Gravenhurst is all cottage county pretty much till the start of Algonquin Park. A causal look at the Wikipedia article of Muskoka revealed that a lot of Hollywood stars have their cottages here. Tom hanks, Steven Spielberg and Kate Hudson to name a few. 

We reached Algonquin park sometime in the afternoon and did a brief hike there just to stretch our legs and take a look around. After enjoying a few walks we decided it was time to go and we started off on our return journey. We stopped briefly at a roadside restaurant to have late lunch. The restaurant reminded me of Dhabas of India. After lunch our next stop was at home which we reached around 6pm. It was nice short getaway from the dreariness of the covid19 lockdowns.   

A weekend in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

March 2020. That is when the lockdowns started in Canada in response to the pandemic. There was a brief lull in the months of June July August before the cases increased again. 

Me and my friend Suyog managed to do a trip in the month of July which, in retrospect, we are glad that we did. It proved to be a refreshing holiday after months of strictly following the social and physical distancing rules imposed by the authorities.  We went to visit Vancouver Island, simply called 'The Island' by the locals, for a 2 day 2 night holiday. Owing to the delay in writing this account of the trip (its almost 8 months) unlike my usual style I will be writing very brief notes and mostly posting pics.  

Our plan was simple. For the first day explore the capital city of Victoria, then second day go on a hike in the nearby provincial park and on the third day leave for Vancouver. We pretty much stuck to this plan.

Day 1

The journey to Victoria is in itself worthy of a trip. There is a ferry service between Vancouver and Victoria managed by BC Ferries. Its a 90 minute ride across the strait of Georgia. The sea, the wind, the ferry itself and sometimes if you are lucky, a whale spotting makes the whole journey interesting. We reached Victoria in the afternoon and immediately after checking in the hostel we started exploring the downtown. 

One of the highlights of the day was when we stumbled upon a cricket ground. Even though Canada was a British colony, cricket did not catch on here as much as it did in many other former colonies. So finding a cricket ground was a pleasant surprise. The ground was well maintained and even had a small pavilion displaying the scores of the last match played there. We saw a few players practicing there and Suyog initiated a conversation with them. We found that there was an active cricket scene on the Island and they even had tournaments going on. This intrigued me and I dug out the history of Cricket in Canada. To my surprise I found out that the first national sport of Canada was Cricket. In 1867, John A. MacDonald (the same person who is on the 10 dollar bill) declared cricket as Canada's first National sport. In fact the first ever International Cricket match was between Canada and United States played in 1844.

Day 2

On day 2 we went to the Goldstream Provincial Park and did a short 5 hour hike. We came across a railway trestle while hiking which was a new experience for us. Later in the day we visited the famous Hartley Castle which is also known as the X-Men castle having been used the location of the famous Prof Xavier's School for the Gifted in the X-Men franchise movies. 

Day 3

On day 3 we made our way back to Vancouver taking the ferry again and witnessing some more spectacular views including a lucky whale spotting. We were back home by the afternoon and thus ended a much needed break from the tiring pandemic months. Little did we know the worst was yet to come.  

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.