2008 Canadian Summer, Eh? Part Five - Hiking, Storms and a Party

Kettle Valley Railway (www.kvr.com)

Tuesday – Aug 12

What a beautiful day, although the sky was a little murky with smoke again.  We had read about the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR).  We drove to the trail head at Myra Canyon, where sixteen trestle bridges cross along a 13 km (8 mi.) stretch of railroad.  The tracks have been removed, at least on the section we walked.  It was a beautiful walk along the railroad bed.  The stories about it call it a hike, but when we’re walking on a flat surface, I don’t think of it as hiking. They say that this section of the KVR is the best example of railway construction of the early twentieth century.  Fourteen of the sixteen trestles were destroyed in the August, 2003 fire and they have been rebuilt to historical specifications using British Columbia wood and labor.  The fire lasted for several weeks and consumed a little over 60,000 acres. 

It was amazing to see the vastness of the gorge the trestles skirted.  I have always been fascinated with trestles and bridges, so I loved being able to walk over some of them.  At the base of each trestle that was rebuilt, there is still the burnt debris from the original one.  Another fascinating thing, was to see the regeneration of the forest.  Everything is flourishing.  Grasses, woody plants, and trees have grown tall.  Then along come the cute little pine trees, only one foot tall, but they appear to be very healthy, and loving all the light they receive with no big trees in the way

               

Trestle 13

     



Kelowna Bridge Way in the Background

We found one of the caches we were looking for, a little way off from the railroad bed as well as main burn area, but there were plenty of burnt and fallen trees to navigate over and around.

Again, we had a spectacular view of the Okanagan and the bridge, which is a great landmark.  It was up a hill, and we did have to maneuver, trying not to trip on the new growth and the debris of burned trees that was left behind.  We might go back for four more caches, but they are along the railroad bed, and an eight mile round trip is probably too much for us to walk, and it is pretty far to drive on dirt roads to get to, so we might decide not to even go back.  We actually walked about three miles and it was only about 85 degrees with a nice breeze so we enjoyed it very much.  There were dozens of people riding bikes on the road, and several other people hoofing it like us.

Signing the log

 



    

                                                         

The Bat and a Special Dinner

Wednesday – August 13

I watched the Olympics in the morning as I cleaned the trailer and got caught up on computer work.  The day was perfect, sunny not too hot and a little bit of a breeze.

It’s hard to take in, that we have only two more weeks here.  Just after Labor Day, we’ll be heading off to other adventures.  We plan to drive across BC, since everyone has told us that it is every bit as beautiful as this area.  We will stop in La Centre, Washington to visit Craig and Jackie, our friends from Hawaii.  Actually, Craig has been my friend since junior high.  We lost touch for almost 25 years, and we saw them at our 25^th high school reunion. 

We are already planning our next trip, which will involve Bryanna and Bailey (we hope, because we haven’t asked Kathy and Rommie about it, yet.)

A girl came running over to the store saying there was a bat on her shoe.  She had left her flip-flop sitting on the concrete next to the pool table and a small bat had taken up residence on it. I said that, since bats usually don't make an appearance during the day, it might be sick, so they shouldn't get too close.  Abby took a broom out to see if she could nudge it into flying away.  Instead, Abby picked up the shoe and took the bat behind the store to put it on a tree.  A few minutes later, it had come back and was sitting on the wall of the store, just looking at everyone.  It was very cute.  I had to keep working, so I don't know what became of it. 

A cute thing happened in the evening.  We had a group of twelve people clustered around at 8:45, just 15 minutes before closing time, with two of them checking in and the rest wanting to buy, you guessed it, candy and ice cream.  Two boys had made it to the front of the line and held out a box filled with pennies.  One of them said, "I think there's 240 pennies in here, so I want to buy, um, one of these, and, um..."  He pointed at one of the 5 cent candies, and then started looking at the rest of them.  We only have three or four 5 centers out at any one time.  Once I asked, "why we don't just put several of them out, as we have, probably, 10 varieties in the back room."  Pat said that, the more choices they have, the longer it takes them to make up their minds what to buy.  She was so right.  So, this boy didn't even know what he wanted and he was going to pay with pennies.  Bill said that we don't have time to count the pennies and he would have to wait for a few minutes.  We took care of the people who were waiting and a few more who walked up, and when the crowd thinned to a manageable level, I told him to start making stacks of five pennies on the counter, and I did the same.  We counted out $2.34 and he bought $2.30 worth of nickel candy.  Then it was time to close the doors and call it a night. 

Thursday - August 14

The store was very busy, so the morning went very quickly.  Bill came in to help me. Pat got home from the cottage and when she walked into the store, she gave me a big smile and a hug and said she had missed me.  When she is relaxed, she is so sweet.  She said they had been trying to figure out a day for the staff party, and they think it will work next Friday, if we wouldn't mind not spending the second night at the cottage.  Everyone knows what party animals we are, so I said we wouldn't mind missing a night of sleep for a night of fun.  Courtney got there at 1:00 pm and I went home to pack. 

Bill volunteered to clean both washrooms (what a guy!!)  We had decided that we needed to do a BIG wash, so I stripped the bed of sheets and mattress pad, took all the shirts I had worn once and folded to re-wear along with the ones that were actually dirty, beach towels, which we use to sit on our chairs outside, and the rug in the kitchen and stuffed them all into pillowcases.  I got the ice chest and the box of un-cold stuff packed along with the overnight bag and when Bill got home at 2:30, he showered and crawled up on the bed to take a nap. 

About 3:00, Pat came over to discuss the party.  I asked what time I should be back from the cottage to start making the meal, and she looked puzzled for a minute, then realized I was making a reference to preparing lunch on Saturdays.  She said I don't have to do a thing.  Cool!  Another really cool thing, which will work out if the weather is cooperative, is that she asked if we would mind giving up some alone time next Thursday.  She and Leroy want to leave the cottage around their usual time of 11ish on Thursday, go back to camp to do a few things and then come out to the cottage in the late afternoon, take us on a ride in their boat and have dinner together.  We're going to keep hoping for no rain or wind next Wednesday and Thursday.

We finally left at 3:15, after calling our newly found Italian restaurant in Winfield to order dinner to go.  We picked up some pasta and when we got to the cottage, we made a salad and had a wonderful, relaxing dinner.  After dinner, we wanted to sit on the deck, but the sun was so bright and hot, that there was no place to sit comfortably.  We had noticed an umbrella stand, sitting next to the deck a few weeks ago, so I went out to the garage and got the big patio umbrella and we put it up and tipped it so that we could sit in the shade to read and watch the lake.  We spent the evening just enjoying being here.  At dusk, we could see the bats start swooping down to grab the bugs out of the air. 

Friday - August 15

I'm sitting on the deck at 6:30, watching and listening to the lake.  It is so quiet.  The birds haven't even started to twitter.  Boats aren't going by, yet, so the lake is glassy.  Today, I am going to take the kayak out.  Bill doesn't want to, though, because the motion of rowing would be using his shoulder too much.  We can take the float out and hook it to the mooring Darren fixed up, and he can just lay there while I row away.

After our usual Friday breakfast of pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs, we sat on the deck to read.  But the lake was so beautiful and it was getting hot, so we decided it was time to go in the water.  At 11:30, I took the kayak out while Bill took in the sun on the dock. 

 

Watching me row

Duck Island is in the distance

 

We continue to be amazed by the abundance of forests, parks and lakes around here.  You are never more than ten minutes from a hike or a swim.  The opportunities for being out in the wilds are endless.  We wish we could take more time to explore, but with only one day off at a time, we are limited, although we are able to leave by 3:00 on our Thursday afternoons, and we don’t have to be back until Saturday morning.  At the end of the work day, we could go out for hikes, but we are usually just too drained of energy because of the heat.

 

Bill on Trestle 16

  

I rowed south to Kopje Park and then north a bit, so I could see some of the houses up close.  There are nine or ten houses in our area of the lake and they are all very nice.  Then I rowed out to the middle of the lake, and thought about going around Duck Island, but I didn’t want to row all the way back to shore to tell Bill, and I knew he would worry if I went that far away, so I decided I will do that next week. I was out on the water for close to an hour, and then went back to read on the dock with Bill.  At 1:45, we thought we had probably had enough sun, so we went inside for showers and lunch. 

We had such a good time that we didn’t leave the area until almost 4:00, so we missed lunch.  But, instead of stopping at a restaurant, we just drove home and baked some fish, steamed some corn-on-the-cob (how will we ever survive without a fruit stand on every corner?) and broccoli.  At 7:30, Colin and Michelle Sheedy came over to visit and see our Maui photos.  They are the ones who booked the condo for Easter week.

Then, at 2:15, he (the one who had said, “Let’s not do any caching this weekend.  Let’s just rest.”) said, “Aren’t there a couple of caches nearby?”  So we hopped in the car and drove 19 km north on mostly dirt roads, turned left and drove 9 km south to Ellison Provincial Park.  We had to hike up a steep but easy trail to a huge rock to find the first one, so that was pretty easy, even though it was very hot (another 97 degree afternoon.)  The other one was on the other side of the park, near the lake, and was a long walk down, almost to lake level from the parking lot, then up a steep and rocky trail to the cache.  Another easy-to-find one, but the terrain rating was 1 and ½ stars.  One star (out of a possible 5) is supposed to be wheelchair accessible, but for this one, a wheelchair couldn’t even have gotten down to the bottom of the road from the parking lot with all the ruts and broken off pavement .   There was one more nearby so we thought we’d just stop by and pick it up, but we ran into fenced property, with no way to get at the cache even from the back road, so we gave up on that one.  We took the highway back, because, even though it was a little longer, it was faster.  When we got to the cache we had tried for a few weeks ago, the one the snake chased us away from, we did a quick stop and look, but we still couldn’t find it.  So, we got two out of four. 

We got back to the cottage at 5:30 and after showering, again, made hamburgers, baked beans and corn-on-the-cob for dinner.  We were tired from hiking in the heat, so we spent the rest of the evening just reading until it was too dark, then watching a DVD - The Best of the Tonight Show – the old Johnny Carson ones.  I, of course, fell asleep on the couch, even though I was enjoying the program, and Bill woke me at 10:00 to go to bed.  We slept with the window open so we needed the quilt.  Wonderful sleep!

 Saturday – August 16

 

We spent an hour on the deck with our coffee, and when I walked into the house, I took too big a step and the rug next to the door pushed forward, twisting my knee.  Major ouch!  We got back to camp at 7:00 so we had plenty of time to unpack and have breakfast before starting work. 

It was a typical Saturday.  I changed locations for two groups because they were close to a large group, and they said the noise and running around of bunches of kids was very annoying.  I worked in the store until almost 11:00 so I got a late start on lunch.  I got a big fruit salad ready, and had six chicken salad sandwiches finished by 12:30 when the first of the troops came in for lunch.  I made seven more sandwiches and was ready for the next wave. 

We went back home at 3:00 and my leg really hurting, so I just wanted to sit with it propped up.  We cleaned up, sat for a few minutes, and took a walk over to Pat’s house.  We could have sat out in our chairs, but there was no breeze, so the 97 degree heat was too oppressive.  We knew that their patio would be cooler.  When we got there, Pat was just coming out the back door, so she got us a vodka cooler and we sat and talked for a long time.  She told us about that large group that came in to the field on Thursday evening.  Four tents in four sites with two adults and four children each.  She said that if she had been in the store, she would have turned them away because of the way the children were running around all over the place, even before they had checked in. 

Darren and Leroy joined us after a few minutes.  We talked about what we had done at the cottage and Darren was horrified that I had gone to the middle of the lake without a life jacket.  He said it’s the law that you have one with you, so next time I’ll take one with me.  At 5:30, Pat asked if we’d like to go out for dinner with them, their treat.  What a nice surprise!  We went to an Italian restaurant in Westbank, that we had noticed but never tried.  The food was delicious, and we even had dessert.  Pat and I had tirisamu which is one of my favorites, and Bill got spumoni.  Yum!!

The party will be on Thursday instead of Friday, due to scheduling for everyone.  But that will work well for us, because we will just leave after the party to go to the cottage.  We’ll not get that boat ride, though.  Pat said that after the season, if we stay for a few extra days, they will still be able to take us out in the boat, if the weather cooperates.  Ryan and Jodi will be after next weekend, so we will be two people short on the last Saturday.  It will be the last weekend of the season. 

Forty Days and Forty Nights

Sunday – August 17

The weather is supposed to change tomorrow, but today looks like it will be the beginning.  It is already getting hot at 8:15, but we can see big puffy clouds to the east, north and west of us. 

When I described the trailer, I didn’t talk about the toilet.  Some of you might want to skip over to the next paragraph.  A trailer toilet is way different from a real one.  The basin is empty, and when you flush, a stream of water comes out from the top and swirls around and a trap door opens at the bottom.  We learned early on, to close the trap by pulling only a little on the flush handle, and let some water in, so there will always be some water in the bottom like a regular toilet.  Also, when you flush, everything goes through a big tube and waits until someone (Bill) opens a valve to let it out into the sewer.  The problem, then, is that the smell in the bathroom whenever you flush, is really bad for a few seconds.  So, you wash your hands first, then hold your breath and flush, and rush out of the bathroom, closing the door as fast as you can.  We bought room spray, one of those Renuzit solid deodorizer thingys, and an oatmeal cookie candle, all of which are very nice, but they don’t cover that immediate rush of odor.  Other than that minor inconvenience, the bathroom is just fine, although it is almost as small as an airplane bathroom, except it has a tub.  I think our good friends, Joe and Gee, can relate to this because they live in their motor home except when they are in Maui.  Or, maybe they have a solution for the problem? 

It’s interesting what people will do when they don’t think anyone is watching them.  Yesterday, Bill walked out our door to put his shoes on.  He looked over at the trailer next to us and saw the behind of the 15 year old girl sitting on a towel on the picnic bench.  I mean literally – she was sitting there with her swim suit bottom next to her on the bench.  There is a tarp hanging part way down from their awning, so she must have thought it was covering more of her than it was, but she was quite wrong.  Her sister was sitting opposite to her, and she must have seen Bill’s legs, because suddenly the exposed girl pulled the towel up around her waist.  And, a little while ago, we were out at our picnic table, shaving Bill’s head, when a man in swim trunks calmly walked over from the field, went into the bushes behind our car,  stood there with his top half covered by a tree, and, uh…er…he used the bathroom.  If I’d thought a little faster, I would have applauded or something, but I was just amazed that someone would do that right out where at least 10 people could have seen.

I watered the hanging plants at Pat’s house and went home, but I was restless.  My knee was hurting, though, so I didn’t want to take a walk or do anything else that would be using it too much.  I decided to go over to Westbank to see if I could find any garage sales.  There weren’t any that I could find, so maybe they don’t have sales here on Sundays.  I did find an open air market so I bought some homemade chili sauce for Bill and Rommie.  Then I went to Zellers, which is like a Target.  I found a great sale and bought some cute little shirts sets for Carson and Brendan, two blouses for me and two James Patterson’s and one Jeffery Deaver book for us.  For all that, with the total of the tags being over $100.00, I only spent a  little over $40.00.  Best bargain I’ve found in a long time.

When I got back, I put potatoes on to boil and we’ll grill steak when Bill finishes work and before I have to go to the store.  The weather is strange.  It is hot and muggy and very still, and the sky has darkened ominously.   If I were in Los Angeles, I’d say it is earthquake weather.

We had dinner at 2:45 and were sitting outside reading before I had to go to work, when Pat came by.  I fixed her an iced tea, and she sat in one of our comfy chairs.  We saw the lightning start over at Pentiction, which wraps around the southern tip of Lake Okanagan, and we watched it move towards us.  After 20 minutes of seeing multiple streaks of lightning, we finally heard some thunder.  The rain started at 3:45, and by that time, the lightning was flashing all around us, and the thunder was immediate.  I hurried over to the store so Courtney could leave a little early, in case the rain got bad.  It never did, but some people came over to the store at 4:10 to say they saw a fire start across the lake, in the same area we where we hiked last Tuesday.  He wanted to look at a phone book to get the number for the fire service.  We later found out that several fires started, but they were quickly put out.

The storm was over by 5:00, but the store remained very quiet until 7:30.  I had a few candy and ice cream customers and I sold a few staples, but I had lots of time to read the newspapers and my book.  Pat came to the store at 8:30 and so did Bill so we just sat around talking until 8:55.  Because nobody had come over for 20 minutes, we went ahead and closed a little early. 

Monday – August 18

I got up at 5:00 ‘cause my knee was really bad.  So, I got some reading done before Bill rolled out at 7:00.  Today was a pretty typical Monday, except Bill got to do the re-booking again, after all his raking.  The raking took a very long time because of the store yesterday, which had wreaked havoc on the leaves of all the trees, making the campsites a mess.  Some of the people will rake their sites (There are rakes scattered around all over the property) and leave nice little piles for Bill to pick up, and some of them think that they don’t have to help out at all.  While I was in the store, one woman stopped by the store on her way to town to tell me that her site was badly in need of water.  I was extremely polite as I told her that she was welcome to use any nearby hose at any time to water her grass, while I was thinking, “You lazy boob – if it’s dry, water it yourself while you sit there and read your book.”

We had a little thunder and spots of rain, but it blew over quickly and the rest of the day has been just beautiful.  Our son, Tony, called this afternoon, and said that he’s been enjoying our story, but that he thinks I’m a bit too detailed sometimes, so I’m going to try to be more careful not to get too wordy.

We plan to get up early tomorrow and walk about four miles, in the shade, on a flat trail, to pick up some caches in Kelowna, so the exercise will be good, but it shouldn’t aggravate my knee.  Bill got a coupon from Red Robin for his birthday so we’re going to go there for a free lunch for him.  He might let me have a bite of his hamburger.

Special Edition

This special edition is dedicated to Tony, who said I am including too many details in this story.

Wednesday – August 13

I watched the Olympics as I cleaned before going to work.  It was a breezy, sunny day.

Bill worked in the morning, and after lunch we drove to Westbank to see what the dollar store had to offer.  We’ve wanted a tablecloth for our picnic table so we picked up one of those.  Real smart of us, to wait until two weeks before we leave. 

After Labor Day, we’ll be heading home.  On the way, we’ll stop to visit Craig and Jackie

We are already planning our next trip.

A girl had a bat on her shoe and was scared.

Some boys bought some candy with lots of pennies.

Thursday – August 14

The store was busy so the morning went quickly.  Pat hugged me and smiled.  We’re going to go to a party.  We might go for another boat ride with Pat and Leroy.

We stopped in Winfield at the Italian restaurant to get food to take to the cottage for dinner.  It was good.

We sat on the deck ‘til dark and watched bats.

Friday – August 15

It’s quiet until the birds start to make noise. 

I took a kayak out and Bill didn’t.

We weren’t going to cache but we did.

Saturday – August 16

We drank coffee on the deck.  I slipped and hurt my knee.

Tuesday – August 19

The best laid plans….  We started out around 9:30, because we knew it was going to storm again, and we wanted to be finished before that happened.  We were going to walk along a trail for a few miles finding some caches as we went.  We went to the north east side of Kelowna to an area known as Mission Creek.  Mission Creek winds through Kelowna from the Okanagan Mountain area and empties into Lake Okanagan.  Parked at a lot about 1 mile from the cache, and started walking on the trail.  We found the first one just a fourth of a mile in, off to the side of the trail.  We had to look for a few minutes because we came at it from the wrong direction, but it was a pretty easy-to-find one.  We got on the trail again, and just past the ½ mile marker, it started to rain, but not very hard.  We crossed two  bridges, and were thoroughly enjoying the walk.  Just as we got to where the cache was located, the rain started coming down a little harder, and we started hearing thunder.  We counted the seconds and figured the lightning was farther than 15 miles away.  We tramped around in the forest looking for the box or whatever it might be, and suddenly, there was a huge bright flash with the thunder crack at the same time.  We got out of there and back to the car as quickly as our legs could get us there.  There was more lightning, but not another one that close.  We were pretty wet by the time we got to the car.  We didn’t want to stop, so we drove away from the storm, and looked for a couple of the caches we hadn’t been able to find a few weeks ago.  No luck, again.  We enjoyed the driving around, though, seeing such beautiful houses and countryside. 

We got to Red Robin at about 3:00 and had a delicious lunch/dinner.  The traffic getting across the bridge was pretty heavy at 4:30, but not nearly as bad as that crossing the other way, so we were happy about that.  We went to the grocery store and came home to rest up for another day of work tomorrow.

Wednesday – August 20

It rained most of the night and has been for the past couple of hours.  I had to open the gate this morning, and will have to open it again tomorrow.  I’ve become a bit spoiled with Leroy’s friend Les, being here, because he walks his dog early every morning, so he takes care of opening the gates and unlocking the laundry room door.  He left yesterday, and should be back sometime tomorrow, so I’ll be off the hook for another few days.  Les and his wife, Maureen, park their trailer here all summer, and she stays here, but Les does some kind of sales, so he is here only part of the time. 

I worked in the store from 9 to 11 this morning, for Abby.  I guess we’ve been having so much fun cleaning the washrooms, that we just forgot to check the schedule today.  We were just about finished with the women’s, when Ryan came in and told us that today is his and Darren’s day.  We finished up and came home.  We have to go back to work in the store from 6 to 9, so that should be a pretty easy evening. 

The campground is almost deserted.  We wonder where all the people go when the weather is like this.  There is only one mall, and there isn’t much there.  Maybe they all go to the movies.

We just got home from work at the store.  It was slower than it has ever been. 

Bill reorganized the back room and stocked everything that could be stocked. 

It continued to rain throughout most of the evening, but cleared up before we came home.  

Thursday – August 21  

It was a cool, but mostly non-rainy morning.  The store was pretty quiet, so I was able to get a little reading done.  Bill discovered that some campers in the field had a fire on the grass last night, and left a completely burned area.  Pat isn’t going to be too happy about that.  A funny thing happened.  A man walked up and asked how much it costs to pitch a tent in the field.  I asked him the standard questions about pets, how many kids, ages, etc.  Then I told him it would be $41.00 a night.  I started handing him a registration card, and he said, “No, we’re leaving.”  I then thought he had asked about the price for the next time he comes here, so he can stay in the field to save a little money.  Then he told me that they came in at 11:00 last night, and, since we were closed, he just went ahead and pitched the tent and spent the night.  He wanted to know how much he owed for last night.  I thanked him for his honesty, and took his money.  He could just as easily left without anyone knowing that he was there.

 As Bailey would say, “Oh, crud!”  We just finished cleaning the washrooms and came home to shower and get ready for our afternoon off.   We had planned to go for a ride to the northwest side of the lake and do some caching, but as soon as we stepped inside the trailer, the clouds opened up and it is pouring and hailing.  We might be stuck here for the rest of the day.  The staff party is tonight, so we will either leave for the cottage after it, or wait until tomorrow morning. 

The rain let up, so we did go for a drive and found two caches in about two hours.  We drove about 30 miles before turning around to go back.  We could have stayed a little longer because the party didn’t start until 8:00, but it was starting to get dark a little early because of the heavy cloud cover.

The party was lots of fun.  Pat made lasagna, which was the best homemade lasagna I’ve ever had.  All the family was there, along with Jodi’s parents, Les and his wife, and Matt, who is one of the guys who mow the lawn.  Pat gave a big thank you speech, which she directed to each of us in person.  To us, she said how much they appreciate all that we gave up to be here for the summer – the girls, the dogs, our garden.  It was very sweet.

After dinner, we visited for a little while, and then we played Donkey Poker.  It was a game we have never played before, and we had a lot of fun.  Pat loaned everyone three dollars in quarters, and we played for a quarter a hand at first.  After a few hands I suggested we up it to fifty cents a hand, and I ended up winning that hand.  I won enough by the end of the night, to pay Pat back for both of us and have a little bit left over.

We didn’t come home until after 11:00, so we went to bed instead of driving to the cottage in the dark.