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Published: August 11th 2011
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The last week of June and the first week of July were spent enjoying the hot hot heat in the Okanangan... and spending some great time catching up with dear friends from Lake Louise days. On the way to Kelowna, Brad and I stopped in at the scenic ‘Naramatta bench’ wineries. La Frenz (Aussie wine maker – we bought some rose), Lake Breeze and then Nichols (fantastic vineyard manager/chief winemaker who took some time out to chat with us – great bold red, we bought a cab franc).
Onto Kelowna, we stayed with Kylee and Riley (thanks a million guys!). Kylee was my housemate in Lake Louise in 2004 and she and her husband Riley have recently returned from a 1 year trip in Oz, settling in Kelowna for a little while. We spent Canada Day roaming the town in ‘I love Canada’ shirts with Kylee (Riley was working), poutine for lunch (what could be more Canadian than poutine – google it Aussies), ceasars on the rooftop (another googlesearch Aussies) - well Brad had a ceasar, I couldn’t quite get my mind around Clamato juice(tomato and clam juice combination), then sunbaking in the afternoon sun by the pool before heading
back in for fireworks. The four of us headed out wine tasting and picnicking on Kylee and Riley’s day off – some lovely estates! Our antipasto and cheeses picnic at Cedar Creek was classic, overlooking a rose garden, the vineyard and the lake....not to mention the over enthusiastic lady working the tasting – ‘these wines are amazing! The staff love it, love it, love it! Its awesome, awesome, awesome!’. It was marvellous to spend such great time with Kylee and Riley, sharing stories, great food and wine and having a well-needed break from the van.
Up the valley to Vernon (after picking more cherries – this time $1/lb, organic), we visited Amy, another great friend from Lake Louise. Shortly after I returned home from Canada in 2004, Amy spent a year in Aus, travelling with Barrie, Heidi and Isaac and popped into to visit me in Bribie Island and Brisbane. It was great to see Amy, we joked on the first afternoon as we swilled some beers on the Vernon beach, how we were all grown up. After 4 years of hard study, Amy is now a massage therapist – you go girl! Fantastic couple of days spent catching
up, swapping stories, laughing, drinking and eating; meeting Amy’s roommates and neighbour (a celebrity in my books).
After a brief stop at a farmers markets and we headed off on the road again. We left the Okanagan with a thunderstorm on our tails, which broke into torrential rain as we reached the trans-Canada highway, then cleared, returning with a vengeance just as we were setting up our camp at Revelstoke. The lovely German owners (read here – clean well-looked after establishment) allowed us to cook supper under a shelter outside the laundry facilities. Unfortunately the rain didn’t stop hammering down for a day, so we talked to the Parks Canada folk about volunteering on evening salamander searches (it didn’t work out sadly), browsed the local stores, then ended up in the Railway Museum refreshing our knowledge of an integral part of western Canada’s history – the building of the Canadian Pacific railroad. This included us meeting an old fella who drove steam engines, refurbishing the enormous one housed in the museum. We continued to check out the town (yes Amy, I definitely approve of a move to this cool little town), supper sheltered in the towns baseball dugouts –
I tell you nothing could compare to the ceasar that night! – then camp in a carpark beside the Columbia River.
After locking the keys in the car (our car has some very interesting tricks!), we headed up the Meadows in the Sky Parkway in Revelstoke National Park, a road that climbs over 2000m to sub-alpine meadows. Sadly, we couldn’t go all the way up due to snow covering the road because of the late spring melts/summer... oh and a mudslide took out the road. Nevertheless, the Parks Canada staff directed us to some short walks so we could find the spring flowers we were looking for and we stopped at the 5 or so (no joke) lookouts along the drive for magical mountain vistas! Stocked with Mt Begbie beer (local brewery), we drove up to Glacier National Park, walked around the old railroad track at Loop Creek, camped the night, then hiked the Avalanche Crest trail (totally safe I promise).
Here I should probably explain the latest invention of the trip – poor man’s bear bells! Made by: consuming can of baked beans (too much sugar in Canadian bb), cleaning can (I suggest using ice cold river
water from snow melt), poking hole in base of can (with WW1 bayonet usually used for chopping up firewood), finding rock oblong in shape (eagle eyes Brad), threading string through hole in can with approx 1 metre on top end, wrapping around rock, swishing can opening with hiking boot (male wearing variety), then tie to the backpack of the most patient and sound tolerant member of the hiking group (definitely not me!). Works a dream – we never saw a grizzly, much to our disappointment! Added bonus is that every second yuppie hiker with bear bells ($7-9) asks you what you’re doing with a baked bean can attached to your backpack! We further refined the design by trading the string for my broken old shoelace.
So we hiked up Avalanche Crest, about 4km uphill. On the way we were warned us about waist deep snow above 1600m and fresh grizzly bear poop by a German couple who decided to turn around. Armed with our bear bells and nerdy hiking poles we continued uphill, past the most stunning snowmelt fed, crystal clear, creek; then through a alpine meadow covered in flowers, rounded a corner where our walking track disappeared into
snow. With the top of the ridge in sight, we were determined (actually I think I was more like - keep moving, this snow is ****ing cold!) to continue up through the snow to a gorgeous view over the valley and Rogers Pass. Listening to small summer avalanches (totally safe - do not be worried parents!), we ate our lunch salmon wraps (we do try our hardest to pick the stinkiest lunch to attract wildlife) and pondered if the gigantic, glacier-topped Columbia mountains that were still towering over us are more breathtakingly huge, intimidating and beautiful from 1250m above sea level or at 2045m (our lunch height). Simply stunning!
Heading downhill past numerous Hoary Marmots sunning themselves on rocks (ok THESE are the most ridiculous animals in Canada) we checked out the ruins of the old Glacier House (a CP hotel of former Chateau Lake Louise/Banff Springs glamour in the early 1900's), made some popcorn and headed off on our merry way. Would you believe that I still haven't finished British Columbia.... amazing place eh?
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