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Published: October 4th 2014
Greenwood
the smallest city in CanadaWe stopped on the way to the
Okanagan Valley at
Greenwood, the smallest city in Canada. The town was born out of the mining boom in the mid 1890s when it was recognised as being within easy travelling distance of the many mining camps dotted around the area. It then became one of the biggest copper producing regions of the world, until copper prices plummeted after WW1 forcing the closure of the mines and smelters. People then left in droves and by the 1940s there were only 200 people remaining. The town has grown a bit since then but the population is still not up to those ‘hey days’.
We picked up some brochures from an excellent Visitor Centre (very helpful staff) in the town and set out on a self-guided tour along its Heritage Walk, passing many historical buildings which offered a brief glimpse of the town’s past. We particularly liked the grandiose Post Office with its stunning tower and still working clock, original brass mailboxes were still in use. The upper floors once housed a Canadian Custom Office as well as a residence. Nearby was the City Hall which was
a fine building - its first occupant was the Chief Constable, gold commissioner, mining recorder and registrar of the Supreme and County Courts - not sure how he managed all those roles - the basement housed three prison cells so hope he did not have to look after those as well! The courtroom’s ceilings were made from red cedar and at the back was a very ornate stained glass window. Nearby well almost ‘next door’ was a beautiful home once belonging to the town Mayor with a wide overhanging verandah and a unique corner turret. Other historic buildings included the Assay Office now the Copper Eagle Cappuccino and Bakery and the Windsor Hotel, which is one of the longest operating pubs in British Columbia, now known as the Greenwood Inn Saloon. This building was also used as a location for the film mentioned below.
In 1998 Universal Studios used the town to film
‘Snow falling on Cedars’ which was released in 2000. Many of the fine buildings along the main street were used as well as
Lottie’s Apparel which still had its original sign on the facade.
OSOYOOS We continued our journey and the road finally started to descend steeply. We stopped at a scenic viewpoint where a huge sign overlooking the beautiful valley said
‘Welcome to Osoyoos’. From here we could see large lakes and a green fertile valley spread out beneath us. The renowned
Osoyoos Oxbows are located in the South Okanagan Valley winding along both sides of the Okanagan River. They were formed when the river was straightened and channelised in the 1950’s for flood control purposes.
Paul reminded me what an
‘Oxbow’ was - should have remembered from all those geography lessons! Basically an oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water that forms when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. It gets its name from the U-shaped collar placed around an Ox’s neck to which a plough is attached - quite obvious really….
Oxbow lakes are basically stillwater lakes - water does not flow into, or out of them. With no stream or spring feeding the lake and no natural outlet they often become swamps
or even dry up completely. They can be rich wildlife habitats - hence the reason we wanted to come to this area. Along the Amazon River in South America, oxbow lakes are common and their still waters provide a unique habitat for plants and wildlife. Oxbow lakes are often manmade, the Mississippi River is shorter now than it was in the 19th century, because engineers cut off hundreds of its meanders thus creating hundreds of oxbow lakes.
The ‘Osoyoos Oxbows’ lie at the north end of the lake between Road 18 and Road 22 in the town of
Oliver where we had booked a few days accommodation hoping to see some unique birds and hike along its many trails.
OLIVER We drove through the town of Osoyoos passing many fruit farms spread out along the sides of the highway all the way into Oliver. A sign stated we had arrived and that it was the
Wine Capital of Canada - so even more of a reason to stay for a while ……..
Situated between Osoyoos and Okanagan Falls and just 16 miles
north of the USA border, Oliver sits in the only desert area of Canada and is an ideal setting for growing Okanagan wine grapes. As well as wine it is also a
bird watching paradise. Wetlands, grasslands, forests, and mountain meadows provide ideal nesting and resting habitats for birds that make this their summer home, winter haven or stopover during migration season - a bit like us really …… Oliver’s Golden Mile Trail is part of the National Bluebird Trail and
Vaseux Lake hosts a bird sanctuary and summer banding, a bird marking identification station. It is also a good location for seeing Golden Eagles.
We were staying in the
Maple Leaf Motel and had a very nice greeting from the young lady owner. After chatting for ages she said she would get us a toaster as well as some plates and dishes so that we could cater for ourselves during our stay. There was an undercover BBQ area in the motel garden and outside our room a table and a couple of chairs so - just ideal …… Across the road was a supermarket so we did not have to eat out at all
Not another vineyard
'where is the brewery!' during our stay and enjoyed lots of BBQs. I do like BBQs as Paul does all the cooking !!!!!
We
hired bicycles - the hire shop was only a short walk just down the street, so we soon set off along the
Okanagan River channel, a canal-like structure with gravel dykes. A good track following the course of the river and we stopped at several small wildlife reserves within the oxbows which you could view from the track itself looking out over these fertile wetlands. Within minutes we heard and saw many variety of birds. In fact we saw more birds in this one area than we had seen on our entire trip including; Falcons, Red-tailed Kites, Osprey, Red-winged Blackbirds, Kingfishers, Northern Flickers, Black-Capped Chickadees. We also saw families of Californian Quails which darted swiftly across the track as we cycled along. These birds have a curving crest or plume, made of six feathers, that droops forward and they look quite strange and are very timid. Along the trail we came across a useful information board which helped us identify a few of the birds we had seen and gave us heaps of information on
this unique area. There was even a bird called a Bobolink (Bob take note we thought of you) but we did not get to see one … ….
We had an excellent sighting of a N
orthern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) a first for us and we watched a pair of them perched on a fence post holding up a ripe vine. The Flicker is a medium-sized member of the woodpecker family and has lovely red wings which shimmer when it flies. It is one of the few Woodpecker species that migrate.
We had a picnic lunch alongside the river and crossed a bridge which had a large
Osprey nest balanced on one of the pylons and we saw several birds hunting for an ‘easy fish’ along the river banks. Locals were out fishing as well this was obviously a very good spot. We headed off the track at Road 22 to return to our motel via the many vineyards dotted along the valley. A sign on the road said, ‘Turtle Crossing’ so we made sure we did not squash any with our bicycle wheels. Nearby were a couple of interesting old
wooden
barns - nearby signage informed us that they were part of the original
Haynes Ranch. There were plans to restore these amazing old barns for future generation to see.
The road continued with a slight incline - for us two not used to cycling this was a ‘very’ steep hill and in the end we had to get off and walk for a while. Each side of the road were rows and rows of ripe grapes, nearly ready for harvesting and lots of wineries open for tasting when the need arose - probably a good thing not to have too many though in charge of hire bicycles….
Not only grapes grows in abundance in the Okanagan Valley but orchards of tree fruit farms intertwined along the road - such a scenic and tasty place to rest our aching legs for a while … … …
The next day we set off to visit one particular vineyard. During our stay in Canada I had taken a particularly liking to Jackson Triggs Sauvignon Blanc
. A relatively new winery, it was established by Allan Jackson and Don
Triggs in 1993. I spent a pleasant few hours sampling some of their wines but still preferred Sauvignon Blanc to all the others I tried … … … it reminded me of the lovely New Zealand SBs I so enjoy.
We hiked along another section of the river, spotting lots of birds and we even thought we saw the back of a Muskrat. We had walked for quite a while and were looking at an Osprey which had just landed in a tree above us when we heard a voice … …
A local man who was working in his garden asked us if we would like to see his ‘
Turtles’ - completely thrown off course (thinking sea turtles) we just said ‘yes’ but could not see a way into his fenced off garden and wondered what he wanted to show us! He told us to climb down the bank and he would open up a section of the fence which he did. We chatted as we walked through his garden which covered a few acres and included a couple of Oxbow ponds. He said to walk quietly as we
approached the water’s edge as the turtles were very skittish. We were lucky as they ‘posed’ quietly for us as we sat and watched them perched on a large log in the middle of the pond. They were actually the
Western Painted Turtle which is named after the bright yellow stripes on its head, neck, tail and legs, and the glowing red on its plastron (shell covering the belly) and under-edge of its carapace (shell covering the back). The Painted Turtle is the only native pond turtle left in British Columbia and this guy wanted to ensure that we were able to enjoy the ones living in his garden - a really nice friendly chap.
The next day we left Oliver and wished that we had longer in the area as there was so much to see and do; lots of birds, good hiking trails, good views, scenic lakes and some really good wine - bliss.
HEDLEY Our onward journey took us through the small township of
Hedley located at the foot of the Nickel Plate Mountain in Similkameen. First Nation people have lived along the
Similkameen Osprey
just finished his fish supper River Valley for thousands of years trading ochre and chert. When gold was found on the mountains, it quickly became yet another frontier mining town like Greenwood mentioned above. Miles of tunnels were carved into the mountainside high above the valley and in its heyday the town grew to over 1000 residents. Those days are long gone and only about 400 people live in the valley now, although many more visit to fish in the nearby rivers and visit those forgotten mines. As we passed through the town we could see the wooden remains of many precariously perched on the sides of the mountain directly above the town. It must have been a very hard life mining in these incredibly high inaccessible places and even today I did not fancy going to take a look!
Continuing south we passed through
Manning Park and stopped to have lunch but it was raining so hard we had to eat in the car and there was definitely no chance of a hike in the park … …
ABBOTSFORD We finally arrived in
Abbotsford where we booked into a Best Western
Plus hotel for a couple of nights so we were handy for the ferry. We had a good sized room but no means of catering so opted to walk to a restaurant attached to the hotel. It was an
ABC Restaurant, this will probably mean something to any Canadian that reads this blog but not to us. We were pleasantly surprised with the service and quality of the food all freshly cooked and great value and they even reduced the price because we were Senior Citizens (even though not local SC!). We have found many times that you have to be a
resident SC to gain any advantage for being of the ‘older generation’!
The restaurant was really buzzing and lots more people were standing waiting for tables. What we could not make out though was the huge number of older generation in the restaurant and when we asked whether we should book for the next night they said most definitely yes as it was a ‘seniors night’. Oh my goodness, we thought it was a seniors night already …
The next night it was just as well we did
book because the restaurant was buzzing again all night with lots of older oldies! The good food at reasonable prices was obviously attracted many locals as well as those like us just passing through.
The next day we had some time on our hands so we set off for a small urban park which the hotel receptionist had recommended. We passed several schools with many teachers outside picketing - they were still all out on strike in British Columbia, in fact schools had been closed in the province since mid June and there was no sign of a return to school for the children. The walk took us around one of the most popular inner city parks in the area with many walkers and joggers circling Mill Lake. One complete circuit was 2 km and on the way around detailed signs kept anyone on track. Those not walking or jogging were sitting enjoying a little sunshine - yes it had come out again at last.
The next day we headed towards
Tsawwassen Terminal to catch a ferry leaving the mainland and heading for Nanaimo on Vancouver Island for the next
A bear at last!
it made us laugh as we drove passed leg of our journey around Canada - see you there.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
British Columbia
Beautiful