As temperatures dropped and days became shorter, I hiked up the access road to the Napier Ranch Conservancy. It was the day before the snows fell so the route was dry/frozen. At the entrance to the Conservation Area is a sign and a gate. It was quiet and there were no livestock on the slopes. A double track can be … Continue reading…
Kane Valley is southeast of Merritt, with a short drive off Highway 5A at Aspen Grove. There are 51 km of cross country ski trails there, but they are also used by mountain bikers, hikers, and snowshoers. Trails are maintained by the Nicola Nordic Ski Club (website link). Although I had hiked some of the trails before, the goal is … Continue reading…
We hiked the trails that start at the end of Uplands and McLeod Road in Barnhartvale. The main access is along a gas line track, but many single tracks run up into the hills or down onto the grasslands bench. There are no signs, but the area is open and easy to explore. We did a 5.2 km … Continue reading…
I have been hiking in the Watching Creek area for more than 40 years. There are a number of routes that can be done and I recently did two of them. On this early November day, a group of us followed established trails starting at Tranquille Crossing. Just across the bridge, the trailhead is on the east side of the … Continue reading…
I hiked up the hillside to the south of Frederick Road and explored the cliffs, basalt columns, gullies, and viewpoints overlooking Battle Bluff and Kamloops Lake. I parked at the first pullout on the right (before the Dewdrop Trail parking area) and crossed the flats, then angled up the hill. There is no trail, but the slopes are open grasslands … Continue reading…
When upper areas become snowy and muddy in the fall, we look for double tracks or south-facing open ridges to get to higher terrain. A good option at this time of year is to hike to the top of Jag Hill. We have hiked to Jag Hill from the Red Plateau Forest Service Road on various routes, but we also … Continue reading…
By researching we can narrow down the probable location of homesteads established under the Homestead Act (1872). Settlers arrived later, especially up in the hills where farming and ranching is a marginal opportunity. Under the terms of the Act, a quarter section was available for $10 and rights to the property were conditional on developing the land with a home … Continue reading…
There are a few trails that climb from the Dewdrop Range up to the rim of red Plateau. The Dewdrop Trail is the best known, but there are more routes that climb the steep slopes of the Red Plateau Escarpment to the trails that follow the rim. We drove out the Frederick Road and then turned onto the rough upper … Continue reading…
The Tranquille River flow from the Bonaparte Plateau and winds down to Kamloops Lake. Over the last km, the river flows through a volcanic area, cutting a narrow gorge through steep colorful cliffs. There are several sections of slot canyons and narrows, not very accessible from above. In spring the runoff roars through these channels, but in fall we can … Continue reading…
Zoa Peak is an accessible hike in the Coquihalla Summit area. A short side road turns off the highway and climbs up to the Falls Lake parking lot. When we arrived there on an October morning, Trans Mountain Pipeline crews were excavating a corridor for the twinning of the line, but they kept the road open for hikers. We followed … Continue reading…
Skoatl Point is a favorite hike so we try to plan for it each year. It is a wet route in the summer so we schedule our hike for late summer or early fall. This year we picked a fine day for the hike. We drove on the Jamieson Creek Forest Service Road for 28 km to Whitewood Lake, then … Continue reading…
The Orchard Lake Trails are backcountry horse trails in the Sullivan Range. They are accessed from the Badger Creek Forest Service Road, which starts 16.5 km north of Heffley Creek on Highway 5 (North). Most of the “trails” are double tracks through the forest, passing small lakes and forested ridges, but increasingly the area has also been logged. Routes on … Continue reading…
On a sunny-cloudy day in September we drove into the Dewdrop Range to hike the Frederick Bluffs. There are no signed trailheads, nor any trails to follow. Before the area was included in the Lac du Bois Protected Areas there were some single and double tracks through the valleys between the bluffs but nature has reclaimed the land and we … Continue reading…
There are several sections of hiking trails that can be combined for a loop route of about 5 km in Monck Provincial Park on Nicola Lake. We hiked southwest from the campground and climbed the hills to a crossing of the Monck Road, then looped back on higher trails on a sunny day. From a viewpoint on the trail, we … Continue reading…
We camped in Manning Park and did some of the hikes into alpine areas. We hiked to Third Brother Mountain on a fine day and took many photographs along the way. On our drive up Blackwall Peak, we stopped at a lookout for the view. While we up on the slopes of Big Buck Mountain, we had a direct view … Continue reading…
In every month of the year there are interesting routes that start in the Lac du Bois Nature Conservancy. On a sunny day in early September we struck off through the tall grasses toward Clay Lake. A faint single track route goes over to the end of Clay Lake, but it was mostly grown over with snowberry shrubs and windfall. … Continue reading…
