‘Round, Round we go.

On Wednesday we managed to get out for a hike at Bear Creek Regional Park. (I know, twice in one week! We might start making this a habit)

The trails at the park are about 5km around the steep valley formed by Bear Creek. We didn’t traverse the entire park, as we were running out of daylight, but did manage to huff and puff up the south side of the valley. There are several viewpoints looking at the lake and the creek and we did enjoy getting outside.

There was a fire in the area in 2011, and the aftermath was evident. It was interesting to see some trees still green and healthy, but surrounded by others that were burnt.

 

We don’t ever get tired of looking at the lake, and have found that it looks pretty nice from whatever angle we see it from.

The valley in the park has several viewpoints situated on opposite sides of the valley, so near, and yet so far.

From where we stopped our ascent, we could see the top of the plateau, and we’ll make sure to get there next time.

 

Down near the parking lot, the creek settles down and I’ll just bet there’s trout in there in season.

Once we left the park we decided to head north on Westside Road. I used to travel it every summer to go fishing with my Dad and Uncle. Back then in the Dark Ages it was a gravel goat path, and it’s greatly improved now. It’s still quite windy, but at least it’s paved the whole way. Our tax dollars have been used recently to make some much needed improvements. There’s quite a bit of development on the Westside, including this complex of summer cottages and RV sites called La Casa. This time of year it’s all but abandoned, as we only saw 2 vehicles in the entire complex, and there wasn’t a hint of smoke or steam coming out of any of the furnace flues in the area. Nice looking places though.

We ended up taking Westside Road all the way north until it reached Hwy 97 north of Vernon. From there we turned south again and headed home in the dark. All told, it took us 2 hours to go from Bear Creek around the lake to our home which is about 10 minutes away from the park. It’s nice to be retired and not have to worry about the clock.

Today’s projects included putting up a couple of batches of marmalade. We’ve really missed having our own, as we haven’t made any in at least 3 years and ran out long ago. The unfortunate thing is we purchased a jar of Marmalade a couple of weeks ago, and Sylvia won’t let me open any of the new stuff until that one’s finished. Anyone want to come over for breakfast?

The second project was trying to score some tickets to the Eric Clapton concert in Phoenix this coming March. It seems that when you purchase tickets for an American event from a Canadian credit card through Ticketmaster they will only mail you the physical tickets and then only a few days before the event. That wouldn’t work for us as we’re not going to be here when they would arrive. After about 15 phone calls, an hour or so spent on the net and a trip into town only to find out that the local Ticketmaster office is closed, I finally got hold of the Customer Service department of Ticketmaster in the US to try and find a way to make it work. It turns out that I was probably talking to the Philippines, but they were able to hook us up with tickets without any problem whatsoever (now why couldn’t that have been my first call). When all was said and done it was sure nice when the plan finally came together. I’ve also purchased a ticket for our son Jason to come and see the show with us, and that should be a real treat. Did I tell you I’m living my life vicariously through him, as he’s a pretty good guitar player.