Cherries, Trains, and Stemwinder

Cherry season up in the Similkameen. Kessa went up to help pick cherries and tend to her farm plot, and I came up to lend moral support and look after kids. The whole cherry experience was pretty neat. It is the first main fruit crop of the season, and it was a mad flurry of activity on the farm getting the cherries picked, sorted, packaged and brought to market.

The kids thrive on the farm, and there is so much for them to explore there. Favorite past times are climbing the walnut tree, and this trip they discovered the fun of catching grasshoppers.

Leif has been digging trains a lot lately. He likes that he has a "boy" thing to do, so the two of us had a guys-day-out and checked out the model train place in Osoyoos. It is a huge room with a whole bunch of rail lines and trains running around. The people runing it clearly have a passion for it.

Leif was still pretty stoked on the trains, and wanted to see a "big" train, so I went with the kids to the Kettle Valley Railway out in Summerland. It was pretty neat bit of history. I have been wanting to bike the old railway for a while now. An old steam train runs a small distance of the line, and it is a nice piece of history. They do the ambience up pretty well, including a old-timer playing banjo as the train rolls along.

My last day there we headed out for a hike up Stemwinder Mountain near Hedley. This featured me getting some-what lost (well at least I couldn't find the proper start to the trail). I bumped into a ranch-hand who was up there, and asked for directions to the trail, and he gave me the exact directions to where I was standing talking to him. Funny.

Regardless the trip was a great ecology session with the kids. We got to explore all sorts of plants and the wild strawberries were in season. We were listening to a bird identification CD on the way up, and then we heard a bunch of the birds once we got up there (Red-tailed hawk, Hermit thrush, Swainson's thrush). We also saw a bunch of cattle, and there was a huge colony of ground squirrels. We also played a good game of "Who's poo is this?" which featured fur-filled scat from a coyote (eating the ground squirrels) and after poking around in some pellets Nemiah figured out they belonged to deer. Folks thought it silly I played this game with the kids. Am I the only parent who pokes around poo with their kids?

Lupine

Wild roses

Triple Peak

Once again off to the peaks around Marion Creek out towards Ucluelet. Triple Peak is a bit of an oxymoron for the area. The bushwack approach is a scramble, and the scramble is a bushwack. Bush is notorious on this part of the Island. The approach to Triple is remarkably bush-free. From the cars it was about 20 minutes or so until we hit the waterfall coming out of the lake below the mountain. The route more or less zig-zagged its way right up the waterfall. Pleasant scrambling and some neat positions.



From the lake, the route was snow covered which made for quick going. We headed up to the south ridge of the main peak, and roped up a couple of pitches of 4th and 5th class bush, the crux being a stemming-corner without much gear or handholds other than grabbing some shrubs. Classic!

North peaks on Triple

Heading up to Main Summit

North Summirs
Crux corner

Woolen Knickers

Mackenzie Range

Mountain School 2010

Time for the annual intro to mountaineering school with the Alpine Club. This year I decided to keep the course on the Island and explore some local hills. Ended up being a great spot. Was a little more physical of a trip than I was expecting, but I think everyone enjoyed it nonetheless.

We spent the first day getting to camp below Big Interior. The next day we practiced some ice axe and crevasse rescue skills, then worked our way up Big Interior Mountain, and down the backside (in a white-out). Third day up Nine Peaks, and back over Big Interior to a camp, and fourth day out. Great crew of folks.

In the cirque below Big Interior

Upper snowslopes on Big Interior, with Bedwell Lake and Tom Taylor

Final step on Big Interior

Descending Big Interior below the satellite peak - Marjorie's Load

Nine Peaks in cloud

Heading up Nine Peaks



Nine Peaks summit


Marjorie's Load

Descending the step on Big Interior

Nk'Mip, Skaha, Similkameen

Kessa is farming a piece of her dad's property this year, which means her and the kids have been heading up there a fair bit. I was able to sneak in a visit over Father's Day. My job is usually to look after the kids so Kessa can get the work done on the farm. And I get to take the kids on adventures! Fun gig.

I have been wanting to go to the Nk'Mip Desert Cultural Centre for a bit now. The area is one of the few actual desert ecosystems in Canada. There is also a strong cultural connection to the land.




Prickly Pear Cactus in bloom


On our way home we went and checked out the recent landslide near Oliver.



Spotted Lake

We got out for a family climbing adventure out in Skaha


"The Raven and the Bear"

Nemiah cranking at Daycare



Planting corn. I still don't know what we are going to do with 2000 ears of corn.