A Weekend in Kelowna

March 26, 2025March 13, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

I’ve been in Vancouver more than 10 years and I’m a little embarrassed to say that I’ve never been to Kelowna. I’ve driven through it and have made several trips to the Okanagan, but I’ve always stayed in Summerland or Penticton. Personally, I love camping right on the lake at Okanagan Lake Provincial Park, so Kelowna has never been a priority.

So why visit Kelowna in the middle of winter? A little known fact about me, if you only know me from the internet, is that I absolutely love curling! If you know me in real life, you’re probably well aware. The Brier, which is the National Men’s Curling competition, was held in Kelowna this year in early March. All provinces participate in the tournament and the champion gets to represent Canada the following year at international events.

I’ve been cheering for Brad Gushue since I was in high school. He’s represented Newfoundland at the Brier for many years, but for the better part of the last decade, he’s been representing Canada, having won 6 Brier titles in 8 years. Team Gushue was representing Team Canada at the Brier this year and I was thrilled to hear it was in Kelowna and bought a set of tickets for the playoffs. After following the round robin all week on TV, me and Seth drove out to Kelowna after work on a Thursday to stay for the weekend.

We ended up staying in Peachland because it was cheaper, but we got to spend a fair bit of time exploring downtown between games. Kelowna is one of the biggest cities in BC outside of the lower mainland, and it’s located in the middle of BC’s lake and wine country. From downtown, you can walk around the edge of the lake and there are tons of wineries within driving distance. We didn’t get a chance to sample the wineries, but we did get to enjoy lots of lake views.

Overall, downtown Kelowna felt pretty low key. It would not have been busy at all if not for all the curling fans, but I imagine it’s quite different in the summer. There are a few nice shops around downtown and lots of restaurants. The highlights for me were Gather Restaurant, which is a Korean fusion restaurant, and Mosaic Books, which had a great selection of local and bargain books. But overall there’s not really that much to do in Kelowna proper, so I stand by my decision to usually head straight for the lake in the summer.

We did have a great time at the tournament though! Gushue only lost one game in the round robin and made it through to the playoffs. We got to see them play 3 times in total and they won their first game of the playoffs and made it to the semi-final. Unfortunately, they lost the semi-final, but it was such a tight-game and it came down to the very last shot. We’re sad they won’t be representing Canada anymore, but they are already qualified for the Olympic trials, so fingers crossed!

Snowshoeing Black Mountain

March 19, 2025March 13, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

I was hoping to explore several new trails this winter, but life and avalanche conditions got in the way of most of my plans. In a last ditch effort to enjoy the snow before it disappeared completely, I decided to snowshoe up to Black Mountain on Cypress. For such an easily accessible trail, I’m surprised I haven’t ventured up there before!

Seymour and Hollyburn appear to be the most popular trails for snowshoeing near Vancouver, but there are a handful of trails near Cypress Resort that seem to get overlooked by the masses. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still busy, but the crowds seem tiny in comparison to the highway of hikers going to Dog Mountain on any given winter day.

When visiting Cypress, your first stop needs to be the Black Mountain Lodge. This is the lodge located towards the back of the main parking lot, not the ski lodge. This lodge serves a variety of functions, but one of them is a self-registration point for hikers. Whenever you’re going into the Cypress backcountry, you need to stop here and pick up a free hiking pass to attach to your bag. In addition, it’s a really nice facility, with a heated picnic room and flush toilets.

The two most popular trails from Cypress are Bowen Island Lookout, which is a great beginner trail, and Black Mountain, which is more advanced, mostly because it’s longer and steeper. If you’re really adventurous, I think some people continue past Bowen Island Lookout up to St. Mark’s, but I don’t recommend this without adequate experience and avalanche safety training because it is adjacent to challenging and complex avalanche terrain.

The Black Mountain trail follows the edge of the ski runs from Eagle Chair up to the top of the mountain. People do come up here on touring skis to ski down through the resort, but it’s fairly steep on the uphill, so be prepared for a slog. The snow was melting quite a lot when I snowshoed up there in early March, but it was a beautiful sunny day to be outside. It’s not an overly long trail – we tracked 6km round trip on my GPS, including a small loop at the top.

The trail is staked up to the top and it should be noted that the winter summit is different that the summer summit. If you continue around the loop at the top of the mountain, you’ll reach the winter summit. I was keen to also explore up to the summer summit, which branches off the main trail, but the snow was a bit slushy and we only had microspikes (not snowshoes). We started post-holing almost immediately and quickly abandoned the plan.

We stopped at the summit for a snack before finishing the loop. If you want to ski down, there is a side trail to the resort, but we didn’t check it out. You can also continue further to Eagle Bluffs, which is primarily in simple avalanche terrain, except for the summit. I haven’t done the Eagle Bluffs trail, so I’m not sure if that trail is also staked. We could see that it was not as frequently traveled as the Black Mountain trail and we would have been post-holing on that trail too without snowshoes.

Instead we just continued back downhill to the base after enjoying a nice day in the sun! It is a dog friendly trail, which was nice, so Sadie and Jasper joined us for the adventure. Overall, I don’t think I liked the trail as much as Bowen Island Lookout, Brockton Point, or Hollyburn, but it was definitely an easier trail than Hollyburn and comparable to Brockton Point in terms of difficulty. I would definitely pick Black Mountain over Dog Mountain though, as I find Dog Mountain too crowded.

In conclusion, it’s not as adventurous a trip as some of the plans I had to cancel, but it was really nice to get outside and hike somewhere new! We celebrated with a stop to The Shed on the way down the mountain to enjoy some delicious flatbread pizza and gorgeous views of the city!

Hiking Signal Hill

March 12, 2025February 27, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

Since I finally took the time to write about Cape Spear, an iconic Newfoundland landmark and iconic day trip, I figured it’s time to finally write about Signal Hill as well. Signal Hill is a quintessential attraction in St. John’s. It can be seen from all over the city and it’s a significant historic and cultural national site, not to mention it has the best view of St. John’s to be found in the city.

Signal Hill is home to Cabot Tower and overlooks St. John’s harbour. There’s a military encampment that surrounds the hill and has been used for centuries to protect St. John’s from naval threats. You can walk around the hill and see all the old cannons, which still stand guard over the harbour. One of the more iconic defense strategies that’s been utilized at Signal Hill is stringing a large chain across the Narrows of the harbour to protect from both ships and submarines. Cabot Tower is also recognized for it’s significance in the advancement of communications, as it’s where Marconi sent the first trans-Atlantic communication from Newfoundland to Ireland (and I’m guessing this is where the name ‘Signal’ Hill comes from).

There’s a really nice visitor centre halfway up the hill, which is staffed by Parks Canada. They give fantastic tours in the summer. You can see the firing of the noon-day gun, or you can watch the Signal Hill Tattoo, which is a re-enactment of the military drills of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in the late 1700’s. Right across the street, you can visit the Johnson Geo Centre and learn about the fascinating geoscience to be found on “the Rock”. Then drive to the top of the hill to visit Cabot Tower and see the cannons.

But the most popular use of Signal Hill by locals is for a scenic and short hike. It’s only ~4km to do the loop around the hill, but give yourself some time because there is a lot of stairs and you’ll want to take photos. The locals are a bit split on the best way to hike the trail. The largest section of stairs is at the top of the hill. Some people prefer to hike up the stairs for the workout, while others prefer to hike down them. While I love a good uphill hike, I always hike down them. I used to do this because I’m lazy, but now I do it because you get to enjoy the view looking out at the Atlantic Ocean when you hike down.

If you start at the top, which I think most tourists probably do, you begin by hiking down the stairs and around the coast. The trail follows some pretty narrow cliff edges along the Narrows into the harbour, before you arrive at the Battery. There is one chain section, but it’s not intimidating. You don’t need to pull yourself up or anything, it’s just a narrow trail, so there’s a chain to act as a rail. The Battery is an old and historic neighbourhood of the city along the edge of the harbour. It’s filled with colourful historic homes, also known as jelly bean houses. Once you exit the trail, you walk up through the Battery. This part can be a bit tricky – if you want, you can just follow the road, but there is a staircase shortcut hidden among the houses, so watch for the signs as you go up, because it’s a more scenic way to travel.

From this trail, you hike back up towards the duck pond across from the Geo Centre. There’s a nice lookout of the harbour, and some storyboards with more historic information about the city’s military history. From here, a lot of people will opt to hike up the road, but if you know where to look, there’s a trail that continues along the back of Gibbet Hill towards the Visitors Centre. From there, you an hike up the hillside to the cannons before reaching Cabot Tower and the end of the hike.

Like I said, a lot of people will start at the top, but my preference is to park across the street from the Geo Centre at the duck pond. I don’t like ending on a big hill, so this way, you do a good chunk of uphill first, then all the downhill, then a bit more uphill to get back from the Battery. It’s a good balance. But you really can’t go wrong. It’s taken me years to properly learn where all the trails are, so just make an adventure of it. Be careful around the cliffsides, but anywhere you end up will be beautiful!

Another option for climbing up to the top is to cross the road and walk up the trail at Georges Pond. It’s a longer route, but allows you to see the view from Cuckold’s Cove. You hike out past Georges Pond until you come to a junction. If you continued straight, you’d find yourself hiking into the historic village of Quidi Vidi, but take the right turn to head up to Ladies Lookout at the top of Signal Hill. It gives you a nice view of Cuckholds Cove, and if you look down from the first viewpoint, you might be lucky enough to see the Cuckhold’s Cove eagle in her nest.

I moved to BC 11 years ago and I haven’t made a single trip home where I didn’t go to Signal Hill. I won’t hike it in the winter if there’s snow, because it gets really slippery, but I will always hike it at least once in the summer. It takes me about an hour, but as a tourist, I’d give yourself 2 hours to really enjoy it! It’s an iconic piece of St. John’s history and well worth the visit!