Hiking Hunter Road

April 9, 2025March 13, 2025 / Maria / 1 Comment

I’ve lived in Vancouver for years and never heard anything about this hike. Then it felt like I started seeing it everywhere on social media and the facebook hiking groups all at once. I guess trails go in and out of vogue with social media these days, so I decided to check it out before it got more popular!

Hunter Road is located north of Mission, so it is a bit of a drive from Vancouver, but it’s at low elevation and follows an old logging road, so it’s a great hike to do year round. I’m not sure if it often gets snow, I visited it in early April (of 2024) and it was completely bare, but I could see it being a good trail on snowshoes as well.

The trailhead is located at the end of Roach Street, which is east of Stave Lake and has a great view of the lake from the viewpoint at the end of the trail. Despite the popularity I was seeing on the hiking groups, it was not busy when we visited on Easter weekend. We took Sadie with us and she had the best time because the trails were relatively empty and very wide (both great things when you have a reactive dog).

The hike is approximately 7.5km round trip, with 250 metres in elevation gain. You do about half of the elevation gain at the start of the hike, then it’s fairly flat along the road. You do the second half of the elevation gain at the end of the hike as you wrap around the base of a small peak to get to the viewpoint at the top. There’s not a lot to see along most of the trail as it’s just through the woods, but the reward at the viewpoint is great for how relatively low effort the hike is.

The entire hike only took us 2.5 hours, including a pretty lengthy snack break at the top of the viewpoint, so it’s a good trail for beginners. From the top, you get a great view of Stave Lake, looking into the mountainous backcountry. It’s a really nice place to hang out and enjoy the views and I can see the appeal of the trail in any season.

I don’t have too much more to say about the trail. It’s a great off-season hike and I’m happy to have crossed it off my bucket list. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area!

Hiking Pincushion Trail

April 2, 2025March 13, 2025 / Maria / Leave a comment

You didn’t think I would go all the way to Kelowna for the Brier and not do any hiking did you? The whole trip was a small vacation for me and Seth. We had a really nice airbnb overlooking the lake in Peachland, with a hot tub to enjoy in the evenings. We decided to skip one of the playoff games to catch up with our friend Lien, who’s been living in Penticton for the last two years.

We deferred to Lien to pick a hike for us and he decided on the Pincushion Trail, which is located really close to where we were staying in Peachland. It’s a short trail, only 3.5km in length roundtrip, but it has about 250 metres of elevation gain, so it’s quite steep. The region is centered around Okanagan Lake, but it is hilly all around the lake and pretty arid, so there’s not many trees and it makes for great views. Some might call it mountainous, but it’s not like the coastal cascades or the rugged rockies, I would say the terrain is just smaller, more eroded mountains.

We visited in early March, so it was heating up a lot in Vancouver, but we forgot that because Kelowna isn’t coastal, it’s still pretty cold there in the winter. The mountains were still covered in snow, but the freeze line was pretty high, so we were able to hike all the way to the top without encountering much snow. We brought our microspikes just in case, but there were only a few small slushy areas.

The trail starts off the top of Ponderosa Drive and continues up over the hill to a small peak known as the Pincushion. The trail was a little more technical than I was expecting as there are a few short rocky scrambles, but overall, it’s a pretty simple trail, just steep. It took us an hour to hike to the top. There were a half dozen other cars in the lot and we did pass other hikers, but it wasn’t overly busy.

From the top you can see Okanagan Lake in both directions and across to the mountains on the other side. It’s a really lovely view. We stopped at the local Bliss Bakery before starting the hike to pick up some snacks and I enjoyed a delicious cinnamon roll at the top!

It’s a much quicker hike down than on the way up, but my legs did start to feel a little wobbly towards the end. We celebrated a successful hike by returning to the airbnb and enjoying the lake views from the hot tub! It’s a fun little hike if you’re in the area, it took us less than 2 hours, including the snack break. I’m not sure I’d want to do it in the summer when it’s really hot though, as there’s limited trees and shade along the steep trail.

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!