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.
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!
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!
The Road Goes Ever On 