Okanagan (Half) Marathon

On Sunday Leo got up early and jogged down to the Okanagan Marathon startling on the waterfront.  I slept in and arrived just in time to see him run in at 1:46:06.  I couldn't get my camera to work so I am relying on stolen official photos to illustrate.

At the finish line

He did pretty good, 6th in his age class, considering he's at the top end of the 60-69 age group*. 

*We attribute his good showing to his new (expensive) high tech Hoka Carbon X road running shoes which feature the same carbon fibre plate that adds an asterisk to the recent world record breaking performances in the men's and women's marathons.

Back at the motel with medal and high performance runners.

Saturday Afternoon in Kelowna

We found a dimsum restaurant in Kelowna for lunch.  Oddly it's got a Japanese name, Yamato, and calls itself pan-Asian.  Not a good sign, generally, but the dishes were good though there wasn't the variety you'd find in Vancouver, and we scratched our dimsum itch we've rarely satisfied since moving away from Vancouver 31(!) years ago.

Next stop was the Gellatly Nut farm in West Kelowna, a former farm and now regional park.   The nut orchard is still there and you can buy nuts or harvest your own. We've been here before; I discovered it while attending a conference at the Cove Resort next door when I was still working.  Later I came back with Leo in the fall and we harvested hazelnuts.  Fresh hazelnuts are insanely delicious.

Strolling through the nut farm

When we arrived this year the hazelnuts were finished but they had chestnuts and walnuts for sale.  We don't like chestnuts and the volunteer told us there were only a few walnuts left on the ground.  We decided we'd walk around and come back to buy some walnuts.

But on our stroll we saw lots of walnuts so went back and got a bucket and harvested our own.  It turns out fresh walnuts are also insanely delicious, and of course anything you harvest yourself tastes better.

Our harvest

We found a squirrel's cache of nuts at the base of a tree:

Hazelnuts, walnuts, and chestnuts

Just up the road from the nut farm we found another regional park, Glen Canyon, so we checked it out.

Heading out on Glen Canyon trail

There's lots of up and down stairways:

A shot into the canyon:

And the bird of the day!  Stellars Jay, BC's provincial bird.

Back to Kelowna

Okanagan Lake from Maud Roxby Wetlands Boardwalk

Back in Kelowna again.  Didn't we say we hated Kelowna after spending a week here in September for the Seniors' Games?  Suckers for punishment, we were back so Leo could run the Okanagan Half Marathon.

Turns out traffic's not nearly so bad when you're not crossing the bridge at rush hour with all the local workers and an additional 4000 senior athletes heading to their sport venues.  Plus we stayed right off Harvey Street and within walking distance restaurants, shopping and the race venue downtown so less driving was required.  And out we had some Airmiles so we stayed practically for free at the Kelowna Inn and Suites, a cut above our usual cheap mom and pop motel.

We've been to Kelowna many times before so we searched out some lesser known parks to visit on Saturday.

First off we headed to the Maude-Roxby Wetland in South Kelowna.  It was a challenge to find the entrance since Google Maps sent us to a locked gate on a private driveway.  But a little extra walking rewarded us with a little gem, supposedly the last remaining piece of wetland on Okanagan Lake in Kelowna.  (Actually there's another very nice reconstructed wetland located on the waterfront right downtown near the big Delta Hotel and the casino.)

There weren't a lot of birds around in late October, but in the spring I imagine it is full of ducks and warblers.

Next it was on to Father Pandosy Mission, the first non-native permanent settlement in the interior of BC.

It's a low-key heritage site with the original log cabins and a few more from the area moved on site.  We were the only people there.  You can go inside the buildings which have been furnished with period furniture.

As well, there's a fair-sized collection of horse buggies and farm machinery to check out.

We took the obligatory selfie:

Best Birthday Card Ever

I turned 61 recently (not saying when exactly, but apparently Google already knows because it was displaying birthday candles on the day, grrrr).

My friend Janet sent me the above photo - I thought it was pretty funny.  You may recognize those photoshopped images from some previous blog posts. That photo of my garden was taken before the frost and before a black bear visited.

I had thrown some rotten apples in the compost and in the night the bear ripped apart our compost bin right where I put the apples. Leo has now repaired the bin for the winter and we've had no more visits.

Thanksgiving in Smithers

I drove up to Smithers with my sister Dorothea for Thanksgiving.

We were lucky to have 2 days of decent weather.  On Saturday we hiked in Call Lake Provincial Park.  We hiked up to a ridge with great views of  Hudson Bay Mountain to the West and the Babine Mountains in the other direction.

Hudson Bay Mountain in background.

The next day we did our traditional hike up the Seymour Ridge Nature Trail to pick wild cranberries for Thanksgiving dinner.

Considering how frosty it's been there were still some mushrooms to be seen.  We collected some fresh looking but frozen hedgehog mushrooms which later made a tasty appetizer and also saw these club fungi:

(About 2" high)

We also spotted this,

the featured poop of the day!  (Martin or some other member of the weasel family, perhaps?)

We also heard an owl call, which we think was a boreal owl, followed by the sounds of mobbing chickadees and nuthatches.

The cranberry harvest has been better, but we did collect about a cup of berries.

Picking cranberries in the bog

which we ate with our excellent turkey dinner.

Dorothea and Cousin Ken tuck in

Winter is Coming

Brrrr

It was the coldest morning yet for our Wednesday walk/run.  I was all bundled up.

Nevertheless, it was a gloriously sunny morning in the creek valley.

Back to Likely!

On the second day of their visit we took Syb and Dave out to Likely and Quesnel Forks.

After lunch at the Likely Hotel we drove down the gravel road to the Forks.  Halfway down the hill we heard a hissing sound.  We'd blown a tire!

We pulled into a Placer mining operation to change the tire.  Leo pulled out the jack and tried to lower down the spare tire from under the truck.  This was the first flat we'd had since we bought the truck.  There was no way the jack extension would fit into the mechanism to lower the tire.  We pulled out the manual and we were doing everything right.  It still wouldn't work.  It was clear that the thingy would not connect to the other thingy no matter what we did!  Leo was not relishing walking the 13 km back to Likely to get to a payphone (no cell reception out here!).

Finally he rummaged around under the back seat and discovered a small chrome piece in a plastic bag.  It fit into the tube so that it connected to the thingy and Leo was able to lower the tire!  No mention of the connecter anywhere in the manual!

Then after the nuts were loosened on the flat tire, the wheel was stuck fast.  No amount of kicking it would knock it off.

Leo tries to knock wheel off with piece of wood. That didn't work either.

Fortunately, the placer miner had left his tools lying around, including a mallet and an expensive axe.  Leo didn't want to bend his rim, but half measures were not working.  Eventually he whacked the axe with all his might and the wheel finally came off.  Phew, disaster averted!

With the tire changed we pulled forward a few metres and entered the townsite.

Sybille checks out the Tong House

First time I've noticed this old truck

Inspecting the Forks of Cariboo and Quesnel Rivers

Lovely Afternoon in the Chilcotin

Sybille and Dave showed up in the early afternoon last week so we headed out to the Chilcotin to hike up to the dunes at Farwell Canyon.

It was a fabulous fall day as you can see.  We stopped at the side of the road to see a number of rough-legged hawks (4 or 5) hovering in the sky in their migration south.

Hiking toward the dunes.  With all the rain this summer the grass was lush and thick.

We met a couple of people on the hike but then had the dunes and the view to ourselves.

Fabulous view:

Afterwards we made the obligatory short sidetrip to the nearby pictograph site.

And on the way out we came across a herd of California Bighorn sheep.

The bigger of 2 rams had impressive horns: