Okanagan Mountain Thrashing

I am still catching up on blog posts from our trip to Canada in 2019. Those adventures all seem so long ago, especially after the 2019/2020 Australia fire season, that I have to go back to our trip database to help me remember the details of our mountain adventures. As an aside, if you don't have a trip database, however can you relive "this day in history?"

A picture from "this day in history" 2005

Anyway, I was going to rewrite my trip report for this rather epic journey around Okanagan Mountain Park, but, after re-reading my report in our trip database, I am simply going to copy it in here. It gives a pretty reasonable idea of what this trip was like. First, however, a few introductory comments.

Okanagan Mountain Park, have a gander at the map below, lies on the east side of Okanagan Lake at the south end of the rapidly expanding city of Kelowna. It gets hot in the summer, Australian hot at times, which Canadians like and is managed by BC (British Columbia) Parks, a chronically underfunded and under-resourced provincial agency. In 2003, a huge bushfire, started by lightening (as are most Australian bushfires despite what the Murdoch media propagates) burnt the entire park and 240 homes.

My route: CN, Divide Lake, OK Mountain, Baker Lake, Wildhorse Canyon

Courtesy of my friends who live in Kelowna and with whom we were staying, I had a laminated paper map of the Park, much like the one shown below, and, a little bit of study convinced me that a great rest day activity (we had been rock climbing in nearby Skaha Provincial Park) would be to walk a huge loop covering almost all the tracks in the park. I would start in the north, walk south along trails on the east side of the Park to the south end, then walk west, then back north again. I was undeterred by the story my friends told of having to sleep overnight on the track because they did not make it to the campground at Divide Lake. The fact that this outing was around 35 kilometres long with over 2000 metres of elevation gain, and it was forecast to be a hot day, also did little to dampen my enthusiasm.

Doug on one of Skaha's beautifully clean climbs

The final thing I will mention is that the tracks, with the exception of the Divide Lake trail, which goes to a very popular backcountry campsite, have never been properly maintained since the 2003 fire. As such, there is a lot of dense undergrowth, a lack of footpad, virtually no trail markers, or trail markers on toppled over trees, braided tracks, and disappearing tracks. Suffice to say that it is not a fast track.

I left the Topor house around 7 am and started walking about 7.30 am. Most of the trails are not really that good. The OK Mountain fire burnt all the trees and toppled many of the marker trees, and some of the vegetation is growing back quite thick. Additionally, apart from the track to Divide Lake, the trails are not heaviy used enough to keep them clear. BC Parks, as usual, has done little trailwork.

Okanagan Mountain

All junctions are signed and most have a map of the track and the distance to the next intersection but some junctions are just marked with signs, and there are some spots where there are multiple trails. In places, the trails are a bit vague and hard to follow, while in other places there is a lot of greenery to push through, and, in yet, other spots, the track is stony and eroded.

I took the Boulder Trail up to the CN Trail which loses elevation for a distance then crosses a creek on a bridge, heads uphill a bit and then splits with the right hand fork heading west and the left hand fork joining with the Divide Trail which is an old road. I was a bit surprised at how long it took me to get to the split and this would become a theme for the day. Once on the old road, travel was easy and it is scenic and pretty with folded cliffs and gullies and masses and masses of wildflowers.

Wildflowers beside the trail

I passed one young woman on the way to Divide Lake and arrived at the campsite after 3 hours. Of course I was feeling really fresh here so decided to continue on with my planned loop. There are picnic tables and a hut at Divide Lake and a neantheral couple were hacking at dead trees to keep their campfire going. I texted Doug and continued on.

Still old road to Okanagan Mountain which does not have much of a different view to anywhere else. I did not stay but walked back down the road and located the sketchy track signed for Baker Lake. Immediately, I thought, this will be a slow track, and it was. I had to watch for a foot pad and markers as where it had been burnt was hard to see. The trail markers are on trees that have fallen down onto the ground.

Baker Lake

I had a nice view of Baker Lake which would be a way better place to camp as I suspect not many people go. Beyond Baker Lake I had a couple of spots where I lost the track for a bit or took the wrong fork and it was slow going. This is the Frederic Creek Track. I passed two guys resting here but no-one else until I was back on the Boulder Track at the end of the day.

Coming down I took a fork to the right, but it was wrong and I had to get a GPS signal, then bushwack back east to regain the track. I lost at least 40 minutes here as I was struggling to work out from the map on the phone whether the track junction was to the east or west of me. Unfortunately, the first time I got back on the trail, I turned around about 40 seconds from the track junction which is quite near Frederic Creek. Eventually, I walked back towards Frederic Creek where I found an unsigned junction that matched the map - once I looked closer at the paper map, and I turned right and after a bit came to the actual signed junction.

Not much forest regrowth after 16 years

I was getting a bit concerned about time but not too worried and walked on to have a quick break on a rock slab and text Doug. I thought I was about half way to Goode's Creek but I was nowhere near that far along. I walked and walked and walked along a track that wound up and down, often through brushy undergrowth and finally got to the Goode's Creek junction. This was definitely a bit confronting as I now had 17.5 km (according to the sign) to reach the north parking lot. I thought I was probably only traveling at about 2 km an hour, so I would be getting out around about 11.30 pm! Yikes.

The next junction was 2 km away and I timed that section plus tried my best to walk faster. A lot of uphill again and dense shrubbery in places. I timed myself at 2 km in 45 minutes - not great. Now I had 15.5 km to go. I tried to call Doug but had no reception so kept walking.

Looking down towards Wildhorse Canyon

The next section would have been nice if the bush along the bottom was less thick and there were not mosquitoes. The track, however, was easier as it ran in a straight line up the middle of a small canyon with little cliffs on either side. Quite pretty. But, each side of the track was pools of standing water and the mosquitoes were insane. I was walking as fast as I could and swatting mosquitoes with my hat. I got dozens and dozens of bites and was going a little bit spare. A bit of self talk was needed that these were only mosquitoes and I was not going to die.

I managed to leave Doug a message that indicated I was in survival mode and could he call me back. I was still concerned about darkness falling and trying to walk out in the dark - with no headlamp! Doug called me back near when I was reaching the end of the mosquitoe tunnel and I told him I would keep going and let him know when I got to the next junction which was my only way of knowing how far I had to go.

Trail through Wildhorse Canyon

Eventually, I got out of the mosquito tunnel and the track turned into a bit of an old road so it was easier going. I had not had a drink for hours but wanted to get some idea of how far I had to go before I stopped to eat or drink. Finally, I got to the Goode''s Basin junction which is not how it looks on the map as the old road continues down to the lake, and the track turns into a scrappy track again and begins climbing, climbing, climbing. I drank 750 ml of water and ate an energy bar while I walked and told Doug where I was but I did not know how far I had to go as this junction had no distance recorded.

View from OK Mountain down to OK Lake

Finally, I came to a junction near a creek which indicated I had 5 km to go. I knew this would be a hard 5 km and would climb back up again, which it did. So, lots more up, a narrow somewhat scrappy track and my feet were now so sore it was painful to walk. Finally, after a shattering descent on slippery, steep, rocky ground I reached the last junction which I had passed 12 hours ago. The track, of course, goes uphill until the final shattering descent. I staggered out to the car after 12 hours and 15 minutes, nearly crippled with sore feet.

I passed two young women on the track who got a shock at seeing a near delirious older woman staggering along. The last few hours of the walk I had felt quite spacy and strangely lonely.

Wildflowers growing in dusty ground