Hiking in Kamloops

One of the saddest things about my time living in Kamloops last year was that I barely had time to hike the surrounding area. Working 40 hours + a week as well as the unimaginable heat they have there in the May-August period just didn't make it possible for me. I swear it got so hot in the summers there all I could do after work  was drink water and eat lettuce and just sleep because thats all I felt like doing. It got so bad that even our poor cat just lay there most days panting and we had to rub her down often with an ice pack. It was hot at 7am til 7pm. It knocked me down and the only exercise I had any inclination to do was swimming at the local pool because it was cold AND air conditioned.

But anyway since leaving Kamloops both the hubby and I terribly missed our friends there so we visited them all two weekends ago. We stayed with some friends, my friend Audrey who is the skinniest/fittest person Ive ever met took me and a few others to her favorite hiking trail. Apparently she goes there a lot because she totally zoomed up the hill and I felt like a dork the whole time because I had told her I loved hiking since Id gotten into it recently and now in hindsight I should have specified my beginner status with her. Not to mention I didn't bring my hiking boots with me which made the hike really difficult for me because of the rockiness and so I probably came off as really miserable. But that said, the hike length was about 2 hours and the highlight was making it to a beautiful ridge that overlooked Lake Kamloops and you could see both ends towards Kamloops in the East and Savona in the West. Because its early spring the weather was slightly chilly but quite mild. The best for hiking really is a bit of cold breeze.

The other awesome thing was at the top of the ridge was this cool rock pile monument. There was a plaque on it remembering the memory of some guy (can't remember who) who obviously used to love the area and inside the rock pile was a ziplocked bag with a register in it to sign etc. I love that sort of thing and we all signed it. Rock on!

Anyway so Im making a guess here based on looking at google maps as to where we went but it must have been part of the Tranquille Eco Reserve as pointed below in the picture. In case you can't tell from the picture, Kamloops is extremely dry. We all used to joke that the hills were made of moon dust and the scorching summers contribute to this and bush fires are a constant hazard and (sadly) occur often or simultaneously in the summer and autumn months so theres hardly any tree coverage if you go hiking locally but you will come across the famous Ponderosa Pine the further you go out.

 Til next time!