This was not planned at all for us to go on this trip but our yearly family camp trip to Cypress was cancelled due to COVID, so that gave us an opportunity to go do a trip with just us and the kids! I found out I was being sent out of town for work and I instantly knew I better enjoy myself as good as I could before I'm out of town for a month. Well let's go to Kelowna, visit some friends, and go camping!
Two minutes of being on the highway, I have to pull into the weigh scale and weigh the camper haha. To get the proper weight I would have had to unhook the truck from the camper and no I did not do that, so I still do not know what it actually weighs! I did not have a good time pulling this camper from Regina to Calgary. There was a strong wind and my truck really did struggle the whole way there. I will invest into gears or a better truck!
Our first stop was at a friends house in Chestermere just outside of Calgary. We stayed at their house for a couple nights while we visited friends and family.
My friend just so happened to buy a new car right before we came! He took me for a ride and wow..... what an amazing piece of machinery! Eight hundred and some horse power.
While we are in the area we booked a supper with some of Brianna's family. It was hard keeping the kids in one spot, too bad they didn't have booster seats for us to use.
My wife was like a little kid when it came to going to the Zoo. She was very excited for the kids to see it, but she was also excited to see it herself!.
Here's my excitement though, a Fj40 in the wild!
After two days we finally got ourselves out of Calgary. First stop is Banff and then head up to Lake Louise! This place is just as beautiful as the first time I came here, never gets old.
Enough of Alberta! Lets get into British Columbia! That's always my goal, get deep as I can into B.C. Next year I want to get even further into the mountains. We had a very enjoyable drive into the mountains compared to the windy prairies, and also the slower speed limit sure did help too. We were saying "ouuuuu ahhhhh" looking at all the beautiful sceneries.
We didn't want to drive all the way to Kelowna since the kids were already getting restless. We got a camp site for one night in Salmon arm which is just south of the Shuswap lake. Our night activity was a pretty far bike ride, then ice cream for the boys.
I some how forgot my knife at home. I've had a knife attached to my pocket for probably five or six years now, so it's just normal to me and I feel naked when I don't have it! Here's my Canadian Tire purchase.
We've made it! Our camp site for the next five nights! In Peachland right outside of west Kelowna. The best part about it is that the lake is a thirty second walk from us! This is our first time camping in a RV park and I can say I'm not a big fan of it. We are use to camping in camp sites with a fair amount of room in between each site or even a big bush dividing sites. At this place there was none of that. It wasn't a big deal though because we were always out exploring and gone doing things. My oldest son Lincoln just had people to bug the whole time we were actually at the camp site lol.
I very quickly wanted to get out for an adventure and thats exactly what we did! We actually headed up this mountain to get to the Myra-Bellevue hiking trails and go for a walk but soon as I saw a truck trail going deep into the bush I had to take it! That finished off most of our evening.
We did have a half hour to spare so we got a little ways down the Myra trestle trail before turning around. It looked very beautiful and decided we had to come back with the bikes and do the whole trail!
Our next day adventure was a hike up the mountain right beside Peachland where we were staying. It was quite the workout with two kids and a thirty pound backpack. For the most part I had to carry Lincoln which is thirty pounds also! I am always up for the challenge though. Brianna even had to carry Lincoln with Levi on her back! Lincoln was being a mama's boy for a little bit. We had lots of fun and really enjoyed the views. Once we were at the half way point on the trail we took a lunch break which was the best way to have lunch! As you can tell I really enjoy the moss on the tree's.
Another reason we came to Kelowna was because we have some friends that moved here. They had us over for supper one night which was delicious! Really nice to see them again since they are fifteen hours away from us now. This is the only photo I have from that night, its funny the reason why I even took it. We were comparing my new Iphone camera quality to their Samsung. I'm pretty sure I won but I was told that the Samsung has better specs apparently haha.
A couple days later we got ourselves back to the Myra Trestle trail. The first twenty minutes were awesome and it was nice out but the rest of the bike ride rained on us.... Me being in a T-shirt, I was pretty damn cold! but I still smiled at everyone I passed. It was hard not to be in good spirits when the views are this beautiful. My wife also froze but I hope the sweater I gave her helped. The kids on the other hand though, were warm and dry with all the snacks and drinks they could ever need. The most important thing to me is that the kids are comfortable. There was luckily enough a tunnel for us to get out of the rain and enjoy lunch. Everything was covered in mud after that twenty seven kilometer bike ride. My wife and I were soaked head to toe. All we could do is laugh!
We finished our bike ride right around supper time and thats when the sun finally came back out. Thats just how life works some times. It was time to get ourselves some supper and we had enough people recommending places to try. One of the places was the Sushi right along the lake in Peachland. On my way back to the camp site with the food I had to stop and take my typical Instagram photo beside the water.
Another day, another adventure! This time I just used the maps and was looking for a lake to go check out. I pin pointed Silver Lake and off we went. It was just a forty minute drive to get there and then we followed a trail that took us to the south east side of the lake. My goal was to get our little boat on the water but we decided to just keep adventuring around. We just so happened to find a power line trail! It was something I was not used to because we do not have those in Saskatchewan. I loved this trail very much because the views were amazing. My wife so badly wanted to see wild life but we were having no luck until we got to an animal crossing that went under the highway. We thought it was pretty funny that the only place we see an animal is at an animal crossing. We have lots of deer around home so it wasn't anything unfamiliar. After following this trail for an hour, we got to a section on the trail where it was blocked by big rocks. I figured they were placed there on purpose because it must of been private land from then on.
The next day we knew we really wanted to get out on our little boat so we drove into west Kelowna and were recommended to check out this beach. It was good enough to just go for a float.
That night, our good friends Rach, Roy, and Brydan took us to the top of a mountain that over looked all of Kelowna. There was a total of nine of us up there and we had a nice supper together! It was an amazing night with a amazing scenery. I was even able to do some rock crawling while I was up there. I found a rock to flex on and of course I had to put my son in there for a photo haha.
After we finished supper it started to get dark so we figured we better head back down and on the way down I found this clearing in the tree's with this beautiful view of the city.
We had one day left and really wanted to get to the kangaroo farm. That was really cool since I've never seen kangaroo's before and Lincoln was very fascinated by them too as you can see he's trying to talk to them lol.
I had one more lake I wanted to check out, which was Chute Lake. We came from east Kelowna and headed south towards the lake. It was kind of a sketchy road from all the big puddles but some how there were many cyclists going down it, even a dirt bike and quad passed us right here.
After we passed Chute Lake I followed a narrow trail that I really liked. It had views over the side of the mountain and looked towards the Okanagan lake. After we finished that trail we ended up in Penticton at the south side of the lake. We found it very nice there and will have to spend more time in Penticton next time we come back.
One last bike ride along the lake to finish off our trip. Then head home first thing in the morning.
Thats a wrap! What a great trip. Saw so many new and awesome sights. I'm glad we randomly decided to do this trip. Our kids were even awesome with all that driving. But as soon as Lincoln says "I have to pee", you pull over so he doesn't pee himself haha. We tell ourselves that we need to get to the mountains every year now, so beautiful. 3500 kms we did total on this trip. The 4Runner did awesome on the drive home, we must of had the wind at our back. Thanks everyone for reading! I hope I kept this interesting throughout the whole read. These blogs will only get better!
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