Kelowna Vacation, Day 3

You can start playing the “It’s a small world” theme… one of my former co-workers emailed me today because she is also in Kelowna. At Big White, actually. And at the time she was emailing me, I was busy snowshoeing along the paths at Big White. If only she’d emailed yesterday… we could have gone snowshoeing together. We’ve been playing tag for, I don’t know, a couple years now. So it would have been quite something to have gotten together up here. Which tells you some of how I spent my day.

I was up pretty early, got my Starbucks (on-the-go breakfast of convenience next to the hotel) and then headed up to Big White. It is another glorious day of sunshine. On the way up I heard it was -8 C at Big White. Kelowna doesn’t get all that much snow – too close to water, to low down. There are signs of it everywhere in melting piles previously shoveled, but the trees are green and the streets are clear and snow is much more hit and miss. Heading up it did start to accumulate, although again – a lot of the trees are clear of it, making it seem deceptively less than perhaps it is. The radio report said the base at Big White is 242 cm, or about 96 inches. Nice!!

I suppose I should mention that I’m not sure I’ve ever been to a major ski resort. I didn’t get to ski much as a kid – too little when Bonnie & Jenny took lessons (a major theme of my growing up) and then dad didn’t want me to ski when I played basketball, because I could blow out my knees. So I’ve been skiing probably a half-dozen times in my life, usually up at Snoqualmie, which is kind of a throw-back ski area. There’s the ski lodges, some nearby cabins, that sorta thing, but nothing like what I saw today Big White not only can handle… what did they say, 14,000 people an hour? – they are also clearly building it out – tons of condos going in. It was horrifying. Just like being in the U.S. It is a beautiful area, and I’m sure they’ll make tons of money. But it would be nicer if they put the condos somewhere else. Anyway.

You park, and take a gondola up the mountain so you don’t have to hoof it up, which I did like. My one major failing on this trip was I forgot my sunglasses… the snow was quite bright with the sun on it. Fortunately, I got into the woods fairly quickly so I wasn’t blinded any more. The snowshoeing was great – the paths had been groomed and the snow was packed enough that it was easy-going. I’m not sure if the path names had anything to do with anything… they appeared mainly just to be names, because I didn’t see any lakes or meadows on my way. I did get to tromp through a pretty fun forest path – fun because it wasn’t so packed down, but it also wasn’t so powdery that it took tons of effort. The snow up here is incredibly dry… can’t make a snowball to save your soul.

I passed a warming hut on the way, which was cool. Stop in, sit by the fire – there was a guy there we might call a park ranger. What a fun job. As I came back up to the starting area, I noticed a guy attaching harnesses to a sled and I inquired about the many dogs that were there in the woods. There were all these dogs, on leashes, with their own dog house – most of them were sitting on top of the dog house. Many of them looked one step removed from wolves. They are Alaskan racing dogs, and the guy dogsleds with them and does tours.

Along the base of the ski area there’s a skating ring. What do Canadians use it for? Why, hockey training, of course. I think they start kids skating before they train kids to walk. Little kids, 4, 5 years old… pulling out the hockey goals and hitting the puck.

Coming back to Kelowna, there was a point where you could see the whole valley, the lake, the ring of mountains, the town, all sunshine… wow, it was breathtaking. I do get why people live here.

The afternoon has been quiet. I went to a winery: Quail’s Gate. I figured I could get away with not buying anything, that they’d have distribution in the states. Of course not. So I had to buy a bottle of their ice wine. It was so good. The winery is on the other side of the lake, so it was a phenomenal view looking back at the city. It really is a gorgeous area. I would think in the summer this place really is the place to be, but I think it’d also be totally overrun with people. I’d love to come back in September/October though.
I also bummed around town, went by the Unitarian church – it is quite small! – went back through town and decided tomorrow morning for breakfast I’m going to a creperie. Usually I look for gelato stands on vacation, but creperies are fast moving up my list.

Tomorrow I go home, and I’ll post photos.