Paddling away the blues in Salmon Arm
Ahhh, Salmon Arm. Ahhh, the Shuswap. What a wonderful city and region for outdoor recreation. The Sheriff and Constant Companion Carmen decided to add kayaking and hiking to our traditional summer trip to the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival last weekend.
We headed out on Thursday to squeeze into the festival's Campground One, the closest to the Salmon Arm Fairgrounds, and then drove down to the Salmon Arm Chamber of Commerce's Visitor Information Centre (corner of Highway 1 and Shuswap Street).
As the Sheriff has said many times in the past, there is nothing like local knowledge. Seek it out at every opportunity.
Specifically, we wanted to know the best place to launch our kayaks and the best local places for a hike.
We discovered the Salmon Arm Bay Nature Preserve on the downtown waterfront is one of the province’s premier migratory estuaries and largest nesting home to the Western grebe.
There is a boat launch at the foot of Marine Park Drive and a nearby parking lot with pull-through boat stalls right next to the Salmon Arm Bay Interpretive Centre (don't park in its lot). It’s paid parking but the first hour is free if you get a slip from the parking kiosk.
A short walk down to the shoreline and we saw three osprey grooming themselves at the top of pilings, a grebe diving for sustenance in-between the occasional power boat and flocks of waterfowl on the mud flats west of the boat launch.
The nature preserve doesn't have sandy beaches, but it does have a four-kilometre (one-way) nature trail complete with wooden viewing platforms and a loop trail around Christmas (Sometimes An Island) Island.
For sandy beaches, Canoe Beach (naturally on Canoe Beach Drive) was recommended. It's in Canoe which is a short drive off the Trans Canada Highway north of Salmon Arm. It’s an incredible wide stretch of sand with a busy swimming area and a short walkway to the east alongside the CPR railway tracks. You soon get used to the sound of frequent trains.
So on Friday, we headed to the Salmon Arm waterfront at the north end of Marine Park Drive to North America's longest wooden inland wharf.
A family of otters apparently lives under the wharf, but were absent that day.
The concrete boat launch isn't that wide but does have a separate, divided lane from the cul-de-sac loop of Marine Park Drive so you can get out of the traffic flow and wait your turn.
Fortunately for us, there was only one empty boat trailer on the launch so we unloaded our kayaks and gear, carried them down to the edge of the muddy water and launched before the next boat arrived.
The nature preserve extends an equal distance along the shoreline west and east with a warning that it is a restricted boating zone due to the sensitive nesting area. We paddled around the small marina and then east, staying outside the line of buoys advising boaters to stay out.
Almost immediately, we spotted blue heron, not just one or two, but many. All had their long, skinny necks extended to their full height and were taking slow, measured steps as they stalked the small fish swimming in the shallow water.
As another heron joined them, its wings flapped furiously as it came to a stop in mid-air and its long legs gently entered the water vertically with hardly a splash (not to scare any prey away). Surrounding them were dozens of other ducks and Canada geese.
As we rounded a small point, we were thrilled at the sight of five white pelicans, which had paused between their summer home in the Arctic and winter home in South America.
The funniest sight was one of them hopping with both feet simultaneously, skipping across the water as its wings lifted its large body up and it rejoined three buddies a short distance away.
For kayakers and canoers unfamiliar with mud flats, they are flat on the shoreline and flat a long way out. Even though we were out past the bouys, our paddles kept hitting the bottom, perhaps 25 centimetres underwater.
Once past the preserve boundary, we pulled into shore for lunch but unless you step onto a grassy bunch, your feet will sink several inches into the soft, slimy mud. Kayak cockpits had to be cleaned after we returned to the boat launch.
Even though the water was shallow, several times large fish unexpectedly jumped into the air near our kayaks.
*** In other outdoor news, a Kelowna group called #walkthebeachkelowna will hold a public walk at 1-4 p.m. on Sunday.
“We’ll be walking from Kelowna’s City Park (south end near the tunnel) to Gyro Beach. The route will be along the beach foreshore as much as possible. The distance is about four kilometres. It's expected to take about two or three hours,” say organizers.
“This event is intended to raise awareness about the limitations on walking the public foreshore between the bridge and Mission Creek. We hope to encourage public discussion on how we can reduce these hindrances and, of course, have fun on our beach.
“There are some sections of foreshore that we currently can't walk along. We’ll be bypassing them by walking up to the street to re-enter at the next access point.”
Organizers are asking owners not to bring their pets “because of limitations of parks we’ll be passing through and possible disruptive interactions with other pets and people.”
And because of the difficulty of walking in sand, not to bring strollers. It may also be too strenuous for children under six years of age.
Organizers caution: “If you choose to join us on this walk, it is entirely at your own risk.”
There will be free face-painting by createawavebc.com starting at 12:30 p.m. for kids under 12 at the starting point and free balloon creations for these same kids at the end at Gyro Beach.
Participants should bring water shoes, sunscreen, drinking water, kids, snacks, bus fare and will probably want to wear a bathing suit. There will be public transit buses departing from bus stops along Lakeshore Road back to Leon Avenue/Water Street near the starting point, once per hour.
They leave from near Gyro Beach at about five minutes past the hour. Cash fare is $2.50.
*** Hoodoo Adventures, a Penticton company offering outdoor adventures and team events in the Okanagan, will celebrate its 10th birthday with an adventure-themed gala fundraiser on Wednesday.
The evening at the Penticton Trade and Convention Centre will include dinner, musical entertainment, silent and live auctions, a mystery wine pull (featuring all local wine), and some fun, grown-up adventure camp-themed activities.
In addition to celebrating the accomplishment of 10 years in business, it is also an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the Youth Outdoor Recreation Society (YORS), a not-for-profit program founded by Lyndie Hill, co-owner of Hoodoo Adventures. It subsidizes outdoor recreation programs for local youth.
Community involvement and promoting youth outdoor programming is important to Hoodoo Adventures (hoodooadventures.ca), says Hill, and all the net proceeds from the gala will be donated to YORS.
It wouldn’t happen without sponsors: Save-On-Foods (Penticton), Covert Farms Family Estate, Ritchie Custom Homes, Greyback Construction, and Float Body and Mind Wellness Penticton.
“We’re incredibly appreciative of the community’s support of this event and are grateful to our sponsors as well as the many local businesses and individuals that have been donating items for the silent and live auctions,” said Hill.
“We wanted to mark our business milestone with a fun celebration. At Hoodoo Adventures, parents always comment on how they wish they could go to adventure camp too. So this is their chance.”
The 10th Birthday Gala Fundraiser starts at 5:15 p.m. Tickets are $30 (ages 18-plus) and must be purchased in advance.
For more information and to buy tickets, go to: eventbrite.ca/e/hoodoo-adventures10th-birthday-celebration-gala-fundraisertickets-36164086757.
The award-winning company’s aim is to provide quality outdoor adventures and team events that highlight the best the Okanagan has to offer.
Hoodoo brings together “some of the most energetic, personable and dedicated individuals in the industry, offering outstanding instructional skills, playful attitudes and knowledge of safety management with a wide range of backgrounds, qualifications and experience,” said Hill.
YORS generates funds through local events, fundraisers, grants and donations to lower the cost of outdoor recreation for students in the community.
YORS works closely with schools in School District no. 67 — as well as other schools in the community — to create outdoor recreation opportunities for South Okanagan youth.
*** As predicted, the higher-than-normal freshet flows last spring caused changes to Mission Creek in Kelowna that require repair and refinement of the floodplain and fish habitat restoration work completed in 2016.
However, the Mission Creek Greenway dike on the south side of the creek between Casorso Road and Gordon Drive remained open while work was undertaken this week and will be scheduled again in October.
Greenway users should avoid the work area, watch for construction crews and equipment, and respect signage to ensure the safety of all workers and the public.
To learn more about this and other creek restoration work, go to: missioncreek.ca.
“Phase 1 was designed and built recognizing there would be ongoing changes to the restoration components resulting from high freshet flows,” explained Mission Creek Restoration Initiative project coordinator Steve Matthews.
“As a result, plans to adaptively manage the site over time in response to these changes were developed prior to project implementation. These works will involve minor adjustments to ensure the long-term health and productivity of the creek.”
Phase 1 project engineer Don Dobson concurred that “While the works generally performed as designed, this spring’s wellabove-average runoff caused changes that need attention.
“We’ll go in to maintain the floodplain and to modify three of the four meander notches that were built to provide fish spawning and rearing habitat for kokanee and rainbow trout.
“To that end, we’ll rebuild and reinforce berms along the old dike footprint to minimize erosion and prevent overflow into the side channel.”
J.P. Squire, aka the Hiking, Biking, Kayaking and Horseback Riding Sheriff, is an Okanagan Saturday/Sunday reporter and an avid outdoors enthusiast. His column appears every weekend. You can contact him with your outdoor news at his new email address: jp.squire@telus.net.