Venturing along the old Naramata Road
Before the Second World War, during the 1930s, the Kelowna Junior Board of Trade (Jaycees) decided that a road on the east side of Okanagan Lake, south of Kelowna, was a good idea.
Many volunteers worked on this project, including my dad, E.L. Adam, who was a member of the Junior Board.
Most of the work on this road was done by hand.
Lakeshore Road as far as Swick Road then existed. Some rustic handmade signs appeared along the road.
The first was Harvey Hill. Motorcycle Corner was presumably worked on by the members of the Kelowna Motorcycle Club.
When war was declared in 1939, the east side road project was reluctantly abandoned and the rough road eventually became a fine hiking trail.
By the way, another interesting place along Lakeshore Road was the J.W. Hughes bird farm.
This property is now the north end of Cedar Creek Park, but in the 1930s it had numerous pens containing unusual and exotic birds such as rare pheasants.
Mr. Hughes lived on Bernard Avenue, but he had vineyards and other properties, including his bird place.
But, to get back to the Naramata Road area, in the late 1940s, a group of us hiked to Okanagan Mountain, to the site of the crash of the DC 3.
Doug Rankin had been there and acted as our guide. We drove in my Model A Ford roadster, past the Young place at Deep Creek, where there were new vineyards.
A road to the left, just across the creek, dead-ended after about a mile.
From there, we walked.
It proved to be a long day before we got back to my car.
There were some good camping spots along the road.
In the late 1950s, I was recruited as Scoutmaster of St. Michael’s 4th Kelowna troop.
We hiked and camped in the area a number of times.
On one occasion, we camped about a mile up Deep Creek, in a nice quiet spot.
Another time we camped at Squally Point, directly across Okanagan Lake from Peachland, where we watched the lights on Highway 97.
When walking down the trail towards Mr. Clarence’s place, we spotted the old Orchard City tugboat, resting on the bottom of the lake. It had earlier been drawn up on the beach, but a storm came up and sucked the tug back out into the lake, where it sank. It was shallow enough, however, to be visible.
Later, the Orchard City was raised and the hull became a pretend sailing vessel and was installed beside Highway 97, at Holiday Park.
On a hike to Wild Horse Canyon, we went down an old side trail for 100 feet or so.
There we found an ancient corral rotting away.
We suspected that it was a campsite used by people taking the trail with cows or horses, who wished to avoid herding the animals onto the old lake ferry.
A few years later, some family members and I took a trip along the Naramata Road in my 1965 Nissan Patrol.
We made it through to Penticton, but it took us about six hours to complete the trip.
I was involved in a few searches in that area with Kelowna District Search and Rescue, when hikers were overdue.
Often, we climbed cliffs to get good radio reception.
Okanagan Mountain Park has many good trails to follow, and the historic Naramata Road can still be followed in many places.