Osoyoos - Aug 1

We arrived in Kelowna Yesterday and Jerry was

there to pick us up and bring us to Osoyoos. A nice drive with lots of cars on the road and kids on inner tubes floating down the river in Penticton and Summerland.

Nancy had a lovley supper ready for us and after we all got settled in we mowed down.

Jo called and let us know that whe was coming that night . I was too tired to stay up much past 10 so I hit the sack and went to sleep so soundly that I didn't hear a thing all night.

Up at 330 to use the facilities but way too early to go out, so back to sleep and up at 530 and out the door by 6 with Jo. We went up, up, up.

We saw campers tenting on a nice open grassy plateau where we could follow many different trails in three different directions.

We saw the cattle guard crossing thing and we crossed it.

Sage everywhere. What a lovley, lovely aroma. A small trail brought us to the base of a cliff which we followed around till we could climb up.

I was, at one point, on my hands and knees, up a particularly steep incline, till I got to the top, probably only about 30 feet. but it seemed much longer.

Jo was already there sitting and resting and looking very relaxed when I finally got there. We rested at the top. Realizing that there was another top to go up to, we continued on.

The sun was just coming over the mountain when we met Brian at the crossroads.

He is the prospecting, long bearded window washer of Osoyoos, who filled us in on the ins and outs of being a prospector in BC.

He also told us that if we went two kilometers along this road we would be in the US of A and we could get picked up by the border patrol and taken to jail as trespassers. that the second road would take us to the water treatment plant and the third would take us somewhere we did not want to go.

We opted for the US of A and went up this ridiculously steep road for quads or four wheel drives toward the US of A border hoping for some action.

Some blazing star cactus pulled us off of the trail to investigate. Never have seen those before and they were very pretty.

Sage everywhere smelled great. Another cattle crossing guard and crossed it. Up, up, up. We stopped at the top and there was another mountain top to go up to so we continued on.

We :passed tall, tall ponderosa pine.(three needles in a bundle 5 to 6 inches long),

heard the woodpecker before we saw him, walked across a grassy knoll, admired the lake and stopped at the top and there was another top to go up to.

We did continued on, but, we were beginning to be very suspicious of ever reaching the actual top of this mountain.

A very small goat or a rabbit trail brought us half way up to next plateau, after that we were picking our way carefully up the side of a scree covered slope.

hanging on to dead twigs for balance knowing that if you actually applied any pressure to the twig or dead branch that it would break off your already false sense of security would evaporate with the sound of the snap.

A large fallen tree, well into the final stages of decay provided a safe moment to rest so we sat down and made a movie. I found a prickly pear cactus, right beside where I was sitting.

Well, actually, I kind of sat on it, just a little bit but enough to get a pear stuck to my upper back leg. ouch. We continued on , It was not as bad as the previous leg of the journey. We reached the top and there was another top so we decided not to continue on.

We took a break, admired the numerous patches of prickly pear cactus and tried to figure out how we could get down.

Only one direction seemed to be the way we could go, as on one side was a cliff, the second side was continuing up and the third side was the way we came up and we were not going to go back down the way we had come up.

Needless to say we made a decision and moved out. After pulling another prickly pear out of my shoe( it almost went right through my runner)we wended our way going down through trees and grasses.

It was nice and shady.

Traversing rocky, sandy and pine-coney slopes, finding roads and barbed wire fences, fields with loads of grasshoppers and crickets, we made it back to Nancy and Gerry's by 930 and they had a great breakfast of fresh fruit salad and toasted bagels waiting for us.

Yummmy! A very nice morning, chatting about the state of the world at large, Italy and trips to it and recipes.Jo went and practiced her guitar.

On her way up to lunch I noticed that she was moving a little gingerly and asked if she was a little stiff from our hike. she was and I was glad that i was not alone.

A lovely shower to wash away the salt of my exertions and then to this blog.

Took a break for lunch which was nummy too, Nancy's world famous potato salad, variety of olives, cheese for me , chicken for them, olive bread and green beans, fresh from the garden and so tender.

Aunt Mary and I left Nancy to clean up, we are naughty, and went out to the balcony to sit in the shade and enjoy the view.

A crossword puzzle and then Jo and Uncle Ron came home from putting on the golf course. Jo brought out her guitar to entertain us all.