Alarm in the middle of the night

At 3 am, one of our alarms - the one in the bedroom, right on my side of the bed - started going off. It wasn't a huge, screeching alarm. It was more of a nuisance - enough to awaken and frighten me, not enough to have me run screaming from the trailer half naked.

"What's happening?" I barked at Harold, as he jumped up.

"I don't know!" he responded, as he pulled the alarm off the wall, and pulled the batteries out.

Following behind him, I pelted him with questions. "Why is it going off? What's making it happen? Why does it sound so weird? Why are you trying different batteries in it?"

He was under the impression that it was a battery issue, that the strange non-alarming tone of the alarm was telling us the batteries needed to be changed.

"How can you tell? Maybe it's telling us there is a gas leak? Maybe it's all around us right now!" He closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath, expelling the air slowly, as if willing himself to be patient with me. That aggravated me. I wasn't acting like a panicky, silly woman - okay, well maybe I was, but there are times when he is just not panicky enough, and maybe this was one of them.

"Tracey, this is the carbon monoxide alarm. It measures burned gas fumes. We have nothing on." he explained to me, and my sleepy mind clued in, finally. Carbon Monoxide is something I understand. It almost killed my brother and I when we were 8 and 10, respectively.

We were on our way back from the Oregon Coast, travelling in the top of our camper, as kids did back then. I remember I was reading a book called "The Acid Nightmare". Wow, that just shocked me. That at 10, I was reading a book - a library book - about teens doing Acid. It was a really, really good book, and a cautionary tale because it dealt with the story, in a gritty, realistic way, not in a Public Service Announcement or moralistic sort of way. At least it seemed that way back then. Who knows? I was ten, after all.

It was the last day of the Labour Day long weekend, and everyone was coming back on Monday night so the backup at the border was two hours - and this was before they started asking us for ID. As we waited to get through, it started to rain, so we closed the vent over our heads. A while later, my brother fell asleep, but I fought sleep - that book was just too good!

We finally got through the border and drove down the road to Cloverdale where we had arranged to meet the family friends we had been away with, for dinner. It was strange that we were stopping. My mother is more the type who would say "Oh we're so close to home. I want to get back there." and dash all my excitement at getting to have dinner in a restaurant. But this time, Mom's friend had brought her own Mother, and Grandma wanted to stop for dinner on our way back. How could my mother turn it down?

The truck stopped outside a row of restaurants and my mother walked around to knock on the camper door. I shook my brother, but he just groaned and rolled over. I remember thinking he was being a pain, as usual, as I shoved myself down off the over-cab bed and shuffled over to throw the door open. My mother came up the stairs as I stepped into the washroom, and picked up my hairbrush. I heard my mother trying to wake up my brother, - "Tracey! There's something wrong with your brother! TRACEY!" - as I felt myself falling out the door.

A few minutes later, I woke up outside. My mother was flipping out. I felt drunk - well, I didn't know what drunk felt like then, but I do now - and I saw flashing lights and a big red firetruck show up. All I could think of was that somehow my stupid brother had done something to rip us out of going in the restaurant.

"Mom, are we going in to eat dinner?" I asked.

"Tracey, no, you're not well." She responded, and I remember she was acting kind of terrified, telling the paramedics what had happened, and how it made no sense.

"Mom, I'm fine! Let's go have dinner!" I told her, trying to get up, but unable to push myself even onto an elbow. Now, I was rather worried myself. It felt like I was on an acid trip, just like in that book, except, well there were none of the crazy colours or scary monsters or anything. I told them I was okay, and eventually did get up, able to walk, aided by two men, but then fell again. It was becoming pretty clear that there was something wrong with me, and wasn't just my brother ruining things for us. I gave up asking to go have dinner and once I realized we were going to get to go in the ambulance, it ceased mattering. What's cooler than riding in an ambulance, after all?

Once we were at the hospital, it was all anticlimactic after that. They checked us out, observed us for a bit, and told my parents we had carbon monoxide poisoning, It was caused by all the exhaust fumes coming into the camper, with no fresh air - the fresh air we'd closed out due to the rain. If we hadn't stopped for dinner, it might have been too late, and we may not have lived. Instead, my mother had made a decision she never had before and never would again, and I'm pretty thankful she did. The doctor gave us a clean bill of health, and let us go home.

"Can we go for dinner now, Mom?" But of course, now it was too late.

Decades later, all the memories came back to me of that night, and had a calming effect on me. This wasn't the propane alarm. It was the carbon monoxide alarm. I know carbon monoxide. It was my show and tell topic for the first day of Grade 5.

Harold was having trouble finding a pair of batteries that would work in the alarm, so I decided to help.

"Is it maybe too cold?" I asked.

He shook his head, "It's cold, but not THAT cold."

"Well, maybe you have them in backwards?" He stopped, huffed, and slowly turned his gaze on me, looking over his glasses at me, in a superior sort of way that only spurred me on. I reached out and grabbed it from his hands, as he looked on, a little annoyed with me.

"Ah-hah!" I exclaimed, seeing I was correct. "I was right! I was right! See?" Yes, I'm not even a little bit good at being humble. When I win, I win. My Grandfather taught me that.

"I'm still not going to sleep again. I'm too afraid."

Ten minutes later I was fast asleep.

Overnight spot: Wilcox Creek
Price: $15.70
Includes: firepit, picnic table, great views

Extras: $8.80 daily fire permit, includes wood.

Park Fees - $9.80/person/day or $19.60/family/day
Comments: Great views from most sites of the surrounding mountains. Very cold, reports of water freezing in RVs the week before. Very close to Athabasca Glacier. Only suitable for RVs under 25'. Larger RVs may be able to stay in Glacier parking lot overnight.
Cell & Wifi: Bell Mobility-Nothing Fido-Nothing

Jasper National Park

From Golden, we drove east through Yoho National Park, and crossed over to Alberta where we lost an hour - we're now in Mountain time. As soon as you enter Jasper National Park, you hit a toll booth.

The ranger asked us how many days we'd be spending and charged us $19.80 per day. I made a mistake and told her we'd be spending two nights in Banff and Jasper instead of three but that worked well for us, since the pass expires at 4pm on our last day. The next morning we're leaving the parks.


It doesn't matter how many times I've visited Jasper, its as if I'd never seen it before. I think part of it is the older I get, the more I appreciate things I see. It's as if I can see things in a way I never did before.




I remember in my 30's, it was like I woke up one day and thought "Where did all these beautiful flowers come from?" Later on, I started noticing other things, both about people and places, and it feels like I just get more in tune with what's happening around me.



We oohed and aahed around every bend, each mountain, lake, or glacier taking the place of the last as the most beautiful we'd ever seen. With the recent rains that passed through days before, the rivers had turned a grey, turquoise. It's an unusual water colour, but an interesting and striking one.


We planned to stay at the Columbia Icefield campgrounds but missed the sign and ended up getting stuck in construction traffic. We waited about 15 minutes to get through, then drove past the Glacier Skywalk. This attraction, much like others built in places such as the Grand Canyon is built into the cliff with steel, glass and wood.  It's a semicircle of glass floor that juts out over the Sunwapta Valley, surrounded by the mountains and glaciers, 280 m (918 ft) up, it looks like you're standing on thin air.

I'm very afraid of heights. Even in games, I feel a distinct unease around places where I can fall a very long distance. I'm afraid, but I don't let it limit my experiences. I usually find once I force myself past my fear and take control of it, I greatly enjoy myself.

I would have loved to do this ... but it was packed with hundreds of people, all pushing at each other. I swore after the horrible experience we had in the summer of 2012, with a wall to wall throng of people in the Sistine Chapel, that I'd never subject myself to that again. If it's this busy in September, I can only imagine what it's like in July and August.

We turned around at the first pull-out and took just a moment to snap some pictures, then raced back up, so we could cross over again. There were a number of cars ahead of us, and they all got through, but just as we were getting up there, the flag person saw us and turned over her SLOW sight to STOP. "NOOOOOO!" we both cried out in unison, totally frustrated. If we hadn't paused for those few photos, we'd have made it back across.

I rolled my window down to ask if we'd be there long enough to turn off the engine. "You'll be here about 30 minutes!" she said with a little smug smile. We couldn't believe our luck. We had just waited to come through so we could turn around, and now we had to wait again. I got out of the truck to take some photos and chat to her.

She told me everything about her life. Her husband is the flagger on the other side, the one who'd waved to us as we went across the first time. They work seasonally on the road crews, stopping for the snowy winter months.

They stay down below (she pointed way down over the cliff where I could see a camp of RVs and heavy duty equipment) in an older RV they just bought. Before, they used to stay in a tent, but they got tired of their run-ins with bears.

She has 3 horses, Babe, Bailey, and Blossom, all boarded with someone in Calgary, who messed up and put a stallion in with her mares and now they are all pregnant by their father/brother.

She's planning to take the $500 breeding fee she paid to someone else she was planning to breed one of her horses to, off the boarding fees when she goes home for the winter and takes them to their new property.

Last year when she went home, she found a wall of clay had slammed into the house and taken it off it's foundation. I said that must have cost a fortune to fix and wondered if it was covered by insurance. She said she didn't know and didn't care - it's her mother-in-law's house and she'll NEVER (her emphasis, not mine) be going back there again.

Behind our truck there was a group of real-cowboy dressed people, two men and two women. The men both wore black cowboy hats, red western shirts, jeans held up by belts with big silver belt buckles, and cowboy boots. One of the men, the grey haired one, had a long beard he'd braided on both sides.

Their licence plate said "Wyoming" and I figured they looked the part. One of the women, the older one, came up to ask how long we'd be held up. She was dressed pretty much exactly the same as the men, minus the hat - and the beard. She had long grey hair, laying loose down her back.

"That's quite the necklace you have there." I said, "Is that a horseshoe on the end?"

She picked up the heavy end to give me a closer look, "No, it's a Navajo Squash Blossom necklace." She dropped the necklace back into place and brought up both hands to show every finger covered with huge ornate silver and turquoise rings. Together, they looked like a set of brass knuckles - or well silver and turquoise knuckles. "I am a bit obsessed with New Mexico jewelry." she admitted. "I have about a hundred pounds of it at home."

"So this would be what you call your travelling set, I guess?" I joked.


 "Yes, that's exactly what it is." She responded, completely straight-faced.

I learned she and her husband, the grey-haired, braided beard guy, are from a small town south of Dallas, Texas. He has a team of chuck wagon horses he takes to rodeos. She doesn't have anything to do with horses, but she does like the rodeos.

The flag woman, Mrs. Calgary, I'll call her, interrupted to tell Mrs. Texas that she has horses and started telling her all about them, throwing around terms meant to impress, which neither of us understood. "My husband's the horse person, not I." said Mrs. Texas, and pulled the conversation back to her, holding up her big silver belt buckle showing they belonged to some rodeo group I can't remember the name of now.

Mrs. Calgary, not to be outdone, said she was going to Texas, when the roadwork closes down for the winter, in November, and will be going to the such-n-such rodeo. "Oh we never do the small rodeos" said Mrs. Texas, "we stick to the big 'uns!" Trump point for Texas!

They struggled back and forth to take control of the conversation, both of them only interested in telling their own stories, neither of them at all interested in each other or me. They didn't ask me one single question about myself.


The dump truck made it's second deposit of rocks on the pile in front of us, and we were told we could now go. We made our way back and found our campground this time.

We quickly unhooked the trailer and then zoomed up to see the Athabasca Glacier. There is a bus you can take up in behind but there were so many people and we had no desire to be stuck in there, so we opted to hike up to the glacier instead. It's not that far, really. You drive down to the lower parking lot, and then hike up the hill from there.

The Athabasca Glacier is one of the six official "toes" of the Columbia Icefields. Due to its close proximity to the Icefields Parkway, and rather easy accessibility, it is the most visited glacier in North America. The Columbia Icefields lie astride the Continental Divide. From here, the water flows to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean.

Near the start of the trail, we were amused to see notices discouraging the building of Inukshuks and encouraging us to kick any over that we find in the park. Inuksuk, pronounced in-ook-shook, are stone monuments erected in the image of humans. One of their purposes for the Inuit, was to communicate direction in the harsh and desolate Arctic.

Artisan Alvin Kanak of Rankin Inlet, Northwest Territories (now in the territory of Nunavut), created an inuksuk as a gift to the city of Vancouver for Expo 86. It is the basis of the logo of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. The Vancouver 2010 logo and the construction of inuksut around the world have led to increasing recognition of them.

Unfortunately, they have gained popularity and people create them everywhere now. Its use has been controversial among the Inuit, and the First Nations within British Columbia. It's come to a point where the cultural misappropriation of this symbol has become a form of graffiti or littering of other important areas. That is why they want us to kick them down. You got it! We're kicking!

There was a woman with a small child ahead of us and we caught up to them as they sat down half way up the hill.

Two men, one who looked very young, but was obviously the father of the boy (I say 'obviously' now, after having a debate with Harold on whether he was the son or husband of the woman, and I came to see it his way) and an older man, maybe in his 60's (who I first thought was the husband, but now agree, was probably the father-in-law), walked down to meet them. Grandpa took off with the young boy, as the Mother lost her temper.

"I'm a %^&*%$ grown adult and I'll %^&*%$ decide if I want to %^&*%$ hike up this %^&*%$ hill!" She screeched at him, not giving any bit of care that we were right there. He mumbled something low, that we couldn't hear, and she exploded again. "He %^&*%$ wants to go up there with his %^&*%$ father! So go %^&*%$ up there and leave me the %^&$ alone!" She just kept going and he kept mumbling and I felt both amused, and embarrassed for them. When we got to the top of the hill, I looked back and saw she was now storming back down the hill, and he was on his way up to join his father and son. I felt sorry for him.

The glacier is amazingly huge and impressive. I'd say it's just as big and impressive as the other times I've seen it in my life, but that would be untrue. All the way back, we noticed signs that gave the year and showed where the glacier had been.

"That's the year I brought Cairo up here. She won't remember it."

"Oh and there's the year I graduated. Somewhere between here and that last one, I was here."

"There's the year I was first here as a kid."

"That's the year my Mother was born."

"And that's the year my mother was born!" Harold chimed in.

"There's my Grandma's birth year." We were almost back at the highway.

"And that's the year my Grandfather was born!" Harold responded as we hit the highway.

That glacier has receded all the way across the valley, and up the hill, more than 1.5km (0.93 mi) in 125 years, and lost over half of its volume. It currently recedes at a rate of about 5 metres (16 ft) per year. I wonder how many years it has left in it?

Overnight spot: Wilcox Creek
Price: $15.70
Includes: firepit, picnic table, great views

Extras: $8.80 daily fire permit, includes wood.

Park Fees - $9.80/person/day or $19.60/family/day
Comments: Great views from most sites of the surrounding mountains. Very cold, reports of water freezing in RVs the week before. Very close to Athabasca Glacier. Only suitable for RVs under 25'. Larger RVs may be able to stay in Glacier parking lot overnight.
Cell & Wifi: Bell Mobility-Nothing Fido-Nothing

Golden, BC - Kicking Horse Country

I've never stopped in Golden before, but I should have. It's a cute little town between the Rocky Mountains and Columbia Mountain ranges with access to six national parks: Banff, Glacier, Jasper, Kootenay, Mount Revelstoke and Yoho.

Two rivers meet at the town, Kicking Horse River, famous for whitewater rafting, and the Columbia River, which meanders through the longest protected wetlands in North America. You can ski, snowboard, snowshoe, and snowmobile in the winter, downhill or cross country mountain bike, and white water raft in the summer, and hike all year round.

Golden has a municipal campground right in the city limits down along the Kicking Horse River. The campground has cycling and hiking trails that extend from there to many other areas around town.

There were some warnings about black bears having been sighted along the trails this week so we made sure to make lots of noise as we went.

Bears are almost a daily event in our front and back yard at home, so we're almost ho-hum about them. Recently though, our little 20lb, scaredy-cat dog Teddy ran a bear out of our yard so we know we just can't trust him off leash anywhere in the wild. With Toonie, our 5lb. Chihuahua, we're always ready to swoop her up by the leash if we see anything that wants to eat her. Even squirrels out-size her.

We didn't see any bears on our hike, but we did see a big horn sheep, munching on grass on the hill above us. Everywhere we go, I tell Harold how I've always seen the sheep in that location before, but they never show themselves when he comes through. Finally, he can tick that one off his list of animals he was ready to claim a non-belief in. We're still looking for elk, caribou, and moose however.



Overnight spot: Golden Municipal Campground & RV Park
Price: $28.50 
Includes: firepit, picnic table, 15amp power, other hookup options available

Extras: firewood, coin operated showers

Comments: Great views from most sites on the river, mountains, trains. Cycling and hiking trails from the campground extend all over the town.
Cell & Wifi: Bell Mobility-Good Fido-Good

Vernon - where the birds really mean business

We had planned to drive from Peachland to Roger's Pass today, and got an early start so we wouldn't get in too late. Things were going well, we were making good time, and we were looking to take a break and have breakfast on our way through Vernon.

On the passenger side of the road going north, the land slopes down steeply to Kalamalka Lake. Driving in you get a beautiful view of the lake and valley and mountains on the other side of the lake. In my teen years, I spent 3 summers in Vernon at the cadet camp there, so I know it very well. I was lost in my memories, thinking of all the great and not-so-great times I'd spent there, and knew the camp was coming up in just a few minutes.

All of a sudden a big dark shape swooped up from down below, heading straight for our windshield. I could see it was a large bird but couldn't think beyond about what type it was. It looked like it was going to be a close call, but I knew the bird was going to make it. Who ever heard of a bird flying into a vehicle? They're too fast, right?

Well, the bird made it, and I was so relieved for both him and us but as he swooped over to Harold's side, I heard a loud crash. I figured it had maybe hit the person beside us or something but then saw the driver's mirror explode off and swing down to smash into the door and back up again, where it swung back and forth from a wire inside the arm. Seems heating wires in the mirrors serve more than one purpose.

I am sorry to say we have no idea what happened to the pheasant - I had called it a goose, but Harold corrected me. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a wild pheasant before, but this was definitely one. My mind kept going to the thought of what we'd have to do to fix the mirror, but then my feelings would reject that. How could I worry about the cost of a mirror when that poor bird may have just died out there? I've often thought about the strangeness of that - how one moment you don't even know another being exists, and then you have an encounter and afterwards can't stop wondering and worrying about them. I know I could cut off those thoughts and just be logical and unfeeling about all that, but I prefer not to. Of all the things we can fight in ourselves, I think the most important is to maintain empathy and not allow ourselves to get set in our ways.

We turned into a pull-out to take a look at the damage. The arm was snapped off where it swivelled from tow mode to normal. It looked like we could maybe just snap it back in, but that was just wishful thinking. So out came our handy-dandy roll of duct tape, with which we managed to red-neck our mirror back into use.

I wanted to go back around and see if the pheasant was okay or in need of help, but the way that highway is and towing a trailer behind the truck, there is just no way we could do a thing. I'll never know what became of him. I hope he flew off and is okay.

Luckily there was a Dodge dealer in town, and they could fix it for $400, Of course, our insurance deductible is $500 so we get to pay it all ourselves.

They can't get to it until tomorrow afternoon so we had to find a campground in the area. We setup just down the road at a lake along the highway and went for a drive around town. We drove down to Kalamalka lake, which was pretty deserted, except for a Search & Rescue team. We found out later they were looking for a man who had disappeared on his walk two days before. Unfortunately they found his body down by the lake.

On our way back, a family of 3 quail darted out in the road in front of us, causing Harold to slam on his brakes to miss them. We managed to get back to the campground and took a walk around the lake. There were a ton of birds watching us. We have another two days of this.

Overnight spot: Silver Star RV Park
Price: $38.00 
Includes: firepit, picnic table, power & water, other hookup options available

Extras: firewood, coin operated showers

Comments: Nice views from most sites on Swan lake. Mobile homes and full-timers units detract from looks, but I expect they keep the place in business during the off-season.

Penticton and the Naramata Bench, BC

I've heard of the Naramata Bench so much in the past, it has been cemented in my mind as THE wine destination of the Okanagan. 

We had to backtrack to Penticton to get over to the other side of Okanagan Lake where all the Naramata wineries are and decided to stop on the way for lunch at a sushi place in downtown Penticton. 

There was nothing technically wrong with the sushi. It just seemed uninspired and lacking the wonderful flavours, textures and artistry we get back home. I think we may have high expectations in our sushi and probably won't be likely to find it as good in a small town, sushi shop, far from the coast.


The views from the wineries today just blew away the views from the south Okanagan. There are few views that can rival the beauty from the Naramata Bench. 

From big, pretentious and pricey wineries right along the edge of the bench, to tiny, family run wineries further back, everybody has a gorgeous view. The perfect angle of the land allows the properties extending far back to have their own part of the scenery. It makes me think of a perfectly socialist land share - where everybody gets their own portion of the beauty - but really, I'm fooling myself, even those little properties are sure to be worth a small fortune.

None of the wineries out there grow their red grapes on site. It's so much cooler here, which is perfect for the whites and ice wines, but they all source their grapes for the red wines from their vineyards down in the south Okanagan where we were two days ago. 

We found ourselves mostly unimpressed with the reds, though we found we enjoyed all the Cabernet Francs here, a wine we have never enjoyed anywhere else, except when blended with other varietals. 

After purchasing 5 wines the other day, we were looking for reasons not to buy today. We found many whites that were just wonderful and so economical. If we were white wine lovers, we'd have had a hard time not buying. They really are exceptional here.

One of the reds we enjoyed enough to purchase a bottle is the Meritage at Red Rooster. I noticed since then that the Boathouse in Vancouver is having a wine pairing event featuring Red Rooster Wines in October. For 5 courses, with 5 paired wines at $40, it's quite a deal. 

Unfortunately for us, we will still be away ... even if we were to be home, wine pairing just doesn't work for me any more since there are no vegetarian or vegan wine pairing events. 

I feel a little lost in that regard when every time we taste a bold red, the server tells us it will pair well with a big thick steak or some other red meat. I usually just let them patter on with their spiel, but a couple of times, when I was feeling a rapport with the person (like I did with the young woman at Red Rooster), I did tell them I'm a vegetarian. Much to my delight, they rolled right with it, and told me what I should look to pair the wine with, as a vegetarian. A sure sign of a professional.

Our alcohol prices are so much more expensive in Canada, due to our high sin-taxes, yet the winery prices are a much better deal than wineries in the US. That was such a surprise. Also, the red wines are so much better than we'd expected. Yes, they are light, but they have some excellent flavours. I expect we could grow to enjoy some of these lighter red wines. 

We plan to come back next Spring and finesse our experience.

Overnight spot: Todd's RV & Camping
Price: $35.00 
Includes: Wifi, firepit, picnic table, power & water, other hookup options available

Extras: firewood

Comments: View of the Okanagan Lake right across the street from front sites (2-4 and 7-11). Nice walk, cycle down the road into downtown Peachland, with bars, restaurants and a coffee shop.

Peachland and Kelowna, BC

We relocated up the valley to a small camp-ground in Peachland, overlooking the lake, with a road that winds down into an suburban area of condos, homes, restaurants, pubs, and a great coffee place. It reminds us both of Birch Bay, with the waterfront road and small town-suburban feel.  

Our site was right at the front, but it was a little tight and took some maneuvering to get us in. Harold is getting very good at responding to my hand gestures and it's only when we are very tired that one of us gets grumpy or throws our hands up in frustration. 

I particularly hate it when people are watching. It tends to make us self-conscious and more likely to make an error. This time we went in perfectly, even though the guy who ran the site was also trying to give directions - another of our pet peeves.

We spent the early afternoon relaxing at the lake, and then drove up to Kelowna. There used to be a great campground in West Kelowna in an orchard along the waterfront. The land prices have gone up exponentially up here, so the land was redeveloped into waterfront condos. It's not at all a surprise that it's no longer there, yet still a disappointment.


The casino had been beckoning to us since hitting Osoyoos with ads promising free slot play, so after we'd explored the down-town area, we headed over there. 

It was rather small and not very exciting looking, to be honest. We're used to the glitz and big show of the Native casinos in the US and the locals casinos in Coquitlam and Richmond. This one doesn't compare at all. It's like one of the tiny, out of the way casinos that you have to drive over mountain passes to get to.

We quickly went through our $10 free slot play in the Video Poker machines and decided it wasn't worth putting any of our own money in. Instead we climbed down the stairs to the hotel and meandered about until we found our way out onto the waterfront. It is quite pretty out there, and I can imagine it gets very busy in the summer.

The waterfront bars and bistros were busy enough to make it look fun, but still easy enough to get a table. None of them called to us, so we went grocery shopping instead and headed back to have dinner in the light of the setting sun out on the beach.

Osoyoos and Oliver, BC

It's a rite of passage for a child growing up in Vancouver to make the pilgrimage to the Okanagan each summer. 

My very first memory as a child is of being in the camp-ground at the very east end of the beach, and looking out over the corn fields on the reservation across the way. I remember eating the corn we'd just bought there on the side of the road, and wondering about the people who lived there. It felt like they lived in another world.

Harold relocated to the Pacific Northwest almost six years ago. It took Immigration two years to allow him to live in Canada, so he was forced to live in Washington State. We have spent a lot of time exploring the US west coast, and overseas and not much at all in British Columbia. Since he was allowed to immigrate, we have continued to spend more time exploring other places and not so much at home. This is his first time in the Okanagan.

September is the perfect time for adults to visit the Okanagan. Summers are crowded and overbooked. To get a site in a camp-ground, you need to book months in advance. In September, there are no kids, no need for reservations, and the weather is perfect, sunny and warm. This is the time when vineyards are getting ready for harvest and the fall wine festival. The vineyards are busy enough to keep them open, but not so much that you can't get in. 

We spent our first two days at the Nk'Mip (pronounced In-Ka-Meep) Resort. The resort is built on the very same First Nations land from my memories but oh how times have changed. The private campground we stayed at for many years was replaced with condos sometime in the 80's and now the only campground on the east end of the beach is at this resort. There is a 4 star hotel and spa with gorgeous views of the lake and valley, conference and cultural centre, hiking and cycling trails, riding stables,  boat rentals, golf course, helicopter pad, bistro, and a vineyard and winery.


We had preconceived notions about what wine in the Okanagan was like. We knew that being so far north, it is the whites and ice wines that are raved about. Our favorite wines are deep, dark and full-bodied reds, Zinfandels, Cab Sauvs, and Petite Syrahs. It was one of the reasons we hadn't been in a rush to go wine tasting in the Okanagan.

The Nk'Mip winery tasting room was our first stop of the day. They opened at 10am, but we waited until the much more reasonable 11am. There was a bus tour being taken care of, but a few minutes later, the entire place cleared out and we had the whole place to ourselves. The wines were tasty and interesting, but the reds were as we'd suspected, much too light for our liking.

Looking at the wine map, I could see there were just way too many to get to all in one day. When we first started visiting wine areas, I used to feel like a kid in a candy store, trying to get to every single one, and feeling disappointed that we were barely able to scratch the surface. Now we're well seasoned, and know so much better. It's far more interesting to pick and choose and know there are more to visit the next time you come through.

I chose the east side of the valley in Oliver, along Black Sage road, mostly because the only winery I recognized the name of was Burrowing Owl, the first one on the road. We made it through quite a few wineries that day, and all of them are much different from each other. Our favorites were:

Platinum Bench - They served the most wonderful artisan breads alongside their wines. The baker just outside the windows couldn't bake them fast enough for people to purchase. We wanted two different types of bread but could only get one. We purchased a bottle of their Gamay Noir, a grape we'd never heard of before. The wine is like a Pinot Noir, but with more body and flavour. They served it chilled and we enjoyed it that way. We have it in our RV fridge right now, to be opened on a nice sunny day.

Silver Sage Winery - It was our luck to enter the tasting room at the same time as about 20 other people, but the server was a no-nonsense assembly line worker who just rolled with it. She set us all up with our glasses and raced from one end of the line, to the other, pouring wine and barking her sales pitch at us just like the ware hawkers at the PNE. It was amusing and fun, watching her go, her long grey braid bouncing along, as she made her way up and down the line. She made me think of a middle-aged German Frau, especially given the style of her wines, and I could imagine her all geared up in her Lederhosen, serving the tourists. The winery was completely without any of the pretension and pomp of the other tasting rooms. The wines were far, far too sweet, with many fruit wines and a gimmicky Flame dessert wine, a mixture of Gewurztraminer, peach/apricot fruit and a very hot pepper that bobbed inside the slightly peachy, transparent liquid. The spicy and sweet taste goes so well together, we couldn't resist purchasing a bottle.

Black Hills Winery - This place is very beautiful and very pretentious. While the other tasting rooms charge $3-5 for a tasting, and some charge nothing at all, they set themselves apart by having seated tastings on a gorgeous patio overlooking the valley, and charge $10-50 for tastings. The $20 tasting seemed like the most interesting, with all the current offerings, 3 whites and 3 reds. The last red, the Nota Bene, their Bordeaux style red blend was definitely the best red of the day. We'd have purchased a bottle but at $65 it was too much in price and too little in boldness in contrast to some of our most loved Zins and Petite Syrahs from California.

Montakarn - In my daydream where we buy a beautiful piece of land and open a vineyard and winery, this is the land we live on. Their house and winery are next to each other right where the land crests and spills down over into the valley. It is such a wonderfully gorgeous setting - you can't help but think they must wake up every morning and fall in love with the view all over again. Unfortunately, the human way is to become inured to things and take them for granted, so I expect I was more in love with the view for the 15 minutes I was there than I'd be if I were to live there.


The winemaker was serving us and I first buttered him up with glowing praise for the beauty of his view and then plied him with questions about his wine making business. It's the same story we've heard many times before - if you want to make a small fortune in the wine business, start with a large fortune. I'm pretty certain they are speaking the truth. I can imagine how so much can go wrong, in so many different ways, and a lot of money can be lost. It's a romantic notion, but I think we both agree that we prefer to be free and tour the many different wine areas. We'd never truly want to be wine makers ourselves. We enjoyed his Merlot Blend and purchased a bottle.

Hester Creek - We visited this winery on our way back down the west side of the valley. This is a big style winery that sits up on the hill, overlooking the valley from the other side. They offer winery tours, food pairings and cooking classes, as well as music on the patio every Saturday and a Garlic Festival coming up in October. The wines were very enjoyable and we'd like to prearrange a food pairing for our next visit.

Cassini Cellars - They had been harvesting and had a real fruit fly issue in the tasting room, but it didn't dissuade us from loving their wine. We purchased a bottle of their 2013 Cabernet Merlot that was surprisingly bold and dark.

We were pleasantly surprised by how much we enjoyed the wines of the Black Sage Bench. The reds, while lighter than we prefer, are still full of flavour and well valued. The whites are exceptional. The prices are surprisingly good for the most part. When we tour wine areas in the US, we are used to spending $5 per tasting, and $25 and up for a bottle, even in Washington and Oregon. Many very good wines here are $18 to the low 20's and tasting fees are often free or $3, with many of the vineyards giving the proceeds to charity.

Overnight spot: Nk'Mip Resort
Price: $35.00 waterfront

Includes: picnic table, 30 amp power & water, other hookup options available

Comments: Right on Osoyoos Lake. Lots of waterfront sites. Cycle path into downtown Osoyoos, with bars, restaurants and shops. Winery with tasting room, hotel resort with spa, pool, helicopter tours.