Zip-lining the Okanagan!

Last Sunday we took a drive up to a new attraction here in the Okanagan - the Zip Zone! Our friends Julia and Peter had invited us along to check it out. We were blessed with a beautiful sunny but crisp fall day and after the waiver signing we got kitted up into harnesses and got going. Chris and I had both zip-lined before in Whistler, BC but once we set eyes on this set-up it was in a whole different league! Hazy memories of before but this seemed much bigger and longer - we were excited to get going!

After feeling so blase about it, I had a moment of nerves standing at the platform for the first line. We'd all opted not to take our handles, but I think that first one I kept a firm hold of the webbing line anyway! Of course the moment you're going it's the greatest buzz! And the views......stunning!

All 6 lines criss-cross back and forth across Deep Creek Canyon and you can see right down the canyon into the distance and even get a faint glimpse of the creek waters at the bottom (it's tough cause it's only a small creek and the canyon walls and steep and narrow). The canyon was dotted with the yellow fall leaves on the trees and it was so peaceful! (well apart from the zipping!)

Zip Zone apparently has the highest zip lines in Canada (at around 380ft above the canyon floor), and combined there was around 2km of zipping to be had! Some long, some short, some fast and, probably the best....some that you ride upside down!! (well, it wasn't my idea - I was just going with the flow!)

The whole 'experience' was 2 hours of pure fun and adrenalin, and a little hiking between lines thrown in for good measure! Lots of fun, and all polished off with a spicy Caesar and Burger at The Blind Angler pub in Peachland, with fantastic views of Lake Okanagan to catch our breath!

Hot & Smoky Beef Stew

Our new favourite recipe!

I finally invested in a slow cooker! Amazing really that I'd never had one before so after being inspired by lots of recipes I'd been seeing on Pinterest I finally bought one. And then it sat in the cupboard in a sealed box for another month. But this weekend I finally cracked it open to see what it could do. I was kinda paranoid about having something bubbling away all day whilst I was out so I wanted the first time to at least be when I was home so the long weekend was the perfect opportunity!

After having no clue about cooking times and how much liquid, and how full it should be, and after all those recipes I'd been pinning I did what any normal person would do and made something up! It was based very loosely on this recipe.

Here's my slow cooker version;

Hot and Smoky Beef Stew (Slow Cooker) serves 4

Ingredients

• 750g Chuck Beef
• 6 rashers Smoked Bacon
• 1 Large Red Onion
• 4 Medium (7-8") Carrots
• 400g potatos
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 Chipotle Pepper (I used the canned type with some of the juices thrown in for good measure!)
• 1 1/2 tbsp Smoked Paprika powder
• 1/2 bottle red wine
• Crumbled Blue Cheese
• Chives

Directions
Chop everything up, throw in the crockpot, pour over the wine and cook on Low for 8 hours. Sprinkle Blue Cheese and Chives on top to serve.

I stirred it up a couple of times later in the cooking. The meat absolutely crumbles apart on touch when it's done! There's a definate kick of flavour here so feel free to reduce the paprika and chipotle accordingly (but try not to omit completely because it does help with the rich smokiness of the dish)

A new PR!!

Sunday I ran my second 1/2 Marathon.

Saturday I was all jitters and nervous. After having been completely cool, calm and collected about running 13.1m (in one go!) this year it crept up on me and the day before I was full of mixed feelings. Last year I had nothing to prove - I just wanted to complete it. This year I had a benchmark. I had done it before, on the same course and I had a time to beat or fall short of. Since training this year I was consistently slower than last year, I carried around several extra pounds for much of the summer and despite all my best intentions I never really got out there and did any true speedwork as part of my training....so things weren't really looking good. And a sweet debut time of 2:04:39 from last year was a tough one to live up to.

Sunday dawned cloudy, grey and a bit drizzly - so even the conditions were pretty much an exact replica of last year! Temps were around 12 degrees and I've become quite fond of a little drizzly rain to keep me cool :-) I was all in a 'kerfuffle' when it was 1 minute to the start, they'd finished singing the national anthem and I was still waiting for Chris at the porta potty line. We rushed to the start corral where I was right at the back. I'd wanted to be nearer the 2hr pace bunny but that idea was long gone and I hurriedly handed over my bag to Chris and said a teary and panicked goodbye - I just didn't feel ready or prepared.

Of course I was all OK once I got going, and I settled into what I know I can do and love. I admit I completely ignored those final words from Chris to not try and catch up any of the pace bunnies and sped through the crowds and popped off the 2.30 and 2.15 bunnies within the first couple of kms (after all so I should - I didn't want to be behind them!) I knew I was going a fair pace (read too fast) but I felt so great I just wanted to see where it would take me. Note: I always vehemently maintain I do not have a race pace. I have pretty much always ran the same pace regardless of distance or circumstance. But today I was pushing it a little harder for a little longer and it felt OK.

For this race I'd been begrudgingly lovingly lent Chris's iPhone so I could use the Nike+GPS app to monitor my pace. Every km it told me my distance, elapsed time and average pace. I loved having it! and it was truly so helpful to better keep track of how I was going (since I am lousy at trying to gauge a pace otherwise!)

I passed over the timing mat for the 10km distance in 55mins and 20 seconds! A new PR for the 10km for me - I was stoked! And was still feeling awesome!

Really I felt great for most of distance. My pace was slowly slipping each km but since I'd started out at a 5:26 that was hardly surprising! I was beginning to realise that a new PR was possible and the extra push I'd found for the day was carrying me through. That last 4-5 kms got tough but by then it was the home straight, and I knew I could keep it going long enough to do it!

All I needed to see in that finishes tunnel was a time on the clock less that 2:04:39 - that was last years time and I knew I'd crossed the start line some way after the gun went off. The time was showing 2:02 something - I'd done it!

I AM THRILLED! 2:00:17 was my official chip time! (more than 4 minutes quicker than last year!)

But enough about me.....I was also thrilled to cross the finish line and find Chris in the crowds and find out about HIS race. He's only just started training again (ok so I think he's been to the gym 3 times so far!) so entered the 10km - and finished in 46 minutes! Un-flippin'-believable awesome job! Also a relief to hear the calf pain he's been suffering from lately hadn't flared up for the race.

It was a well deserved lardy lunch all round! After heading home to shower and freshen up we went off to a local pub to replenish as many of those calories (and then some!) as we could!!

Currently: October

listening: to the sound of bubbling boiling water and the popping of the cans containing my freshly made salsa, and the heating periodically blowing (set to 22) 
reading: finished this morning; Run like a Girl by Mina Samuels - slow going but a great inspirational read (by slow I mean it's been on the go for the last 2 months!)
eating: freshly made salsa of course! with corn tortilla chips (pasta rucola for dinner this evening)
drinking: rock creek cider
wearing: jeans and a cosy brushed cotton plaid shirt
feeling: excited about having my name printed on my race bib!
weather: rain, rain go away
needing: my man home so I can get this evening started
enjoying: life
wondering: what the weather will be like for the race this sunday

Catching up...

Just realised I hadn't posted the last few month in review pages. So here they are!
(found myself with extra photos on some months so I've been adding in a 6x12 page too!) 
 

Hotel Camping...

...haven't you heard? - it's the latest rage! At least it is when September weather in BC didn't get the memo about our weekend plans!

We had planned a little long weekend trip about a few hours NE of us - to Mount Revelstoke and Glacier National Parks for a spot of camping and hiking - because frankly it's been waaay too long since we did either. We left Saturday night after Chris finished work, and really we could have figured the first night was going to be a bit of a gong show - it was late, and man, have the nights suddenly started getting darker quicker all of a sudden?! We were in Sicamous around 8pm, still about 2 hours away from our planned campsite and still needing to stop for something to eat. So we ate, then drove on another hour and then bundled into a motel room in Revelstoke! And Sunday morning woke up to rain (good thing we weren't in a tent!) - lots of rain and very dark grey skies. Mountains? - what mountains?! - couldn't see anything above 100ft from ground level the clouds were so low!

We decided not to rush on to our planned destination of Rogers Pass straight away and instead stayed warm and cozy in the car and took a drive up the Meadows in the Sky parkway in Mount Revelstoke National Park (on the faint off-chance we'd actually get above the clouds!!) Rain or shine it's still a beautiful 25km winding road up the mountain. At the 25km marker you have to get out your car and make your way up the final kilometre to the summit - it was flippin' cold! We bundled up in winter gear I was really not anticipating using for at least a couple more months and made our way up the trail.

Once at the summit we took a backcountry trail onward to Eva Lake - the promise of a lakeside cabin in which to have our lunch was incredibly appealing. The cabin was a godsend! We cosied up as best we could, cracked open the wine (medicinal of course - we needed warming up from the inside out!) and had our lunch - great hunks of cheesy bread and pasta (Which would have been even more fabulous had I remembered to bring a fork to eat it with!) There were still plenty of beautiful, colourful wild flowers out on the trails and I loved the raindrops on these leaves! 16km later we were back at the car feeling great! (but still very wet!)

We headed east to Rogers Pass and stopped by the visitor centre to grab some trail info and maps and to make our decision about where we would stay that night - the original Plan A campsite was just up the road, and was the trailhead for many of the trails we'd had our eye on for the next day. But in the end Plan Z came into play - a warm motel bed and restaurant fare. We headed yet further east to Golden. And discovered a very fabulous restaurant called The Island where we whiled away our evening and toasted our 'great outdoors weekend adventure' with many glasses of wine! 

Monday morning dawned a little groggily and and for me a little hobbled - my hiking boots had given me grief on the previous day's hike and I had a raw and bloody sore on my heel the size of a quarter. 2 great reasons to not aim high with today's hiking - and the 3000ft elevation gain on our proposed hike seemed a little ambitious! Instead we headed out on a short trail to Great Glacier - even the 1000ft gain seemed tough going but we ended up way up the mountain with a few peeks of the glacier every now and then as the clouds shifted and more fabulous views below us where we could see the Trans Canada Highway twisting its way through the mountain pass waaaay below us. In some ways it might seem like because you could see it, it didn't give you the sense of the wilderness but actually for me it seemed to put it in perspective. It was great to see just how high we'd come and actually marvel at the feat of engineering building that road was - ridiculous to think that's the main route across this great country!

Rogers Pass is a National Historic area, and as we hiked back to the car at we passed by the ruins of the Glacier House Hotel and the old rail bed. When they forged their way across Canada building the railway the CPR built a mountain hotel for travellers and brought in Swiss mountain guides to lead visitors on trails and mountain summits. However the Rogers Pass area was savage in winter and was prone to avalanches - after one particularly bad avalanche where 30-odd people perished whilst clearing the rails from a previous slide the CPR conceded to the weather gods and set about constructing a tunnel under the worst area - thus bypassing the hotel. 10 years after the tunnel opened the hotel eventually closed down and was demolished - but today you can still see remains of the garden landscaping and the foundations of the buildings. There's a great little interpretive trail with numerous photos of the hotel in it's heyday and with a squint of the eye you can really imagine what it must have been like 80 years ago. I LOVE old history like this, so I was quite captivated!

Despite at the rain we had a great weekend. This is exactly what we loved doing for so long when we were travelling - getting to a new area, stopping by the visitor centre and picking up maps and trail guides, then spending the evening devouring them to decide where we would hike and explore during our stay in the area. It's so easy when you're settled and living in a real home (as opposed to one on wheels!) to not get out there and explore, but I do miss hiking and I do miss the mountains - proper pointy, jaggedy big mountains - and a combination of the two.... I really, really miss. This weekend had all that I love, and even a spot a rain wasn't going to dampen my spirits.

Mascot Gold Mine at Hedley

Last weekend we explored a little known gem of a tourist attration here in the interior of BC - Mascot Mine at Hedley, in the gorgeous Similkameen Valley. Never having heard of it 3 days prior to our visit I did a little reading on their website. One glance at the photos and I realised it would be best not to mention the exact position of the mines in advance to Mum!

The drive itself is a day out all of it's own. (Especially when you have a new soft top sports car to drive around in!) On the way there we saw bears right on the side of the road (this is the second or third time we've seen bears on Green Mountain Road!) - Chris and Liz (in the sports car) saw 3 bears briefly, and Mum, Dad and I (in the 'scabby old' rental car trailing some way behind at this point!) were treated to this fella'.

Bear on Green Mountain Road, Penticton

He wasn't the least bit bothered by our presence, had a little look at us, then proceeded into the shrubs to chomp away at his breakfast. Then came back out into the road and eventually wandered off. To give you an idea of how long we were gazing at him - this photo was taken with my camera (obviously). Which was in the trunk of the car. In my bag (or so I thought - so a bit of extra faffing trying to feel for it), then my standard lens wasn't great so I rooted around some more for the zoom lens. Fitted it and hey presto - EVENTUALLY a photo! So cool!

Once in the Similkameen Valley there are an incredible abundance of farm shops along the roads. We're pretty lucky here in the central Okanagan, but this is something else! On our way home we picked up some super sweet juicy apricots, cherries, plums and a cute little spaghetti squash (perfect meal for 2 size!)

Mascot Mine

Hedley itself is a tiny little community these days. Back in it's heyday when the mines were roaring it had a population of 12,000 and 7 hotels! We parked up and way, waaaaaay up in the hills above us (about 3000ft up!) you could just about make out a little dot on the cliffside - that's where we were headed!!

The winding road up the hill (if only it were paved it would make an awesome biking road!!)

The 4.5 hour tour started at the Snaza'ist Discovery Centre in Hedley with a short film, then we took a mini bus up the 13km winding Nickel Plate Forest Road with a suberb guide - she talked just about the whole way - explaining the history, the landscape, the stories, First Nation lore - she was fascinating and so enthusiastic and went a long way to making the tour just so great! We had about a 1/2 km hike from the roads' end down to the top of the mine steps. And then 300-something steps down again to get to the mine entrance. At this point you really got a sense of just how 'on the edge' you were. The mine's position almost defies gravity!

Looking down at the mine (we're already 1/2 way down!)

Once down at the mine site we explored the historic buildings - the cookhouse, bunkhouse, mine offices and machinery rooms. We were guided through the operation and given a great insight into what life was like for the 130 men that worked there at any one time. We heard stories of the parties they held, and free time activities they enjoyed. Life was good there - they were earning $4.75 a day plus free keep and the mine owners ensured excellent working and living conditions for the men - but they certinaly couldn't suffer from vertigo! We walked a little way into the mine tunnel - but at 8 degrees (compared to the balmy 30 degree day we were enjoying) it was a little too icy for me! The blast of cold air as you walked towards the entrance was quite enough - so just a quick jaunt in as far as a dynamite store for us!

On the way back down the hill we stopped for a couple of photo opportunities - and were (yet again) blown away by the fabulous views up and down the valley. I can't beleieve I've lived here over 2 years and never heard of this place! But it was such an excellent day out - well worth it!

Mum and Dad at the overlook