My summer vacation

Last month, we took the entire month off and headed up north to British Columbia. The hiking adventures will and have been documented in stand-alone posts but I thought I'd gather up the loose ends of the trip to beautiful Rossland in British Columbia and post them in this missive.

The Columbia River, at Trail

After hiking up Bear Creek Mountain with Jim, we left Yakima and headed up to Spokane. On the way we broke up the trip by cruising the Wild Horse Monument overlooking the Columbia Gorge in central Washington. The monument is a collection of metal horses, collectively known as the sculpture "Grandfather Releases The Ponies" which while growing up, was time for us children to leave the room in a hurry.

Horsies!

Horseshoe Lake at night

In Spokane we camped at Horseshoe Lake and I had fun despite having to spend an entire day with Dollie's family. And if any of the inlaws reads this:  relax, I say the same thing about my family. And if any of my family reads this: I didn't know  you had Internet. When evening fell we launched a firework over the lake and then spent the rest of the evening searching for Maggie as her little dog brain can't handle loud explosions. I finally found her walking along the road about a mile away.

The Columbia River

In Rossland, British Columbia, we enjoyed a super hike on the Seven Summits Trail. We also ambled around Nancy Greene Lake, named after a local skier who won a gold medal in the Grenoble Olympics. It was a short and pleasant walk that didn't quite rise to the level of "hike". Other activities we partook of while in Rossland were daily afternoon dips in the Columbia River where retired miners recounted old mining stories, a bike ride in Trail, a car tour up the Kootenay River to Nelson, and a visit to a winery that had a red wine to die for.

All the Rossland fun would not have taken place without our host Sabra and her cohort Scotty. We are absolutely indebted to you two.

Seven Summits Trail

Sabra and co-host Scott on the trail

Hooray, it's summer vacation time in the O'Neill household! Our previous hike into the Washington's Goat Rocks was the opening salvo. Migrating north like Canada geese in spring, but with considerably less honking, we found ourselves in Rossland, British Columbia and yes, we were in Canada.

Sabra, our host, suggested we hike on the Seven Summits Trail and all I needed to hear was "Seven Summits" and I was in. The Seven Summits Trail is primarily renown as an epic 22-mile mountain biking trail and we shared the trail with many bikers who were mostly walking their bikes up the trail, a steep trail being the apparent equalizer between hikers and bikers.

Indian paintbrush along the trail

Sabra, Dollie, Moose,
John, and me

Joined by new found Canadian friends Sabra, Scott, John, and Moose (you know you are in Canada when you have a friend named Moose), we set out on the trail which initially was fairly level through a wooded forest. But that would change and change it did as we started to climb through the wooded trail. At nearly two miles, Dollie and I found ourselves well ahead of the Canadian contingent and we had to backtrack to rejoin the group at the Sun Spot, a viewless backwoods shelter.

Mount Crowe

Continuing on, Dollie and I hiked to Lepsoe Basin, a relatively nondescript open spot on the slopes of Mount Lepsoe. We enjoyed  a nice view of Mount Crowe (no relation to Russell) as we lunched on a rocky bench. After lunch, the trail went uphill in earnest, contouring relentlessly upwards through the woods.

The reason we hike

After several miles, we encountered a hiking group coming downhill and they advised us to keep going as there were good views near the Lepsoe summit. We were wondering at the time whether to keep going or not and we were glad we heeded their advice.

Old Glory, in all its glory

The forest did thin out, spitting us out into wildflowered meadows under a blue sky while the trail grade eased up a couple of percentage points. We could see some stuff, too, Old Glory being the nearest mountain with a deep river valley below. In the distance were some very large mountains, begging another visit to this beautiful corner of British Columbia.

Orange agoseris

We turned around where the trail began to descend to a saddle between Mounts Lepsoe and Plewman, bikers literally whooped with joy at the descent. We enjoyed the scenery all over again on the way back while picturesque thunderheads formed over Mount Crowe. I wasn't even disappointed we bagged only one out of seven mountains.