Today’s hike was to Adventure Bay. It’s the first one this year that has made me recall the sensations I had last spring on the first hikes with the club, when I thought they were a friendly but excessively fit group. Now I feel at home with them. My friends are there, and I can keep up with them. My head was wet with sweat from the first ascent, but it’s always that way whenever I exert myself. I don’t get nearly as winded as I did last year. It was a jewel of a day, 15c with a sapphire sky above emerald pines, the ones that hadn’t succumbed to the pine beetle. Either side of the path was strewn with trunks that had been cut to clear it. The young deer were out near us and undeterred even by our babbling. I’m home now at the computer with warm red cheeks and the calm I always feel after a walk. I’m sure that the runner’s high must be wonderful, but as I could never push my body enough to attain it, I am satisfied with this feeling of peace.
I discovered this week that when you buy cheap winter rims for your tires, they’re heavy. I was able to carry the summer tires and their light aluminum rims up from the basement where I had put them last fall and lift them into the trunk. But when I got home from Canadian Tire and tried to haul out one of the winter set I got a surprise. I could just lift it to the edge of the trunk, dump it to the ground and then roll it into the garage/storage area by the parking spot. Doing this four times constituted a real test of strength. Talking of this garage/storage area makes me remember that another thing I did this week was screw the ‘Jim’s Eccentricity’ sign that Gene Marquis made for Jim when he finished the sauna on the Gatineau River to the door of said space. I had brought the sign with me but couldn’t think of where to hang it until this idea struck me. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it earlier because I can’t imagine a more eccentric piece of property than this one, and Jim was absolutely undeterred by its weirdness. That garage/storage area is the middle third of one long building, either side is owned by the adjacent back neighbors. Only our third has drive-through doors. I use the whole space for storage and gardening tools, but if I wanted to I could use it as a garage and exit on to 25th Street because we have an easement in perpetuity between the two back neighbors’ lots. We also have an easement in perpetuity through the parking lot of the house next door and on to 32nd Ave. This is the route I use because I don’t need a garage in this climate and the parking area we have is big enough for about four cars. That and driving to Kelowna to get the spring check up at the Mazda dealership and have lunch with Bert and Peg were the highlights of this week.
A male quail. They're so common that the locals pay no attention to them, but I laugh every time I see them darting around.
View of Lake Okanagan from above Adventure Bay. In the distance is Terrace Mountain. Nobody here plants their garden until the snow is off that mountain.
There was just a bit of snow left on the trail today
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