On Wednesday we decided to explore the area south of Nelson, and headed off down highway 6. Our first stop was in Salmo, for coffee at the Dragonfly Cafe, followed by a walk around Salmo. The coffee was good, and we spent more time at the Dragonfly than it took to walk around town.
Back on the road, we took highway 3B towards Trail, but turned off to visit the Champion Lakes Provincial Park and to walk the trails identified in the Walking Trails Around Nelson brochure. Champion Lakes are a chain of three lakes, beginning at Champion Lake No. 3, with walking trails along / around all three lakes.
 |
Marlene at Champion Lake No. 3
|
Armed with water and our lunch, we took to the trails to get away from the large group of school children who were having a day in the park - they were swimming, playing volleyball, bike riding, but most annoyingly, beating on drums, on the beach at lake no. 3. We walked past all three lakes, to the end of the trail at a beaver dam at the bottom of lake no. 1, which was our selected lunch stop. The only sound we heard over lunch was the occasional jet aircraft passing high above us in the clear blue sky. On the return journey we took an alternate route back to the top of lake no. 2, which of course went over the hill rather than around it.
 |
End of the trail at the bottom of Champion Lake No. 1
|
By the time we got back to the beach at lake no. 3, the kids had all left, but there was no time to enjoy the beach, as we wanted to visit the town of Trail and get back to Nelson by 5 o'clock.
The person who wrote the description of Trail for the tourist map deserves a marketing award - "....slip down the Columbia in a canoe or walk through Little Italy,.... meander the narrow streets, climb the covered staircases, or check out the amazing stone retaining walls of West Trail....". They certainly put a lot of lipstick on that pig, as the reality is that Trail is dominated by Teck Cominco's lead and zinc smelter, which is right in the middle of town, you could sail the Queen Mary down the Columbia River it is so big, and the other "highlights" were not that impressive. Definitely not our sort of town. We drove through downtown and Little Italy, saw the covered staircases from a distance, and headed back to Nelson.
With only two days left, we decided to bike some of the Slocan Valley Rail Trail, and that turned out to be a good decision. This trail is very pleasant riding, with a grade of less than 1%, and is very well-maintained. It follows the Slocan River along most of the route with a few forested sections away from the river. Over two days we rode two sections of the trail, Crescent Valley to Passmore & Passmore to Winlaw. Day 1 was a 32 Km round trip, with a stop to pick up a tasty treat at Valley Vittles in Slocan Park. There was much bear poop on the trail, but we did not see any wildlife at all.
 |
| Jim admiring the Slocan River |
Day 2 was a 26 Km round trip, with lunch in a nature park just outside Winlaw, where we had the whole park to ourselves, and a stop for coffee at the Sleep is for Sissies Cafe south of Winlaw. Whilst having our coffee on the patio, an interesting young woman regaled us with her troubled life history, during which time she wafted the smoke from 3 cigarettes our way. But hey, at least we weren't in Trail.
 |
| Marlene having lunch at a park outside of Winlaw |
 |
| Jim taking a well-deserved break |
We had one last drive into Nelson later in the day, and found that we are actually getting used to the town on a hillside.
The weather has been great for the whole week that we have been in Nelson, with no rain at all, but tonight that all changes, with rain settling in for the next few days. As we can always enjoy the rain at home, it is time to move on. Tomorrow morning we will leave Nelson and begin the journey home, but it will be a 3-day journey.
We really enjoyed the Nelson area & our home away from home at Bio Bio Suite. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to return in the future.
 |
| Bio Bio Suite (below the verandah) |
No comments:
Post a Comment