Kelowna Parks Challenge – Trip #10
I just couldn’t wait! This week I went back to Mission Creek Regional Park and finished exploring its designated trails. I visited it and two other nearby parks as part of my Kelowna Parks Challenge. The regional park was a big accomplishment and I’m glad to be able to check it off my list!
Read on for more details about my adventure!
The Trip
Once again, I started at the main entrance to Mission Creek Regional Park. There were still a few salmon in the spawning channel, and the autumn colours were even better than last week!
Mission Creek Regional Park
Pine Loop Trail
This week, I headed east instead of west. I first climbed the stairs across from the bridge that is about 250 metres upstream from the main bridge and took a walk around the Pine Loop.
This trail is relatively flat and winds through the same kind of rolling ponderosa pine forest that we explored last week. Here, there are no ponds, but there were lots of birds and I passed by a yard with a horse that I could hear whinnying from many metres away.
There are actually a number of crisscrossing trails in this area, but the regional parks people have designated one circuit with signs to keep things simple. Even so, I did take a “wrong” turn and needed to use their map app to get back on course.
Soopalallie Trail
After exploring the upland loop, I descended the same staircase and began following the Soopalallie Trail. This trail follows the main channel of Mission Creek along its left bank, ie. the south side, and has three main segments.
The first segment, from the main area of the park up until the Cottonwoods Bridge, which is at the end of Ziprick Road, lies on top of a wide, newer dyke system. This segment is very wide and popular. Though it is gravel, it is fine for bikes and strollers. The spawning channel continues along the south side of this segment, and I saw salmon and ducks.
East of Ziprick Road, the new dykes end and so does the wide trail. After this point, the trail becomes more like a hiking trail, though still a couple of metres wide. It passes through the kind of ecosystems you would expect to find down by a river. There were many cottonwoods and the ground under the trails was often composed solely of river-rounded cobbles.
The second segment changes to the third opposite the end of Hollywood Road. Here the trail doesn’t look any different but is no longer a designated trail of the park. A long-time resident told me it continues on for a ways before ending at a popular swimming hole. It was getting late in the afternoon when I got to this point and I still wanted to see more parks, so I did not continue, but I would be happy to go back and complete the trail someday.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is a drinking fountain in this park. It is on the outside of the washroom building by the main parking lot and playground. It has a water bottle tap. There are two washrooms in this park. By the main parking lot, there is a permanent washroom building. There is also a portable washroom at the parking lot by the children’s fishing pond, at the south side of the park.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park, but only on-leash. Reminder: letting dogs into the spawning channel kills thousands of baby salmon.
Wenric Crescent Greenspace
After returning along the Soopalallie Trail, I crossed Mission Creek by the Cottonwoods Bridge, then crossed Springfield at Ziprick Road. There, on the northwest corner of that intersection is a narrow strip of parkland that has not been developed for public use.
If I read the City of Kelowna’s Official Map correctly, this land is part of the same lot as the parkland across the street but was not included in the regional park, since it was so disconnected. For that reason, it is listed as a separate park on the city website, and that’s how it made it onto my list.
The land is not unused, however. At either end are buildings housing infrastructure operated by the Rutland Waterworks District. Down the middle of the park, there is a gravel road connecting them.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is no drinking fountain in this park. There is no washroom in this park.
Dog Rules: Because it is undeveloped except for waterworks infrastructure, dogs are not allowed in this park.
Gerstmar Park
From the Wenric Greenspace, I followed the Mission Creek Greenway east to Gerstmar Park. During this segment, the greenway has to detour down Creekside Road (which has no sidewalks), because for this block only there are houses built right along the bank of the creek.
Gerstmar Park is a small (not tiny) but beautiful contemporary park. Designed and built in 2010, it has a playground and tennis/pickleball court along with a washroom building with two all-user washrooms. It has some simple walking paths that connect on its south side to the Mission Creek Greenway, which rejoins the creek here.
Once again, the land for this park is part of the same parcel as the land to the south, on the other side of the creek. I assume they were originally part of the same pre-emption. Like the Wenric Greenspace it was not made part of the regional park, and for decades was an empty lot. It is safe to say the 2010 development has successfully animated this property. I saw both tennis players and dog walkers in the park during my visit.
Washrooms and Drinking Fountains: There is a drinking fountain in this park. It is on the outside of the washroom building by the main parking lot and playground. There is a washroom building in this park. It has two all-user washrooms, designated for all-gender, universal access. The washrooms in this park are open in the winter.
Dog Rules: Dogs are allowed in this park, but only on-leash.
Reflections
Park Types
On this adventure I visited three parks that each had a very different type and feel. Not only that, but they each felt like a strong version of their type.
Gerstmar Park was very well-designed and maintained. The lawns were lush, the washrooms were new, and the tennis court was brightly-coloured.
Wenric Crescent Greenspace was relatively undeveloped. The forest seemed natural and the gravel road looked like it had just been dumped and graded with little design or preparation.
Meanwhile, Mission Creek Regional Park, for all of its design and maintenance gave me a wonderful, wilderness feeling. As I travelled along the Soopalallie Trail, it was not hard to forget I wasn’t trekking along a remote mountain stream, even though the suburban landscape of Rutland was just on the other side of the creek.
Rewards of Adventure
Heading out on an adventure is always rewarding for me, no matter what I find or don’t find. Even if all I had seen were ponderosa pines, I would have felt like this trip was worth it. You can’t count on something rare and special, but sometimes unexpected rewards are in store.
This trip I felt rewarded by not one but two sightings of a pileated woodpecker. I don’t know if it was the same bird, but one sighting was on the Pine Loop and the other was down at the far end of the Soopalallie Trail. I wish I had a picture to show you. That bird is so large and beautiful I find it impossible to not be impressed.
Travails of Adventure
What is an adventure? Considering the Latin roots of the word, literally any time you go out it’s an adventure, but for me risk and hardship is essential to the experience.
The risks don’t have to be high and the hardship can be mild, but just having them makes the joys and rewards of the trip more intense.
On this trip, I risked running out of daylight while alone in the semi-wilderness and I risked getting home late for dinner when I tried to see just one more park. The mild hardships I faced mostly involved the physical demands of walking for hours, as well as the trial of finding yourself an hour down the trail with a full bladder.
The incident that inspired this reflection happened after I had reached the end of the Soopalallie Trail. After travelling back for ten minutes I realized I had left my water bottle beside the trail when I put it down to film a shot for my video of this trip. Though I was already getting tired and worried about light and time, I made myself hike ten minutes back and retrieve the unintentional piece of litter. It was a minor hardship, all things considered, but it helped make the whole trip feel like an adventure.
Washrooms
Now that it’s October, the City of Kelowna will be closing the washrooms in the parks. I understand why, since they don’t want frozen pipes to burst, but it will add an extra level of challenge to my adventures.
For those keeping track, the only three parks that have washrooms open during the winter are Stuart Park, City Park, and Gerstmar Park. All three of these parks have relatively newly-built washrooms, so I hope this list will grow as other parks have their washroom buildings replaced.
Conclusions
This was a fun walk, though I left it a bit late in the day. I had hoped to see one more park, but ran out of time. Nevertheless, I am relieved to be able to cross a large park like Mission Creek off my list. Eventually, I will have to tackle the biggest one: Knox Mountain.
With the three parks I saw on this trip, I have now visited forty-eight of 203 parks in eighty-two days, or 23% of the parks in 22% of the year. I definitely need to see a lot of parks next week to keep my rate up and stay on track to victory.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about the parks I visited this week. Please comment, if you have any questions or things to add about them.
