Friday was the first day since we returned home that it truly felt like a summer’s day. It was perfect all day with the temperature in the low 70’s by mid-afternoon. We took it easy for most of Friday morning as we’d had a pretty hectic time with Carrie’s condo move. Just before noon, we thought we’d go for an early hike simply because it was such a nice day.
Paulette, Molly and Rylie taking a break on Mt. Tzouhalem
One of our favourite places to hike and one that for some reason we hadn’t been to this year is Mt. Tzouhalem. It can be a little difficult at times but it depends on which one of the many trails chosen to hike up. Paulette and I picked a moderate path yesterday as we still don’t have our hiking legs under us.
The wildflowers were in full bloom yesterday
The views of Quamichan Lake, the far-off snowcapped mountains and the Cowichan Valley below us were all spectacular as usual. The trail we took provides lots of great viewpoints with clear views that go on forever. One just has to be very careful not to slip and fall as some of the paths go dangerously by steep drops. It’s pretty safe though and you’d have to be pretty careless to fall off a cliff.
We must have hit the right time for the wildflowers to be blooming on the mountain because there were thousands of them in all the grassy meadows on the mountainside. I suppose they’ll all be gone by the end of this month so I’m glad we were able to see them now.
We saw a few Wild Sunflowers on the mountain yesterday
We even saw some Wild Sunflowers which I gather from Paulette are quite unusual around here. It seems we weren’t the only ones who decided to take advantage of the beautiful day as there were quite a few other hikers on the trail as well. It was good though as a lot of them had dogs too so Molly and Rylie had a chance to meet up with some new friends. They always seem to enjoy that.
Molly taking some time to smell the flowers!
About half-way up Mt. Tzouhalem, we stopped in a meadow for a rest and decided not to go all the way to the top. The main reason was we had forgotten our water bottles in the truck and we were already quite thirsty. Add that to the fact it was past lunchtime by now and we were starting to get hungry as well. We sure didn’t plan well but that’s all part of getting used to going on hikes again.
As usual, the views were simply spectacular
We spent about 2 hours up on the mountain enjoying the views, the flowers and the warm day before heading back down through the forest to our truck. For a treat, we stopped at the DQ in Duncan for an ice cream cone. Molly and Rylie got a small one to share as well – we get an extra dry cone and make 2 small cones for them. And no, they do not get their cones ‘chocolate dipped’!
We spent a very quiet afternoon back home with me reading for a bit while Paulette kept busy in her sewing room while listening to an audio book. I still don’t like audio books as I can’t stand the voices of most of the folks who are narrators. I’d much rather imagine the voices of the book’s characters myself anyway.
Since Paulette had worked so hard with Carrie’s move and cleaning I figured the least I could do was buy dinner instead of cooking on a Friday night. Neither one of us really felt like going out so I just picked up a pizza from Romeo’s – our favourite pizza place!
Have a great Saturday, and thanks again for visiting!
No comments:
Post a Comment