May 13 – Middleton Mountain Hike

Happy Mother’s Day everyone. We decided that we are going to go out to dinner tomorrow night, just to be different.

Today we hiked up another volcanic bump in the middle of town to get some nice long distance views. Middleton Mountain is just south of Vernon, between it and the community of Coldstream.

From the access point that we used, you first climb up the steep side of the hill and then can choose from various loops that go around the mostly flat top.

We did the largest loop around the “edge” at just under 4 km.

The view from the car up to the staircase at the top.

The really steep sections had steps.

It looks like they were blasting another level in the hill for more houses.

From the car I saw this deer just behind the houses. As we started up the trail I also startled a marmot but he was too fast for the camera.

Looking down on Vernon, to the north.

And Kalamalka Lake to the south.

Almost there.

Heading counter clockwise around the top.

A photosphere.

A viewpoint with a tribute to the hockey team that was in the terrible accident.

Lots of lupins in bloom.

A family were silhouetted against the Monashee Mountains in the background, on the next bump.

Looking down Coldstream Valley, towards the town of Lumby.

We exchanged places.

A photosphere.

There are some massive house up on these hills. This guy looked like he even had a putting green in his backyard.

I am guessing that a farmer sold his land for this development.

Moving on around the east side. The trail has no shade at all and with no wind it was getting very hot.

I am not sure what this is but it was the size of my baby finger.

We only saw about 10 other people.

We were very hot by now.

The northern section of the trail was down lower so as we closed the loop we had to climb back up, only to take the stairs back down.

You can see the top staircase over Jennie’ head.

And back down we go.

Next to the trailhead is one of the strangest houses I have ever seen. The front.

The view from above. The pool seems to be enclosed in a courtyard. All the other houses in the neighbourhood are obviously custom but much more conventional.

We thought about having lunch on top but with it being so hot and having no shade, we just drove into town to find a nice park.

We briefly wondered about doing something else, but no …