I had the best day!

I had the best day today! I went for a twelve kilometer hike along the Trepanier Creek Greenway trail in Peachland BC. I started on the Paradise valley side trail head and hiked six kilometers over a mountain trail which takes you into Peachland BC. You come out at the trail beside the elementary school and you can then walk into the little town of Peachland nestled in the heart of the Okanagan. I stopped and had lunch at the subway at the mall beside the school then I turned around and hiked all the way back. I had the whole trail to myself the whole way in and then out, except for a chipmunk, a crow, a woodpecker and a Golden Eagle.

I love to hike. Hiking and walking are my number one source of cardio and I use yoga for stretching and toning. We started living in our fifth wheel RV just over a year ago, so I don't move around as much as I did when we had our house and had a yard to work in and stairs to climb. Having a routine that gets me moving is very important to me.

We started living in our RV full time last year. We live in central Alberta, Canada where the winters are cold, so we had hoped to go to Arizona for the winter and enjoy the warm climate there. Because the land border from Canada to the United States was closed to non-essential travel, due to the pandemic, we opted to stay on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. It was the best place we could have been in Canada for the winter, due to the temperate climate.

We found a nice quiet little RV park in Parksville, which is 38 km west of Nanaimo. We were extremely lucky and got a beautiful spot that backed on to the ocean. Our RV has a big back window so every day for the entire length of our stay we had the most gorgeous ocean view and a great mountain view across the bay. We really hit the jackpot!

The best part of our stay, however, was the limitless opportunities to hike some of the most beautiful trails I have ever seen in my life. Vancouver Island is like a tropical rain forest (yes it did rain a lot). There are hundreds of trails to explore that display the lush green landscape that is so typical of the island. There were ferns. thick moss, arbutus trees, cedar trees, fir trees, spruce trees. The trees were some of the tallest and thickest I have ever seen in my life! The trails on many occasions were so heavily forested, it felt like I was walking indoors. The treetops so high and thick like a ceiling above you, and the lower foliage just a wall of green.

There really aren't many words that can do justice to the tranquility and beauty of nature away from the hustle and bustle of the urban areas. It is something that should be felt and experienced. Being in the presence of nature's beauty is calming and relaxing. It is a language of its own devoid of words but wrought with feeling and emotion. I am so blessed for the opportunity to live so close to nature and experience it in many different places. The surroundings may change, but the feelings are always the same.