Johns Family Nature Conservancy Hike

Where:

• Johns Family Nature Conservancy

 

When:

• April 25, 2021

 

Who:

• Ed, Sheldon

 

Trailhead:

• take Lakeshore Road and continue after it turns into Chute Lake Road past Summerhill Winery and turn left onto the gravel road for 2.9 km
• the trailhead is on the right-hand side
• you can also access the area from the Lebanon Creek trailhead on Lakeshore Road

 

 

Degree of difficulty:

• there are a series of trails (five in total) in this area and hence a few options
• in total, there are 8 km of official trails plus a few km of unofficial trails

• there is some elevation change as you decide down towards the lake and particularly on the Lebanon Creek portion of the trail

• the route we took was just under two hours

 

 

Interesting notes:

• Johns Family Nature Conservancy covers over 400 hectares of land
• Hector and Elizabeth John purchased the land, and their son Alf and his wife Nancy lived on it
• Alf and Nancy donated 323 hectares of land for wildlife conservation in what was the largest land donation in Central Okanagan’s history
• this land was combined with the land known as Cedar Mountain Regional Park
• 2/3 of the park is off-limits to the public to protect the wildlife
• the area is predominantly open due to the 2003 fire, but there are some interesting rock features and great views of Okanagan Lake
• the first time we did this trail, in 2020, we had to turn back ten minutes into the hike as we got charged by a deer twice despite using bear spray on it
• the area is more well known to the locals for climbing than hiking, so it’s not typically very crowded
• at the top of the Crag trail are some rock chairs and a fire pit