A Walk up the Adams River

Today was my last day off on the farm. Now it's three more days of work before I drive home. Since I don't have much time left here, I wanted to make sure I got out and saw a couple more things. I asked Patrick what he recommended for a leisurely hike/walk. His suggestion was the Adams River trail, which was perfect. I got there at about 9am, and I was the only car in the parking lot. The natural beauty I witnessed on the trail rivaled what Kristin and I saw in Glacier National Park, but this was a lot quieter. The tranquil landscape, the conspicuous lack of other humans, and the roar of rushing rapids of the Adams River made for an almost overwhelming experience:


After about a half an hour of walking, I came upon a small beach along the bank of the river and decided to stop and enjoy the water for a bit. Some large rocks blocking the current a bit upstream from the beach made for some gentle waters right in front of me, so I decided to dip my feet in the water:


After that, I decided to take out the book I've been working on today (Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire) and read on the beach for a little while. As I was laying on the river gravel reading my book, I occasionally noticed some rustling in the brush along the river. That made me a little nervous, because Colleen told me that she often sees bears there in morning when she goes jogging with her dog, Soleil. But every time I looked up, there was nothing there. So, eventually, I just got absorbed into my book.

That was a dangerous idea because after a few chapters, I suddenly noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I looked up, and it was a little black bear cub. I began to panic... where there's a bear cub, there's an angry momma bear nearby. For a split second, I thought about running. Then I thought about slowly moving away. But before I could really process anything, the brush along the river bank began to rustle as a large creature prepared to emerge from the undergrowth.

And then I saw her. A big, bad... middle-aged woman with plus-size khaki shorts and a sunhat. I looked down at the black bear cub and realized it was in fact a fluffy black Pomeranian. The lady thought the whole thing was pretty funny. To be fair, her dog really did look like a cute little bear cub. On the plus side, she took a picture for me:


The rest of the hike was relatively uneventful. It was serene and perfect, but there's not much else to write about. I did stumble upon some wild raspberries, which made for a nice snack:


After the hike, I went back to Salmon Arm to do a tour of Gort's Gouda Cheese Farm. There was only one problem with the tour... there was no tour. Even though they advertised tours from signs on the highway, it turns out the "tour" is a 6-minute DVD. However, they encouraged me to have a walk around the premises and to feel free to go into the barn to pet the cows and sheep. I did so happily, and the calves were really friendly:

The "tour" of the cheese farm only took about 20 minutes, but I had driven all the way to Salmon Arm just for that. So instead of driving straight back, I went to see Inception. It was worth a watch for any of you who are considering going to see it.