Mission Creek Regional park in Kelowna has a number of Trail Heads and parking spots. Today, we parked at the Ziprick Road parking spot and Trailhead located right at the end of Ziprick Rd where it meets Springfield Rd.
We crossed the Cottonwoods Bridge and headed North East along a popular trail for joggers. The trail has a number of points of interest. My favourite part of this Mission Creek Trail is the way it ends. The trail ends at a spot where the East Kelowna Bench above drops Mission Creek below in a the form of a solid face of rock that will not permit you to go any further unless you cross the creek or climb straight up for 50 to 100 feet. In the summer, many kids opt for the creek and a good swim.
However, on this little hike, I did not get a chance to make it to the end, as you can see from the Mission Creek GPS track below. about half way to my destination, I glanced up towards the bench on our right and seen a black spot. After backing up two steps, I looked straight up to find myself looking directly into the eyes of a black bear as it looked straight at me.
Earlier I had told myself that if I see a bear on this hike, I will snap a photo. But as the thought went through my mind, my 10 month old Australian Shepherd was on my first thought as her nose was to the ground and she did not seem to be aware of the bear staring down at us, so I turned around called Sydney and hoped she would come straight to me before noticing the black bear and getting into a me-lee. She did come and we continued on our hike back to the Cottonwoods bridge and then up towards the bench to enjoy a cool crisp morning in Mission Creek Park. Below the GPS Track are a few shots of the trail that I took just to show folks a little more of a local park that they may have never seen previously.