Tag Archives: Cooney Bay

Thompson River Estuary Hike

Kamloops Trails Posted on by 1

On a grey day with a chance of rain in fourth week of February, I drove to Tranquille and parked at the gate.    I then took a rough path down to the wetlands area and wound my way out to the Estuary area.    From there I followed the shoreline downstream, sometimes hiking on the shoreline, sometimes, crossing channels at narrow spots, sometimes on sand-silt islands, and sometimes on rocky beaches.   The route was out to the sandy point where Cooney Bay starts, then back on the road.

Various channels wind down from the hills to the river, but there are usually a way to the other side at narrows.

This is a scenic route.    There is no established trails, but sections of paths can be seen on the shoreline or hikers can be more adventurous, crossing over to sand-silt islands.    At Cooney Bay there are some footworn paths out to the lakeshore.    I returned on the bumpy road on foot back to the start.

Shared here is a Google Photos Album with captions at this link – Thompson River Estuary Hike

The same album can also be seen as an embedded slideshow (without captions):

 

Hiking the Estuary

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

By the end of February a route that I try to hike is from the entrance area to Tranquille down to the shoreline where streams flow into the river, then along the rivershore toward Cooney Bay.    The whole area floods in late spring, but it is a wide estuary in the other seasons.   Conditions are wet after snowmelt, but we can pick our way downstream to get to a gravel beach. There are several streams which flow from the hills down to the river.    A faint trail heads southwest toward the wider estuary. We can follow the shoreline of the river, which braids out into several channels between silt islands, some still with ice. The beaches become wider … Continue reading →