Tag Archives: Rivers Trail

Hiking the Winter Beaches – The Confluence

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

When trail conditions in the hills becomes too muddy, slushy, or icy, hiking at the bottom of the valley is much more appealing.    Routes on gravel, sand, or pavement will leave our boots dry and the risk of slips/falls is greatly reduced.   Many walkers use the paved sections of the Rivers Trail and McArthur Island.    Another choice for hikers is to hike the winter beaches – Airport Beach, West Beaches, the Confluence Beach, Mission Flats Beach, the dike and beach in Westsyde, Cooney Bay, and other riverside routes.    On a mild mid-winter day I chose to hike the Confluence Loop from Overlander Park.    This is a 3.1 km route taking about an hour.

There was no one else on the beach when I was there, but there were lots of people across the river at the  Riverside Park Ice Skating Path.   There were swans in the Confluence waters, at the meeting of the North Thompson and the South Thompson Rivers.

From the Confluence, I hiked on the sand and gravel upstream, bearing north.

The beaches run out at a steep bank just off the Schubert Drive Rivers Trail.

I walked back on the paved path, then took a short trail back to the beach to return to Overlander Park.   This is an excellent route for a walk/hike on a mild winter day.

Hiking the West Beaches

Kamloops Trails Posted on by  

On a mild end-of-February day we started a hike at the end of Aviation Way to go out to the West Beaches.    The route starts on the Rivers Trail, but we stayed on the narrower trail which follows the river downstream and out toward the Thompson River Estuary, looping back along the river for a 8 km, 2+ hour hike, much of it on the sand. A single track trail winds through the cottonwoods above the floodlands, bearing west. A single track drops down into a dry slough, following a single track past an old vehicle graveyard, sometimes called Dale’s Antique Beach. We emerged to the beach shoreline, then wound through the red-osier dogwood to the beach.   We went … Continue reading →