Squamish to Vancouver

 
 
 
The ski hills of Whistler in the first picture, the coast mountains developing glaciers and finally the view on the "upper levels highway" past the Horseshoe Ferry dock looking at the islands outside of Vancouver.

We have parked the bfrt in the back yard of Martin (Laurie's brother) and Ann (in North Vancouver). Had a brief visit with Lisa and Stephen (who have magically fixed this computer). Reconnected with M&A's 3 kids and today, Tuesday, headed out to White Rock to see Laurie's parents.

Vernon to Vancouver

 
 
 
We had 4 great days in Vernon, the sunny Okanagan. It rained! and was cold (only 5 degrees when we got up in the morning). Nonetheless, we had a good visit with Barb's parents and also, Don and Andrea (Barb's brother and his wife who are very generous in letting us use their lovely home.)
We headed south to Vancouver and took the "back route". This is from Cache Creek where we headed slightly north and west and went through the mountains down to Pemberton, Whistler/Blackcomb (site of 2010 Olympics) and Squamish. It was a beatiful route, a little scary at times, because the road was under construction, with no barricades between the edge of the road and and drop off down to the valley many feet below! Parts of the route are very dry, barren hills and eventually we entered into the "rain forest" of the coast region. Always fun to run into a logging truck with verrrry large logs (maybe 6-8 per truck because they are so big)

Clearwater to Kamloops

 
 
 
I played tourist from Clearwater through Kamloops on our way to Vernon. I have driven the Kamloops to Vernon trip so many times that I had forgotten how interesting the landscape is. This is the river valley of the South Thompson. It really is quite remarkable, mostly desert with sage and tumbleweed.

Wells Gray Park 2

 
 
 
 
I have to say, I love being back in the big trees.
The last hike we did at Wells Gray Park was to Bailey's chute which is the spot where the salmon were trying to jump these rapids to get to their spawning ground. Apparently the salmon never make it, but they continue to come back year after year to keep trying. Try getting a picture of that!

Finally, we visited the beautiful provincial campsites but then returned to this RV park that Barb had noticed had a golf course attached. We were camped at the tee off for the first hole. The course was quite challenging, only 9 holes but lovely. My problem was that on the 8th hole we watched a fox steal my ball and disappear into the bush. Laurie wanted to charge me an extra stroke! Great day.

Wells Gray Park

 
 
 
So... we spent the whole day in Wells Gray Park, just north of Clearwater. There are many hiking trails to see various water falls. The first is Spahat, quite lovely, a 10 minute hike in. The second was Dawson, looks like a mini Niagara, about a 20 minute hike along the falls. The third that we went to was Helmechen, which was spectacular. The picture doesn't do it justice. I remember hiking to the falls as a little girl (maybe 5) with my parents and 3 older brothers. All I really remember is the mist from the falls and Mum being terrified that Donnie (who was hanging on a branch leaning over the ledge to get a better look!) was going to fall. It turns out that way back then, the only access was a long hike to the "south rim" and now there is access to the "north rim" with a 5 minute walk, much better view and totally fenced edges. As (brother)Don says, where's the fun in that?

We're alive

Hello blog readers.

Just to reassure you, we are alive and well, the computer however.... seems to be working again. All we had do do was have Stephen and Lisa gaze upon it, and voila - its working again. No more microsoft blue screen. Maybe the threat of Stephen looking at its guts was enough to make it work. So I will try to catch up.

Rockies

 
 

Today we drove from PG through McBride and Valemount and are now in Clearwater. Just on the edge of Wells Gray Provincial Park. Tomorrow we will go exploring and hiking in the park. We're back to shorts and t-shirts, even had a swim at the campground. (PG was rainy and only about +17C).
Just wanted to prove that we had been far enough east that we were close to the Rockies. In fact we passed very near to Mount Robson, but couldn't actually see it. We also crossed the North Thompson River several times. It too, is a beautiful, clean, big river. The road today was through the valleys, -beautiful, easy drive.

Prince George

 
 
Hello from Prince George, BC. We visited our nephew, Ed and his lovely and talented wife Amber. Ed is a contractor and they (because they are an excellent team) have built this house, (that they live in) and are working on the lot next door, a house already sold, and have a 3rd and fourth lot they are building from new or gutting and re-doing. We really enjoyed getting to know these two - we missed a lot of Ed's growing up years, but he is a nephew that we are very proud of. His building skills and detail are evident - I have never seen such meticulously tidy worksites, and his innovations for heating houses in the north are fascinating. We even had a round of par 3 golf with them! Hooray!

We were able to get Laurie's new Visa and again, we were very pleased with the help from TD in getting us on our way.

Last night, we hooked up with Barb's girlfriend from school days. Sharon and I were in the same classes from Grade 4-11 and stayed close throughout UBC. We hadn't seen each other since 1983, and boy we covered a lot of ground in catching up in just one evening. (We might have had a little wine too!) I don't even think Laurie was too bored, he was certainly patient in trying to "get a word in edgewise". What a funny expression that is.

Vanderhoof

 
Tonight we are in Vanderhoof, and most of the day we drove through a lot of smoke. At times it was so thick it was unsafe to pass. There are many forest fires in BC, fortunately, none in the immediate area. We were able to do laundry, play minigolf on grassy greens, and we have excellent wifi so getting caught up. Now it is a steady rain, which should help the forest fire situation.

'Ksan

 
 
 
We stayed last night at the 'Ksan RV park and Interpretive centre. It is a first nation operation and is extremely well done. I took the tour of the 5 buildings with an interesting young woman, of the Fireweed tribe. She explained that the 'Ksan society is matriarchal, and that in the past, when they all lived as multiple generations and families in the long house, that the new groom would move in with the bride's family. Also, they can have female or male chiefs! It was a great tour, some audio presentations, and artifacts. There are carvers there (I didn't see them as they had left early for the day!) I forgot to add that there was a group of first nations camping at the same RV park. There was going to be a cultural day on Saturday. They practiced their drumming and chanting and lulled us off to sleep.

Hazelton -hagwilget bridge

 
 
 
We visited "The Hazeltons". There are three villages, old Hazelton, new Hazelton and Hazelton! To get to our campsite we had to cross this 1 lane bridge over the Bulkley river. It was truely terrifying to walk out to take pictures. I get the heeby jeebies because it was a metal grill bridge, you could see the water under your feet, 400' below!

more totem poles

 
 
this is the same village. We went around to the back of the interpretive centre, and found these doors were half open into an inner court yard. Try enlarging the picture by clicking on it. These doors are just beautiful, and you can see one of the totem poles on the inside of the building. Its and awesome picture. Thanks Laurie.
The pole on the ground has been started, but the woman informed me that no one has done any carving this year.

Totem Poles

 
 
 
We stopped at a little village, Gitanyow, and they had all these totem poles. There was a newish interpretive building/museum that was not open, and according to a woman sewing moccasins nearby, it hadn't opened all summer. This is apparently one of the places that Emily Carr did in some of her paintings/drawings.

Mixed Up

Hello blog readers.

We have had some issues with uploading pictures along the way. Tonight I seem to be able to add pictures but now the blog is not in chronological order. Oh well.

We have now traveled 13,524 km and we are still talking to each other. We even managed to celebrate 37 years married!

Tomorrow we are off to the Hazeltons and Smithers. Apparently to see totem poles and Jade. If we get a chance, maybe even a game of golf! Plan to be in Prince George by Monday.

Forest fire

 
 

We were held up overnight at the entrance to the Stewart/Cassiar highway due to a forest fire. We actually dry camped right on the road - it was kind of fun! By morning there were roughly 80 RV's trucks and cars all waiting to be piloted through the fire zone. There was lots of smoke, but only saw one little flare of flame. Not scary - really quite interesting to see the damaged areas/areas not touched. Stopped early in Dease lake. Right on the lake, a light rain passed through, but now sun setting on the lake. Lovely.

Whitehorse

 
 

We stayed 1 night at White Horse. Got there early to go to the bank because we were having Visa problems, turned out it was a holiday! Tuesday we got the bank stuff done, got groceries and beer and then explored Miles Canyon, just south of town. The campsite was very nice, even had fresh flower arrangements (3) in the women's washroom. As we approached the junction to turn on to the Stewart Cassiar Highway, we went through several valleys filled with smoke.