The Third Week
Teslin/Whitehorse/Beaver Creek/Delta Junction
18th August
Yesterday evening we pulled into the pretty town of Teslin, a small village located at Historic Mile 84 on the Alaska Highway. It is bordered by the waters of Nitsutlin Bay and Teslin Lake. We pop into the only store in town, the Nugget Bay Trading Post, for few grocery items. Find a spot to park for the night, the car park of the George Johnston Museum, a quiet spot. We start today (the 18th) looking through the Museum, beautifully laid out in a honey coloured native log building. We watched a great DVD telling the story of the life of George Johnson.
http://www.gjmuseum.yk.net/ This link will illustrate our story!
Our plan was to have the advertised breakfast at Annie Mukluk’s café but on arrival discovered it had closed the day before for the season. Meaning the holiday season had finished and winter was due!!!! It was a pleasant enough place to park though alongside the lake and prepare breakfast. We then visited the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre, some lovely exhibits here and a chat to Ada, a very pleasant lass who was happy to talk while we drank coffee she provided for us.
We leave Teslin and hit the road; destination today is Whitehorse, a small city that nestles on the bank of the Yukon River, Yukon’s capital. We park in Wal-Mart, I have lost my camera so I buy a new one in Wal-Mart, our overnight parking venue. Also buy a new Radio, CD and MP3 music machine for Ronnie to provide more entertainment while driving, and retired the AM/FM cassette radio! Relaxed rest of day, small grocery shop, CD player gets installed etc.
19th-22nd August - Whitehorse
Ronnie’s house heater isn’t working so short drive outside of town to an RV centre, they can look at it this morning fortunately. Decide to go and look at two points of interest nearby while job is being done – a 5 km bike ride, it’s cool this morning, so we rugged up, not forgetting gloves – first stop is the Yukon Interpretive Centre. Life sized exhibits of animals of the last Ice Age are on display here, we watched two informative BBC productions in a very lovely little theatrette. There was a display outside of how to use the ancient hunting tool, the atlatl. All quite interesting. http://www.beringia.com/
We rode a short distance to the Yukon Transportation Museum, some marvellous exhibits here from snowshoes to moose skin boats and dogsleds and early aircraft. Very informative. http://www.yukontransportationmuseum.ca/
Back to RV centre, heater is almost fixed. We hang around while they finish off. After lunch and heater installed and briefly tested in Ronnie. We go take a walk along the world’s longest wooden fish ladder. Salmon use the ladder to get past the Whitehorse dam on the way to their spawning grounds. http://www.yukonenergy.ca/services/facilities/fishway/
We also visit the Miles Canyon later this afternoon. A bumpy ride in Ronnie on gravel road and quite long walk through one of the trails, beautifully scenic and peaceful, eventually reaching the viewing site of the canyon. We chat to a ranger on the trail, he warns us to be careful of the wildlife and to make plenty of noise to keep them away. We followed instructions naturally. There is a footbridge that crosses the river, good photo opportunity above the gushing river. Scenery is fantastic. A very pleasant peaceful hour or so. A full day.
We discover that the heater problem still exists. Bugger. Decide to have a look around the city area this morning and head out to the RV place this afternoon and hope they can locate the problem. First stop is the McBride Museum. The museums here are very well laid out, so many exhibits that give a very comprehensive view of those early times. We then visit the Old Log Church Museum built in 1900, an excellent example of early pioneer architecture and one of the oldest buildings in Whitehorse.
After a brunch stop and a look at the SS Klondike, a beautiful old paddle steamer located on the river, we head out to the RV place and wait while it is worked on again. Eventually problem is located and all put back together – we shall not be cold in Alaska. A pleasant walk along the wetlands adjacent to parking area before dinner finishes the day quite well. Would you believe that on a mid arvo heater test and it DID NOT START!! Back to RV fixing place and this time every switch was replaced and it has not missed a beat since then!!
22nd August
Before hitting the road today we visit the Yukon Arts Centre. On arrival found it was closed, as well as it being an arts centre it is also the theatre venue which is open for ticket sales etc. Tammy, the helpful lady working there opened the Art Gallery up for us. So we had a private viewing. And what a beautiful collection of art works there were including some beautiful sculptures in jade (serpentine). We were also shown the theatre, great set up, very modern, great acoustics. They have a comprehensive theatre program for nine months of the year. The arts centre lies adjacent to the university in very pretty gardens and a great view over the city of Whitehorse. Outside there are a number of interesting sculptures that we wandered amongst after breakfast which we had in the carpark with view!
We hit the road. Beaver Creek is our destination today and travel is via Haines Junction where we stop for a coffee break in a rest area. There is another RV close by and we strike up a conversation with Emily and Hiram, travellers from Texas in a large RV. We were treated to look inside after we spent a pleasant half an hour chatting in Ronnie. Off again travelling through Destruction Bay that sits on the shore of the Kluane National Park. Words can’t describe the breathtaking scenery here, snow capped mountains, glaciers, tall pines trees, the beautiful Kluane Lake reflecting the forest. Many photographs taken en route with lots of oohs and aahs. Absolutely superb. There is a lot of roadworks going on, the road is very bumpy, poor Ronnie gets a good old shaking today. The initial road construction 60 years ago did not know how to put a road over Permafrost. The PF is eventually degraded and immense subsidence occurs and the road turns into a roller coaster ride. We saw a herd of about 15 bison on the road AND our first brown bear. We stopped and photographed him. We found a delightful lunch spot amongst all this fabulous scenery. Wow. On driving through the small township of Burwash Landing, an interesting log cabin style museum beckoned us in. Absolutely fabulous display here of wildlife of the Yukon. We spent an hour or so here looking at everything and watching a short video. Eventually we arrive at tonight’s destination Beavers Creek, a tiny town that has a population of 200. We find a very quiet spot to park for the night adjacent to the indoor swimming pool.
23rd August
We start the day with a look through the visitor centre at Burwash Landing. I saw an immaculate 2 door Cadillac outside the Information Centre. The Alaska Highway book briefly mentioned Sid’s “car museum” in Beaver Creek. So when we went into the Info centre and an immaculately dressed man with shoulder length silver hair and bald pate with a name badge that said “Sid”, I asked about the Museum! He said no one was home but gave us a detailed map and how to open the garages and sheds to see his treasures. Can only happen when on the road!! The only Ford Sunliner I have seen outside of Harrahs in Reno! http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/678.cfm
We leave Yukon behind shortly after leaving Beavers Creek and enter Alaska, a photo opportunity here. And then we go through passport control, we are now in the United States of America and we gain one hour.
A brief stop at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge and a look around the centre and travel on to Tok (pronounced Toke). There are many stops because of the huge operation of road construction that is taking place upgrading the highway. Huge machinery employed in this task. Cars are pulled up and one side of the highway is able to travel. One can wait for up to 10 minutes until it is your turn. A pilot car guides you through when permitted to travel on. Not unusual to see women operating the huge tractors and caterpillars. This work can only be carried out until the snow arrives when everything comes to a standstill until the warmer weather arrives. We arrive in Tok, have a look around a very well stocked gift shop here. I buy a cute Alaskan bear, his name is Brambles but he has already been nicknamed Bram. We had a look at some cute Husky puppies that were for sale and got off on the road again. Destination tonight is Delta Junction, the northern terminus of the Alaska Highway and the only road link between Alaska and Canada. We pull into the visitor centre, have a look around and then a walk through the adjoining area where old machinery is on display. Find an off road parking spot for the evening.
24th August
We leave Delta Junction this morning, on the road to Fairbanks, it is a bright morning which provided a spectacular panorama of the scenic mountain range here, ice capped and the highest peaks on the north American continent at over 20,000 feet. Absolutely glorious. The Alaska Highway has now become the Richardson Highway. A short drive out of town and we pull in where we can view a section of the huge gas pipeline which runs from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, some 800 kilometers long. Our next stop is at Rikas Roadhouse, not at all as it sounds, it is in fact set in a large national park on the banks of the Tanana River. There is a restored roadhouse here originally built in 1910. There are quite a lot of old log buildings here with lots of old artifacts inside so we spend time wandering through them before hitting the road again. http://www.rikas.com/roadhouse.html
Fairbanks at 64 degrees and 48 minutes North is in our windscreen view. Our most northern destination.
A very full and interesting week.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
Week Two Merrits BC to Watsons Lake Yukon
The Second Week
North To Alaska
Merritt/Kamloops/Quesnel/Whistlers Bay/Dawsons Creek/Fort St John/Fort Nelson/Laird Hot Springs/Watsons Lake
9th August
Today is departure day from Agassiz. I start the day with morning exercise, a bike ride, down the runway on the farm, out onto the road and a little way into the village Agassiz, very quiet, large properties, you hardly see a soul – just the odd cow and horse here and there. I was very cautious though about riding on the right-hand side of the road. We spend the morning preparing for departure. Noel has a few last minute jobs to do on Ronnie, i.e. assembling bike rack on her back and clips on the bikes plus few other maintenance things are carried out. Peter is sorry to see us go; we have relieved the situation somewhat for him with Joyce. He has enjoyed having time with his mate Noel and we think we have helped out as much as is possible with the situation for him a little. We hope so anyway. We thank Peter and Joyce for their hospitality. We will return after our travels.
On the road in Rocinante in the early afternoon after a drive up to Harrison to see if the Speed Boat Poker Run got underway in inclement weather. The Slow 25 Km bike ride from Agassiz which had 10 farm operations to visit in the trip was a big success even though the drizzle persisted. We saw about 500 cyclists either on the road or at the various venues which ranged from bee keeper to cheese maker. The coffee roaster and the 300 head dairy with all the moo cows inside sheds were also on the itinerary!
We spotted our first wild life just 10 km out of Agassiz when a coyote crossed the secondary highway! He was called Wiley. We told him the road runner had just crossed before him. He thanked us profusely and went on his way – slowly. A different landscape exists today, it has been raining: Tall fir trees rising high into the majestic mountains which are shrouded in rising mist and disappear into the clouds – spectacularly scenic.
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch Heaven.
Reads an inscription by William Shakespeare on a plaque before entering the walk through the tunnels. The Othello Tunnels are situated just north of Hope in the Coquihalla Canyon and were a must see. They are located in an area called the Kettle Valley Railway. We parked Ronnie and off we went. Very interesting, 43 bridges here and 13 huge tunnels; we walked through three of them, they were constructed between 1913-1916 as part of the early railway system which connected the Okanagan to Hope and transported people and cargo during the latter period of the gold rush era. A magnificent engineering masterpiece when considering the lack of modern machinery in those times. Much of the excavations would have been hewn by human labour. The Coquihalla River runs alongside. Very scenic. In the 1950s damaged by too many avalanches, the line was taken out of service. On our walk back to the parking area we were hailed by Pam and Bruce – “Are you the Aussies”, they ask, Noel wearing his Akubra gave us away. They had seen Ronnie in the car park with the Aussie flag in the back window. And they had parked next to us. “Yeah, how you going”, we replied. We spent 20 minutes or so exchanging travelling tales. They are rice farmers from Denilliqin in New South Wales and had just been to Alaska. Nice to chat to folks from home.
We spent some more time chatting to some local folks and watching steelhead (a kind of ocean trout) jumping through the rapids. So an entertaining hour and a half. We walk back to Ronnie and get on the road again for a couple more hours and pull into the township of Merritt.
Merritt is recognised as the country music capital of Canada and is situated within the scenic Nicola Valley. We park in car park of the local swimming pool and ice hockey venue. Our overnight venue for the night. Decide to go take a gander at the game, just a practice match, and a first for me, never seen ice hockey played before. Those boys can really move it. We spent half an hour watching the action and then returned “home” for din dins. A good day.
10th August
Before breakfast we take a walk around the township of Merritt. It is the biggest country music town in Canada. It also boasts the Merritt Walk of Stars, a collection of bronze stars bearing the handprints and signatures of country music superstars and popular newcomers including a young Keith Urban. So we followed the route as part of our exercise walk before setting off. There was also some very good artwork murals of many country music stars painted on brick walls around town. Very well done – and no graffiti either – no vandals here obviously. Nice to see. Back to Ronnie, have brekky and then we hit the road Jack. We are going to make Kamloops today for our overnighter – not a big drive – but we have time to take in the sights en route. We have morning tea at Lake Nicola, pretty area, lake and bush setting. We stop for a photo opportunity at Quilchena, a beautiful old hotel there that dates back to 1906, very picturesque. We drive into Kamloops at around lunch time. The scenery on drive has changed dramatically. It is very dry; hundreds of dead pine trees, the pine beetle is to blame. Up to 75% attack in some areas of central BC. The mild winters have allowed it to flourish.
Kamloops is quite a large town, it gets quite hot here, sits low in a bowl but today weather is coolish. We park in the large car park of the information centre. I wander over to find out what there is to do in the area. We have lunch and decide to go and do a recommended walk in Petersen Creek Nature Park. After a frustrating drive up and down city streets to find the park – and after some instructions from a helpful local – it was located. We parked and set off, followed one of the walks – well, what a walk – it wasn’t really a walk – but an arduous climb – great views though and we enjoyed the challenge and the exercise after driving for half the day. At the highest point we were 1600 feet above Ronnie. Back to Ronnie for a rest and a follow up phone call to Eddie, a friend of Sandy’s friend Mary (from Bribie) to say we would drop by to say hi. She had been waiting to hear from us. We put her address into Tom Tom and arrived there with no dramas. A very friendly Canadian lady and her friend entertained us for an hour. Beautiful house, a b. and b. with glorious views over the township of Kamloops. We took our leave and drove to Riverside Park. There is a free concert in the park tonight. We park and walk on over to the concert venue with our chairs. Quite a good folksy band playing Canadian stuff with an Irish flavour to it. A good evening of music and then home and we cook dinner. We decide we’ll stay put in the park car park for the night – a nice quiet venue although I do wake with a start in the night – a train track runs adjacent to the car park and one of the Rocky Mountaineer trains passes in the early hours of the morning. Another good day.
11th August
Start the day with a bike ride around the pretty lake of the park, lots of folks doing their early morning exercise, walking or cycling. We saw two more Rocky Mountaineer trains and a number of coaches off-loading passengers about to embark on the train trip. We spend time watching this precision operation of unloading passengers from coaches at various points of the train. Very impressive train with glass roofs for maximum viewing potential.
Back for breakfast and on road. We stop at a very scenic lake area for morning tea. We have lunch at an area called 100 Mile House. This is logging country, the main industry in this region. We encounter many trucks carrying logs on the road. We stop at a logging operation where they build log homes, big cranes dropping logs into place, huge machinery etc. A good photo opportunity.
On road again and we come across a little pub in an area called McLeese Lake. Decide we’ll stop for a beer. We go out onto the veranda and get talking to the locals including a couple of young girls; they work at the local Gibraltar Mine, a gold and copper mining operation. So a pleasant hour spent chatting to residents, we have found everybody to be very informative so far and they are interested to hear our travels plans and where home is for us. Our destination tonight is the town of Quesnel. We park outside of town at Wal-Mart. Wal-Marts are always on the outskirts of town. There is no problem with parking RVs in their huge car parks overnight. In fact they welcome it as we are going to spend money in their store. Have a look through the store – another first for me – a shop in Wal-Mart and a sleep in the car park of a huge supermarket!!! What a huge complex, you can buy ANYTHING here. Would be easily six times the size of our Hypermarket. Every day is different.
12th August
We start the day with a fuel refill; our most expensive part of this trip is fuel. Filled her up - $300 worth equaling 210 litres. You have to pay before the fuel fill. Nobody can fuel and hit the road here. She filled with a little less than the 300 so you then receive the change plus a voucher to spent in the adjoining supermarket – 5 cents a litre – we got just over 10 bucks so we spent it on few needed groceries before getting on the road. During the fill we got chatting to Elton (no, not THE Elton John) and he didn’t sing “Yellow Brick Road”. But he did hunt for yellow stuff – gold. He travels through Canada following gold panning competitions. He showed us some exhibits in little bottles. Refueled and on the road again – just a little drive into the main town centre of Quesnel.
This is a place of gnarly old lumberjacks and laser guided sawmills 10,000 year old native cultures, mysterious backwoods, curio shops, and a city of bridges, flowers and logging trucks.
We parked in the large car park of the information centre, very pretty with loads of flowers and baskets of beautiful blooming pansies and petunias. A lovely spot for breakfast. Noel got some information from the centre of what to do in town while I cleared away. He said we were going on a walk to look at 22 fire hydrants. “Mmm, right, this is going to be an interesting walk, can’t wait to see all these fire hydrants.” But one should never prejudge – it turned out that each hydrant was a painted replica of prominent folks who settled in Quesnel dating back to the late 1800s. So we saw hydrants depicting one of the first school teachers, the banker, an engineer, a Judge (had photo with him), I bowed of course and said, “G’day, Your Honour”, a pilot (Noel had photo with him) naturally. And most of the others. We walked over the old wooden bridge too, the longest foot bridge in BC, there was a lot of old farm machinery, part of an old paddle steamer paddles and other stuff on the heritage grassy area beside the bridge. We then spent an interesting hour in the museum that adjoined the information centre. Many old exhibits and information about the gold rush days. This area has huge logging operations; we saw dozens upon dozens of huge trucks carrying their log loads to local mills.
Left Quesnell and drove to a very nice lunch spot location, Hush Lake, had to be very quiet here! Extremely peaceful and beautiful, lots of trees, couple of blokes fly fishing on the lake.
We drive on. Our overnight stop tonight is Whistlers Bay which is on McLeod Lake. We’re in the middle of nowhere but a nice peaceful spot for an overnighter.
13th August
We wake to a foggy morning. We’re on the road by 8 a.m. A wild moose is sighted 170 kays short of Dawson Creek. We clock up 100 kays and then stop for breakfast at West Pine rest area and then we continue our drive to Dawson Creek passing through Groundbirch, Progress Hill, and Arras.
Dawson Creek is a natural hub for the north as it lies at the junction of four highways and the railroad. It is also the starting point of the world famous Alaska Highway dedicated in 1996 as the 16th Wonder of the World. We take photos in town of the exhibit which reads zero miles on the Highway to Alaska.
Dawson Creek is the trading, transportation and service centre for the vast Peace River country. Agriculture, forestry, tourism, gas and oil all support a strong economy. The railway and natural gas pipelines convey the area’s wealth of petroleum and agricultural resources to distant markets.
We arrive in D/C in time for lunch and park in the information centre car park. Did the usual pick up info of what to do in the area and had a walk through town. Today we had a splurge and bought lunch, discovered a little café which was part of an antique/second hand shop. We bought extremely tasty corn bread salad wraps, a most hospital proprietor chatted to us. Quite a quaint little place.
Thus sated, went back to the info centre where we explore yet another museum. It is situated alongside the railway line and the original railway waiting rooms and station master’s accommodation is part of the museum. Lots of exhibits to view that depict early days in Dawson Creek. We watched part of a film that told the story of the construction of the highway to Alaska. It was built in 1942 and took nine months to build the 2500 kilometer road and employed 27,000 civilian and forces labour. An amazing feat.
Then into the art gallery housed in an old grain silo. Some nice pieces here some of which are displayed on staircase walls.
Noel sighted a sports store – a must look zone. I was quite amazed at the range of rifles and guns on sale. Noel, the ex gun shop operator, was most interested to look at the merchandise.
There is full shooter licensing in Canada, but just a formality of registration and you can buy anything. I was taken with the Steyr .5 BMG single shot rifle with 24X scope. Even had my pix taken with it! Their handgun sales have risen 40% since the licensing was instigated!
After a busy afternoon we go back “home” for a welcome g. and t. and a rest. Decide we’ll have dinner out tonight too – a complete day off – no cooking. We had an extremely nice meal in the local diner, very quiet, just the two of us. We stayed put in the car park opposite the restaurant for the night, not exactly a scenic venue but once curtains were closed we could have been anywhere.
14th August
We leave Dawson Creek and get on the road, find a delightful spot to stop for brekky off the main Alaska Highway and onto the old extremely bumpy road before the new road was built. Would not like journey on that one. However, our pull in spot is above a lake shrouded on each side by a blanket of pine trees reflecting on the little lake, sunshine breaking through, so peaceful. The engineering marvel that is called the curved bridge is located on the old track and towers over the river. Wooden and intact after 60 years; it is magnificent in the morning sun.
Destination today is Fort St John. In 1952 gas and oil was discovered and in 1957 a refinery at Taylor and a pipeline to the south had been built. This city is rich in natural resources mainly oil and gas, timber and hydroelectricity and agriculture. More grain, forage, seed and honey is produced here than anywhere else in British Columbia (BC).
We have a possible contact here, alas we can’t track him down but in so doing we again spent some time talking to local people firstly in a sort of services club; The Legion, the lady that runs the catering there and some old guys who were born and bred in this area and still living there 70 old years later. We are offered free coffee and a mini doughnut while listening to their stories. Next stop is the art gallery, a beautiful art and gift shop there and Sheh who runs the gallery was happy to show us around and talk. Some beautiful exhibits here, pottery and many other ornamental type things, all very unusual.
I; (Noel) being the designated photographer, asked Sheh if I could take a photo of her in the middle of this lovely gallery. I suggested that beside the battered rancher’s hat that was part of a display. She then went on to explain it was the actual headwear of famed Bush Pilot Jimmy “Midnight” Anderson. I mentioned that I had an hour or two in the air and was presented with a copy of his Biography!!
We leave Fort St John and head off, want to get some kays under belt this afternoon. Destination is Fort Nelson. Arrive early evening and a beer and nibblies go down well while we check the prices of petrol at the 3 gas stations in town. 152.9 cents seems to be the best deal per litre. We are at 58 degrees north!! We fuel up and on way home to cook when Noel sights two huge semi’s with tipper trailers. We wander over and chat to the two guys standing beside them. The trucks are carrying 25 tonnes of contaminated soil so the boys talked “boy talk” about all things to do with semi trailers. After getting on best buddy terms, I was invited to sit in the driver’s seat of one of the trucks. So up I clamber and feel like I am in the cockpit of an aeroplane. My goodness, the amount of dials and switches that operate this huge piece of machinery is incredible. The other driver then said I could have a look at his “cockpit” too. So up into that one – same sort of thing. He had a very nice “bedroom” behind the driving area, a ceiling with small lights and little motives dangling from the ceiling. These boys obviously have everything they need to make life comfortable in these huge trucks. We eventually wandered on back to Ronnie, tuned in to the Olympics and cooked dinner. An eventful day!!!
15th August
Fort Nelson is a thriving community with an economy based on forestry, oil, gas and tourism. North America’s largest gas processing plant and two of the largest wood product operations in BC are located here. Established as a fur trading post in early 1800s, Fort Nelson flourished as the result of the construction of the Alaska Highway in the early 40s.
There is an interesting looking museum in town, decide to take a look before heading off. It is absolutely crammed full of memorabilia from early days. A hidden treasure. We wander through. It captures the flavour of the early days in Fort Nelson. Outside there are lots of exhibits too. Another building houses old vintage cars from way back including a 1908 Dodge that only this year was driven to Fairbanks Alaska and back, it took four days each way. Amazing. We got talking to the guy that runs the museum, Marle, he has been instrumental in collecting all of the exhibits, he is 76. He gave us a demonstration cycling on an odd shaped bike he had built. He’s doing well for 76.
We talked to the lady who does the gardening, beautiful arrangements of flowers everywhere in garden beds and baskets. Another museum worker opened up an old original cottage, fur trappers lodge and the post office. She was most informative and advised us that we should visit Liard Hot Springs as we would be passing them today. It sounded interesting so we decided to make that our overnight destination.
We had a brunch stop a little way out of town, we always seem to come across a nice scenic area for meal stops – not hard to do though in this beautiful country - and then we got down to covering a fair bit of distance arriving at Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park late afternoon. It is a pay site, our first non boondocking site, $19 for the night, no facilities but you are allocated a camp site area in beautiful bushland setting and access toi the hot springs. We park and settle in. It was drizzling on arrival but shortly after pulling in, sunshine broke through. We decide to go and take a look at the hot springs and take a dip. En route, a talk by one of the rangers is going on so we stop and listen in – informative facts regarding everything to do with bears. We shall remember the safety rules learned. We are in serious bear country now. Our only wild life sighting though at the springs are two cute little squirrels. We walk 10 minutes down the board walk to the hot springs. Water temperature is in the high forties at one end to 42 at the cool end. A beautifully relaxing soak floating through the steaming waters. A most enjoyable way to end the day.
16th August
We decide on another dip in the springs before leaving this morning. So another nice relaxing float. Story has it that any aches and pains you may have are soon dissipated after floating through the health giving waters that are very rich in minerals. We check out and get on the road. Today’s destination is Watsons Lake. A very scenic drive. We stop for photo opportunities here and there including a sighting of a herd of around 50 buffalo.
We leave BC behind today and enter Yukon Territory eventually arriving at Watsons Lake. We decide to stay in an RV park tonight too; we need to do laundry, so we book in one right in the town centre. Almost next door to us is Sign Post Forest. It was started by a homesick Army GI who erected a sign pointing to his home and the mileage there. Today there are over 70,000 licence plates, Town Signs and even a few thousand of one’s hometown and the distance to it!!! and traffic signs mounted on sturdy trunks, decorated and displayed in various ways. Each year more than 2,000 signs are added. Quite a sight. We went for a bike ride this afternoon, nice to stretch legs and do some exercise and see the town by bike instead of vehicle. We decide we’ll spend the majority of Sunday here as there appears to be quite a few things to do. We buy sausages and Noel barbecues while I do the laundry.
17th August
We decide we’ll start the day with a bike ride around Wye Lake Park but on way to park we pass the local soft ball arena, an all day competition is on, part of Discovery Day weekend celebrations. So we park bikes and go watch the game for half an hour. Another first – never watched softball played before. They are quite good players for a small town, good atmosphere in the bleachers. We go on our way to the park; there are boardwalk trails that lead into quite dense bushy forest that loops around the lake. Very peaceful, pretty, we spent over an hour riding through the trails. Lovely. Back for brunch with another ride through Signpost Forest. Afternoon entertainment was at the Northern Lights Space and Science Centre. We cycled there via the soft ball park again and spent about 15 minutes or so watching the current game.
The Northern Lights Centre features daily shows about the folklore and science of the northern lights in the “electric sky” theatre. A very well set up complex with reclining comfortable seats for viewing the “sky”. The second part of the show tells the story of the aurora borealis beautifully depicted on the huge screen. If we are lucky we may view it although not the ideal time of year. Back to Ronnie and we prepare for the road. We have been connected to a power site so we disconnect, fill up water etc. Refuel, discount here as we have overnighted in the RV site. We get on the road and leave town via the old air terminal building. We will overnight tonight at Teslin approximately 200 kays and a half way mark before the city of Whitehorse.
An extremely enjoyable week. Every day was different.
North To Alaska
Merritt/Kamloops/Quesnel/Whistlers Bay/Dawsons Creek/Fort St John/Fort Nelson/Laird Hot Springs/Watsons Lake
9th August
Today is departure day from Agassiz. I start the day with morning exercise, a bike ride, down the runway on the farm, out onto the road and a little way into the village Agassiz, very quiet, large properties, you hardly see a soul – just the odd cow and horse here and there. I was very cautious though about riding on the right-hand side of the road. We spend the morning preparing for departure. Noel has a few last minute jobs to do on Ronnie, i.e. assembling bike rack on her back and clips on the bikes plus few other maintenance things are carried out. Peter is sorry to see us go; we have relieved the situation somewhat for him with Joyce. He has enjoyed having time with his mate Noel and we think we have helped out as much as is possible with the situation for him a little. We hope so anyway. We thank Peter and Joyce for their hospitality. We will return after our travels.
On the road in Rocinante in the early afternoon after a drive up to Harrison to see if the Speed Boat Poker Run got underway in inclement weather. The Slow 25 Km bike ride from Agassiz which had 10 farm operations to visit in the trip was a big success even though the drizzle persisted. We saw about 500 cyclists either on the road or at the various venues which ranged from bee keeper to cheese maker. The coffee roaster and the 300 head dairy with all the moo cows inside sheds were also on the itinerary!
We spotted our first wild life just 10 km out of Agassiz when a coyote crossed the secondary highway! He was called Wiley. We told him the road runner had just crossed before him. He thanked us profusely and went on his way – slowly. A different landscape exists today, it has been raining: Tall fir trees rising high into the majestic mountains which are shrouded in rising mist and disappear into the clouds – spectacularly scenic.
Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch Heaven.
Reads an inscription by William Shakespeare on a plaque before entering the walk through the tunnels. The Othello Tunnels are situated just north of Hope in the Coquihalla Canyon and were a must see. They are located in an area called the Kettle Valley Railway. We parked Ronnie and off we went. Very interesting, 43 bridges here and 13 huge tunnels; we walked through three of them, they were constructed between 1913-1916 as part of the early railway system which connected the Okanagan to Hope and transported people and cargo during the latter period of the gold rush era. A magnificent engineering masterpiece when considering the lack of modern machinery in those times. Much of the excavations would have been hewn by human labour. The Coquihalla River runs alongside. Very scenic. In the 1950s damaged by too many avalanches, the line was taken out of service. On our walk back to the parking area we were hailed by Pam and Bruce – “Are you the Aussies”, they ask, Noel wearing his Akubra gave us away. They had seen Ronnie in the car park with the Aussie flag in the back window. And they had parked next to us. “Yeah, how you going”, we replied. We spent 20 minutes or so exchanging travelling tales. They are rice farmers from Denilliqin in New South Wales and had just been to Alaska. Nice to chat to folks from home.
We spent some more time chatting to some local folks and watching steelhead (a kind of ocean trout) jumping through the rapids. So an entertaining hour and a half. We walk back to Ronnie and get on the road again for a couple more hours and pull into the township of Merritt.
Merritt is recognised as the country music capital of Canada and is situated within the scenic Nicola Valley. We park in car park of the local swimming pool and ice hockey venue. Our overnight venue for the night. Decide to go take a gander at the game, just a practice match, and a first for me, never seen ice hockey played before. Those boys can really move it. We spent half an hour watching the action and then returned “home” for din dins. A good day.
10th August
Before breakfast we take a walk around the township of Merritt. It is the biggest country music town in Canada. It also boasts the Merritt Walk of Stars, a collection of bronze stars bearing the handprints and signatures of country music superstars and popular newcomers including a young Keith Urban. So we followed the route as part of our exercise walk before setting off. There was also some very good artwork murals of many country music stars painted on brick walls around town. Very well done – and no graffiti either – no vandals here obviously. Nice to see. Back to Ronnie, have brekky and then we hit the road Jack. We are going to make Kamloops today for our overnighter – not a big drive – but we have time to take in the sights en route. We have morning tea at Lake Nicola, pretty area, lake and bush setting. We stop for a photo opportunity at Quilchena, a beautiful old hotel there that dates back to 1906, very picturesque. We drive into Kamloops at around lunch time. The scenery on drive has changed dramatically. It is very dry; hundreds of dead pine trees, the pine beetle is to blame. Up to 75% attack in some areas of central BC. The mild winters have allowed it to flourish.
Kamloops is quite a large town, it gets quite hot here, sits low in a bowl but today weather is coolish. We park in the large car park of the information centre. I wander over to find out what there is to do in the area. We have lunch and decide to go and do a recommended walk in Petersen Creek Nature Park. After a frustrating drive up and down city streets to find the park – and after some instructions from a helpful local – it was located. We parked and set off, followed one of the walks – well, what a walk – it wasn’t really a walk – but an arduous climb – great views though and we enjoyed the challenge and the exercise after driving for half the day. At the highest point we were 1600 feet above Ronnie. Back to Ronnie for a rest and a follow up phone call to Eddie, a friend of Sandy’s friend Mary (from Bribie) to say we would drop by to say hi. She had been waiting to hear from us. We put her address into Tom Tom and arrived there with no dramas. A very friendly Canadian lady and her friend entertained us for an hour. Beautiful house, a b. and b. with glorious views over the township of Kamloops. We took our leave and drove to Riverside Park. There is a free concert in the park tonight. We park and walk on over to the concert venue with our chairs. Quite a good folksy band playing Canadian stuff with an Irish flavour to it. A good evening of music and then home and we cook dinner. We decide we’ll stay put in the park car park for the night – a nice quiet venue although I do wake with a start in the night – a train track runs adjacent to the car park and one of the Rocky Mountaineer trains passes in the early hours of the morning. Another good day.
11th August
Start the day with a bike ride around the pretty lake of the park, lots of folks doing their early morning exercise, walking or cycling. We saw two more Rocky Mountaineer trains and a number of coaches off-loading passengers about to embark on the train trip. We spend time watching this precision operation of unloading passengers from coaches at various points of the train. Very impressive train with glass roofs for maximum viewing potential.
Back for breakfast and on road. We stop at a very scenic lake area for morning tea. We have lunch at an area called 100 Mile House. This is logging country, the main industry in this region. We encounter many trucks carrying logs on the road. We stop at a logging operation where they build log homes, big cranes dropping logs into place, huge machinery etc. A good photo opportunity.
On road again and we come across a little pub in an area called McLeese Lake. Decide we’ll stop for a beer. We go out onto the veranda and get talking to the locals including a couple of young girls; they work at the local Gibraltar Mine, a gold and copper mining operation. So a pleasant hour spent chatting to residents, we have found everybody to be very informative so far and they are interested to hear our travels plans and where home is for us. Our destination tonight is the town of Quesnel. We park outside of town at Wal-Mart. Wal-Marts are always on the outskirts of town. There is no problem with parking RVs in their huge car parks overnight. In fact they welcome it as we are going to spend money in their store. Have a look through the store – another first for me – a shop in Wal-Mart and a sleep in the car park of a huge supermarket!!! What a huge complex, you can buy ANYTHING here. Would be easily six times the size of our Hypermarket. Every day is different.
12th August
We start the day with a fuel refill; our most expensive part of this trip is fuel. Filled her up - $300 worth equaling 210 litres. You have to pay before the fuel fill. Nobody can fuel and hit the road here. She filled with a little less than the 300 so you then receive the change plus a voucher to spent in the adjoining supermarket – 5 cents a litre – we got just over 10 bucks so we spent it on few needed groceries before getting on the road. During the fill we got chatting to Elton (no, not THE Elton John) and he didn’t sing “Yellow Brick Road”. But he did hunt for yellow stuff – gold. He travels through Canada following gold panning competitions. He showed us some exhibits in little bottles. Refueled and on the road again – just a little drive into the main town centre of Quesnel.
This is a place of gnarly old lumberjacks and laser guided sawmills 10,000 year old native cultures, mysterious backwoods, curio shops, and a city of bridges, flowers and logging trucks.
We parked in the large car park of the information centre, very pretty with loads of flowers and baskets of beautiful blooming pansies and petunias. A lovely spot for breakfast. Noel got some information from the centre of what to do in town while I cleared away. He said we were going on a walk to look at 22 fire hydrants. “Mmm, right, this is going to be an interesting walk, can’t wait to see all these fire hydrants.” But one should never prejudge – it turned out that each hydrant was a painted replica of prominent folks who settled in Quesnel dating back to the late 1800s. So we saw hydrants depicting one of the first school teachers, the banker, an engineer, a Judge (had photo with him), I bowed of course and said, “G’day, Your Honour”, a pilot (Noel had photo with him) naturally. And most of the others. We walked over the old wooden bridge too, the longest foot bridge in BC, there was a lot of old farm machinery, part of an old paddle steamer paddles and other stuff on the heritage grassy area beside the bridge. We then spent an interesting hour in the museum that adjoined the information centre. Many old exhibits and information about the gold rush days. This area has huge logging operations; we saw dozens upon dozens of huge trucks carrying their log loads to local mills.
Left Quesnell and drove to a very nice lunch spot location, Hush Lake, had to be very quiet here! Extremely peaceful and beautiful, lots of trees, couple of blokes fly fishing on the lake.
We drive on. Our overnight stop tonight is Whistlers Bay which is on McLeod Lake. We’re in the middle of nowhere but a nice peaceful spot for an overnighter.
13th August
We wake to a foggy morning. We’re on the road by 8 a.m. A wild moose is sighted 170 kays short of Dawson Creek. We clock up 100 kays and then stop for breakfast at West Pine rest area and then we continue our drive to Dawson Creek passing through Groundbirch, Progress Hill, and Arras.
Dawson Creek is a natural hub for the north as it lies at the junction of four highways and the railroad. It is also the starting point of the world famous Alaska Highway dedicated in 1996 as the 16th Wonder of the World. We take photos in town of the exhibit which reads zero miles on the Highway to Alaska.
Dawson Creek is the trading, transportation and service centre for the vast Peace River country. Agriculture, forestry, tourism, gas and oil all support a strong economy. The railway and natural gas pipelines convey the area’s wealth of petroleum and agricultural resources to distant markets.
We arrive in D/C in time for lunch and park in the information centre car park. Did the usual pick up info of what to do in the area and had a walk through town. Today we had a splurge and bought lunch, discovered a little café which was part of an antique/second hand shop. We bought extremely tasty corn bread salad wraps, a most hospital proprietor chatted to us. Quite a quaint little place.
Thus sated, went back to the info centre where we explore yet another museum. It is situated alongside the railway line and the original railway waiting rooms and station master’s accommodation is part of the museum. Lots of exhibits to view that depict early days in Dawson Creek. We watched part of a film that told the story of the construction of the highway to Alaska. It was built in 1942 and took nine months to build the 2500 kilometer road and employed 27,000 civilian and forces labour. An amazing feat.
Then into the art gallery housed in an old grain silo. Some nice pieces here some of which are displayed on staircase walls.
Noel sighted a sports store – a must look zone. I was quite amazed at the range of rifles and guns on sale. Noel, the ex gun shop operator, was most interested to look at the merchandise.
There is full shooter licensing in Canada, but just a formality of registration and you can buy anything. I was taken with the Steyr .5 BMG single shot rifle with 24X scope. Even had my pix taken with it! Their handgun sales have risen 40% since the licensing was instigated!
After a busy afternoon we go back “home” for a welcome g. and t. and a rest. Decide we’ll have dinner out tonight too – a complete day off – no cooking. We had an extremely nice meal in the local diner, very quiet, just the two of us. We stayed put in the car park opposite the restaurant for the night, not exactly a scenic venue but once curtains were closed we could have been anywhere.
14th August
We leave Dawson Creek and get on the road, find a delightful spot to stop for brekky off the main Alaska Highway and onto the old extremely bumpy road before the new road was built. Would not like journey on that one. However, our pull in spot is above a lake shrouded on each side by a blanket of pine trees reflecting on the little lake, sunshine breaking through, so peaceful. The engineering marvel that is called the curved bridge is located on the old track and towers over the river. Wooden and intact after 60 years; it is magnificent in the morning sun.
Destination today is Fort St John. In 1952 gas and oil was discovered and in 1957 a refinery at Taylor and a pipeline to the south had been built. This city is rich in natural resources mainly oil and gas, timber and hydroelectricity and agriculture. More grain, forage, seed and honey is produced here than anywhere else in British Columbia (BC).
We have a possible contact here, alas we can’t track him down but in so doing we again spent some time talking to local people firstly in a sort of services club; The Legion, the lady that runs the catering there and some old guys who were born and bred in this area and still living there 70 old years later. We are offered free coffee and a mini doughnut while listening to their stories. Next stop is the art gallery, a beautiful art and gift shop there and Sheh who runs the gallery was happy to show us around and talk. Some beautiful exhibits here, pottery and many other ornamental type things, all very unusual.
I; (Noel) being the designated photographer, asked Sheh if I could take a photo of her in the middle of this lovely gallery. I suggested that beside the battered rancher’s hat that was part of a display. She then went on to explain it was the actual headwear of famed Bush Pilot Jimmy “Midnight” Anderson. I mentioned that I had an hour or two in the air and was presented with a copy of his Biography!!
We leave Fort St John and head off, want to get some kays under belt this afternoon. Destination is Fort Nelson. Arrive early evening and a beer and nibblies go down well while we check the prices of petrol at the 3 gas stations in town. 152.9 cents seems to be the best deal per litre. We are at 58 degrees north!! We fuel up and on way home to cook when Noel sights two huge semi’s with tipper trailers. We wander over and chat to the two guys standing beside them. The trucks are carrying 25 tonnes of contaminated soil so the boys talked “boy talk” about all things to do with semi trailers. After getting on best buddy terms, I was invited to sit in the driver’s seat of one of the trucks. So up I clamber and feel like I am in the cockpit of an aeroplane. My goodness, the amount of dials and switches that operate this huge piece of machinery is incredible. The other driver then said I could have a look at his “cockpit” too. So up into that one – same sort of thing. He had a very nice “bedroom” behind the driving area, a ceiling with small lights and little motives dangling from the ceiling. These boys obviously have everything they need to make life comfortable in these huge trucks. We eventually wandered on back to Ronnie, tuned in to the Olympics and cooked dinner. An eventful day!!!
15th August
Fort Nelson is a thriving community with an economy based on forestry, oil, gas and tourism. North America’s largest gas processing plant and two of the largest wood product operations in BC are located here. Established as a fur trading post in early 1800s, Fort Nelson flourished as the result of the construction of the Alaska Highway in the early 40s.
There is an interesting looking museum in town, decide to take a look before heading off. It is absolutely crammed full of memorabilia from early days. A hidden treasure. We wander through. It captures the flavour of the early days in Fort Nelson. Outside there are lots of exhibits too. Another building houses old vintage cars from way back including a 1908 Dodge that only this year was driven to Fairbanks Alaska and back, it took four days each way. Amazing. We got talking to the guy that runs the museum, Marle, he has been instrumental in collecting all of the exhibits, he is 76. He gave us a demonstration cycling on an odd shaped bike he had built. He’s doing well for 76.
We talked to the lady who does the gardening, beautiful arrangements of flowers everywhere in garden beds and baskets. Another museum worker opened up an old original cottage, fur trappers lodge and the post office. She was most informative and advised us that we should visit Liard Hot Springs as we would be passing them today. It sounded interesting so we decided to make that our overnight destination.
We had a brunch stop a little way out of town, we always seem to come across a nice scenic area for meal stops – not hard to do though in this beautiful country - and then we got down to covering a fair bit of distance arriving at Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park late afternoon. It is a pay site, our first non boondocking site, $19 for the night, no facilities but you are allocated a camp site area in beautiful bushland setting and access toi the hot springs. We park and settle in. It was drizzling on arrival but shortly after pulling in, sunshine broke through. We decide to go and take a look at the hot springs and take a dip. En route, a talk by one of the rangers is going on so we stop and listen in – informative facts regarding everything to do with bears. We shall remember the safety rules learned. We are in serious bear country now. Our only wild life sighting though at the springs are two cute little squirrels. We walk 10 minutes down the board walk to the hot springs. Water temperature is in the high forties at one end to 42 at the cool end. A beautifully relaxing soak floating through the steaming waters. A most enjoyable way to end the day.
16th August
We decide on another dip in the springs before leaving this morning. So another nice relaxing float. Story has it that any aches and pains you may have are soon dissipated after floating through the health giving waters that are very rich in minerals. We check out and get on the road. Today’s destination is Watsons Lake. A very scenic drive. We stop for photo opportunities here and there including a sighting of a herd of around 50 buffalo.
We leave BC behind today and enter Yukon Territory eventually arriving at Watsons Lake. We decide to stay in an RV park tonight too; we need to do laundry, so we book in one right in the town centre. Almost next door to us is Sign Post Forest. It was started by a homesick Army GI who erected a sign pointing to his home and the mileage there. Today there are over 70,000 licence plates, Town Signs and even a few thousand of one’s hometown and the distance to it!!! and traffic signs mounted on sturdy trunks, decorated and displayed in various ways. Each year more than 2,000 signs are added. Quite a sight. We went for a bike ride this afternoon, nice to stretch legs and do some exercise and see the town by bike instead of vehicle. We decide we’ll spend the majority of Sunday here as there appears to be quite a few things to do. We buy sausages and Noel barbecues while I do the laundry.
17th August
We decide we’ll start the day with a bike ride around Wye Lake Park but on way to park we pass the local soft ball arena, an all day competition is on, part of Discovery Day weekend celebrations. So we park bikes and go watch the game for half an hour. Another first – never watched softball played before. They are quite good players for a small town, good atmosphere in the bleachers. We go on our way to the park; there are boardwalk trails that lead into quite dense bushy forest that loops around the lake. Very peaceful, pretty, we spent over an hour riding through the trails. Lovely. Back for brunch with another ride through Signpost Forest. Afternoon entertainment was at the Northern Lights Space and Science Centre. We cycled there via the soft ball park again and spent about 15 minutes or so watching the current game.
The Northern Lights Centre features daily shows about the folklore and science of the northern lights in the “electric sky” theatre. A very well set up complex with reclining comfortable seats for viewing the “sky”. The second part of the show tells the story of the aurora borealis beautifully depicted on the huge screen. If we are lucky we may view it although not the ideal time of year. Back to Ronnie and we prepare for the road. We have been connected to a power site so we disconnect, fill up water etc. Refuel, discount here as we have overnighted in the RV site. We get on the road and leave town via the old air terminal building. We will overnight tonight at Teslin approximately 200 kays and a half way mark before the city of Whitehorse.
An extremely enjoyable week. Every day was different.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Canada and Alaska
Adventures in Canada
Sandra’s Entry:
The 2nd of August dawned – our Canadian adventure was about to begin. After an early morning pick up from Beachmere, we arrived at the airport, so after checking in luggage we installed ourselves in Qantas Club and had a leisurely breakfast while awaiting our flight to Vancouver. Now can relax, always good to wind down once luggage has been waved goodbye. We boarded our Qantas flight to LA and some 12 hours later touched down on American soil. After formalities of fairly rigid passport control (photograph and fingerprint is taken) we were allowed through – reclaimed the luggage and checked it straight in again along with several thousands of other suitcases that get whizzed away down a conveyer belt. Quite an amazing operation – would we see them again was a thought that came to mind? (See subsequent note on arrival into Vancouver). We located The Board Room (LA’s equivalent of Qantas Club) where I am to while away the next few hours while Noel is taking a somewhat longer route to Vancouver than I flying to Dallas and then on to Vancouver, result of his having a RTW ticket and there being no direct AA flight from LA to Vancouver. Our arrival times worked well, Noel arriving 30 minutes before my arrival time. Once deplaned and through customs found Noel at desk going through the formalities of reporting a lost suitcase – a vital one that contained laptop and other electronic equipment. My suitcase arrived intact, thank goodness. We exit the airport and the long term parking bus delivers us to the parking area where Ronny is parked left there by Noel’s friends who have just completed several weeks touring Canada. (Ronnie is the name of the RV, short for Rocinante, Don Quixote’s horse). We find Ronnie with no trouble at all, she is large enough to take up two parking lots – now to find the keys hidden in secret location by Richard and Pat – they were found easily enough. I am introduced to Ronnie, a very spacious well equipped RV that contains just about everything one could wish for to make life comfortable including a well stocked fridge housing several cold beers – many thanks, Richard and Pat. As it is early evening we have decided to stay put in the airport and stay here overnight. This is a first – I have never slept in a carpark before. It is a beautiful warm evening, daylight saving means it doesn’t get dark till something past nine. The scenery of majestic mountains on the horizon, some snowcapped, in the distance is quite delightful. The view does change though a little lower down where there are lines of parked vehicles. I decide to keep vision up rather than down! A celebratory drink and toast for a happy holiday ensues, after a wind down we hit the hay and crash, we are pretty tired after the preceding travel hours.
3rd August
After a good sleep, breakfast and shower, we get on the road to Agassiz which is situated about 140 kays from the airport. We pass an RV services station en route to Agassiz. My first lesson in what happens to black water and grey water. Water is filled up and the nasties are dispersed of by way of large hoses that live in one of the bins under the van. We are to spend some time with Noel’s friends Peter and Joyce Irwin. They live at Stough (pronounced stuff) Farm, very aptly named, there is so much stuff here, quite unbelievable. There are barns full of stuff and a hangar housing two aeroplanes. We arrive at the farm a couple of hours later, a fairly easy route with instructions from our Tom Tom adviser – and Noel advising himself on a regular basis – “Keep right, Noel, keep right.” And he did, pleased about that, I was, and we arrived quite safely and parked. We find Joyce outside who very sadly suffers from Alzheimers – and shortly afterwards Peter is located, a nice reunion follows for Peter and Noel who haven’t seen one another for some 10 years or so.
Noel: Peter had been over at the neighbours on his 4WD ATV. We call them quad bikes. It was great reunion, about 11 years since last meeting. But it was as if it was yesterday. Pushed the Tripacer out and went for the standard 18 minute lap around Agassiz and Harrison and back over the peak. But the generator had gone on holidays after the recent 100 hourly!
4th August –
Noel: First thing next morning was to try and fix the problem, the generator and regulator wiring was all ok. So it was take the pair to a shop with the bench gear to be able to test them. Not an inconsiderable task on a little engine with the belt drive from the back of the starter gear. A trip into neighbouring Chilliwack to drop off the offending item at the auto electric repair centre was this morning’s agenda. We dropped in to see Dave and Cathy who live in a 40 foot converted coach complete with spa bath and mirror ceilings!! A quite amazing home with all mod cons and beautifully converted by Dave. He completed it about two years ago, he is 71, the finish is perfect. The boys (and girls) had a look around the small district airport which housed many aircraft and about 30 hangers housing extensive maintenance facilities. A lunch stop on way home. Back to the farm for a rest. We are still getting used to sleeping in a differing time zone. As well as having a social week here at the farm, it is an essential that Ronnie is checked over and making sure that everything is in good condition for the many kilometers she is going to do for us.
Sandy: A pleasant day was spent, a nice couple, Cathy and Dave (another pilot) arrived for dinner and spent a few hours with us and shared corn on the cob (seems to be the national Canadian cuisine), few beers and red wine for me. Corn is grown in abundance and there are many little corn huts where you drive in and buy a dozen cobs for around $6, freshly picked and very tasty eaten on lump of bread and butter.
5th August
An early start for drive to New Westminster Quay where we are to spend the day on an historic paddle steamer trip up the Fraser River. It is a beautiful summer’s day, temperatures in the high 20’s, blue skies and pleasantly warm. There are several celebratory routes taking place this week retracing the gold rush route from New West to Port Douglas and back. Part of the 150 year BC celebrations. Peter manages to book us on today’s trip which will take us to Mission via Fort Langley. We board the steamer and install ourselves on what turns out to be a good spot, cool with good views all around. There is plenty of room to walk around, folks on board are very convivial and happy to chat; although there was room for 80 passengers, only 50 tickets were sold which allowed plenty of space and quite a relaxed atmosphere was evident. The crew were very accommodating and chatty. The paddles started to rotate very shortly after 9 a.m. and we were off. Such absolutely stunning scenery, the fantastic continuous mountainous horizon of sleeping dinosaurs ever present, lush green forests beneath and thousands of logs floating down river.
There was commentary about the history of the era and a re-enactment ably performed by a cast dressed in the period costume of the day. Mr Yale talked about the fur trade and gold rush days and also starred in the little play. .
http://www.vancouverpaddlewheeler.com/index.html
Noel: The above link was our excursion today. Peter, Joyce, Sandy and I. It was a very special trip; or should I say the first leg of a momentous reenactment. In 1858 the first paddle wheeler made it through to Harrison Lake. The paddlers were the only way to the goldfields for about half a century!! The trip from Vancouver to Mission was halfway to Harrison and took all day. The last 20 km today had not seen a paddle steamer on the shallow Fraser river since the 1920's!!! Tomorrow’s trip to Harrison will be truely an adventure, but we have been only able to get tickets for today. We will buzz them in the Piper tomorrow arvo!! Weather was tops of 32 deg. Entertainment on board was sensational also celebrating the Creation of the province of British Columbia 150 years ago on the 2nd of Aug!! Actors everywhere in full costume and re-enactment of the actual famous person that they represented. A very entertaining day.
6th August
The Tri Pacer has a problem. It’s electrical system was not charging. Peter and Noel spent a couple of hours extensively dismantling the aircraft to remove the generator and its associated regulator. A trip into neighbouring Chilliwack to drop off the offending item at the auto electric repair centre was this morning’s agenda, he made NO promises!! We dropped in to see Dave and Cathy who live in a 40 foot converted coach complete with spa bath and mirror ceilings!! A quite amazing home with all mod cons and beautifully renovated by Dave. He completed it about two years ago, he is 71, the finish is perfect. The boys (and girls) had a look around the small district airport which housed many aircraft and about 30 hangers housing extensive maintenance facilities. A lunch stop on way home. Back to the farm for a rest. We are still getting used to sleeping in a differing time zone. As well as having a social week here at the farm, it is an essential that Ronnie is checked over and making sure that everything is in good condition for the many kilometers she is going to do for us.
7th August. We go into town to hopefully pick up the fixed generator. However, the repairer had not had time to fix so he directed us to an old fellow down a back street (who was wearing a Triumph t-shirt). Noel immediately identified with him and spent the next 20 minutes talking about old motor bikes while he fixed the equipment we were prepared to beg for him to look at. He obliged and a big smile appeared on Peter’s face when he arrived at the car clutching his fixed generator.
Our next stop is Costco – Ronnie needs new house batteries. Costco is the best priced place in town to purchase these items, an absolutely huge warehouse type facility that sells just about everything from groceries to anything else one can think of. Batteries are purchased and we go home. One has to be a member to shop at Costco. Luckily Peter is and he produced his card and we were able to shop here at a huge discount. We decided we should join up as Costco is also a service station that are present throughout Canada. We paid 50 bucks and received our card which will enable us to buy fuel at a much reduced price. As fuel is going to be one of our major purchases on trip to Alaska, we thought it would be $50 well spent. A special join up fee is on presently so we got a 10 bucks discount, so in fact only cost us 40. One fuel up will just about recover our money. The RV does approximately 4 kilometers to the meter so we will have a rather large fuel bill. We have lunch in Costco, go home, I have a relaxed afternoon, napping while the boys refit the generator. It works. Peter and Joyce’s son, wife and children arrive for a bbq dinner. Jamie is also a pilot, he and Noel are in the Tri Pacer before much time passes having some fun in the air. A nice social evening, bbq, drinkies. A good day.
8th August
We take a drive into Harrison this afternoon, beautiful little seaside town. Another lovely summer’s day. As we park, Peter’s mate John, and previous owner of the farm saw us drive in. He owns and operates a parasailing operation and was going down river for a look see at the paddle steamer on today’s excursion. He invited us to join him on his boat. We parked ourselves where his boat was moored and waited for him to arrive some short time later. We clamber on board and whizz down river on his powerful twin diesel mercruiser legged speedster passing yet again the lush forests and seen from a much closer viewpoint and at 32 knots. Eventually we find the paddle steamer, it has had trouble passing under the Harrison Bridges and so is a bit behind time. We wave to today’s passengers and are immediately recognised by the Crew! and follow it up river a little. It appeared a bit “Lopsided” and the cause was a broken shear pin in the starboard side paddle wheel. The vessel is a twin rear paddler. It was making 6 knots over the bottom against a 3 knot current. We followed its slow progress for a short while and then John gave his vessel full throttle and we arrive back at Harrison in 15 minutes. We thank John and his offsider profusely and decide to walk along and find a bar – an excellent idea – spent a pleasant hour and a half watching the world go by while we wait for the paddle steamer to arrive. The bar just happened to be on the 1 acre site that used to be Peter and Joyce’s Motel. A very pleasant way to spend an afternoon overlooking the beach and lake. En route home we have dinner and drinkies at the local pub in Agassiz. What a nice day!!!
8th August
Today Peter takes Noel and I for a short trip (30 mins or so) in the Tri Pacer. Should mention here that the farm has a 700M runway and Peter’s passion is aeroplanes. He is a retired Air Canada captain who flew 727s. He has two private aeroplanes; a 1951 Tri Pacer and a 1946 Piper Cub. I clamber into the back seat, just enough room for the three of us, Peter and Noel in front and me in the back. We all wear head sets so we can talk to one another. I feel like Amelia Earhardt but do not possess any of her competency; that goes without saying. It is quite noisy once airborne. We are airborne for around 30 minutes flying above the Fraser River and sighting our paddle steamer. Peter flew in low and we waved once again to the crew and passengers. They returned our waves. But it was quickly back to the farm and put the Tripacer away and go airshowing!
The Abbotsford International Airshow is held appropriately enough at Abbotsford about 45 km from the Farm and we arrived about 11am in time to catch the antiques and historics flying. C17, KC9 and KC10 were the big Yankee statics. They had bought up all the support for the famous Thunderbirds.
http://thunderbirds.airforce.com/home.html
9th August
Today is departure day from Agassiz. I start the day with morning exercise, a bike ride, down the runway on the farm, out onto the road and a little way into Agassazi, very quiet, large properties, you hardly see a soul. I was very cautious though about riding on the right-hand side of the road. We spend the morning preparing for departure. Noel has a few last minute jobs to do on Ronnie, assembles bike rack on her back and clips on the bikes plus few other maintenance things are carried out. We have lunch, after a short trip into Harrison with Peter and Joyce, we get off on the road. Peter is sorry to see us go, we have relieved the situation somewhat for him with Joyce. He has enjoyed having time with his mate Noel and we think we have helped out as much as is possible with the situation for him a little. We hope so anyway. We thank Peter and Joyce for their hospitality. We will return after our travels.
Sandra’s Entry:
The 2nd of August dawned – our Canadian adventure was about to begin. After an early morning pick up from Beachmere, we arrived at the airport, so after checking in luggage we installed ourselves in Qantas Club and had a leisurely breakfast while awaiting our flight to Vancouver. Now can relax, always good to wind down once luggage has been waved goodbye. We boarded our Qantas flight to LA and some 12 hours later touched down on American soil. After formalities of fairly rigid passport control (photograph and fingerprint is taken) we were allowed through – reclaimed the luggage and checked it straight in again along with several thousands of other suitcases that get whizzed away down a conveyer belt. Quite an amazing operation – would we see them again was a thought that came to mind? (See subsequent note on arrival into Vancouver). We located The Board Room (LA’s equivalent of Qantas Club) where I am to while away the next few hours while Noel is taking a somewhat longer route to Vancouver than I flying to Dallas and then on to Vancouver, result of his having a RTW ticket and there being no direct AA flight from LA to Vancouver. Our arrival times worked well, Noel arriving 30 minutes before my arrival time. Once deplaned and through customs found Noel at desk going through the formalities of reporting a lost suitcase – a vital one that contained laptop and other electronic equipment. My suitcase arrived intact, thank goodness. We exit the airport and the long term parking bus delivers us to the parking area where Ronny is parked left there by Noel’s friends who have just completed several weeks touring Canada. (Ronnie is the name of the RV, short for Rocinante, Don Quixote’s horse). We find Ronnie with no trouble at all, she is large enough to take up two parking lots – now to find the keys hidden in secret location by Richard and Pat – they were found easily enough. I am introduced to Ronnie, a very spacious well equipped RV that contains just about everything one could wish for to make life comfortable including a well stocked fridge housing several cold beers – many thanks, Richard and Pat. As it is early evening we have decided to stay put in the airport and stay here overnight. This is a first – I have never slept in a carpark before. It is a beautiful warm evening, daylight saving means it doesn’t get dark till something past nine. The scenery of majestic mountains on the horizon, some snowcapped, in the distance is quite delightful. The view does change though a little lower down where there are lines of parked vehicles. I decide to keep vision up rather than down! A celebratory drink and toast for a happy holiday ensues, after a wind down we hit the hay and crash, we are pretty tired after the preceding travel hours.
3rd August
After a good sleep, breakfast and shower, we get on the road to Agassiz which is situated about 140 kays from the airport. We pass an RV services station en route to Agassiz. My first lesson in what happens to black water and grey water. Water is filled up and the nasties are dispersed of by way of large hoses that live in one of the bins under the van. We are to spend some time with Noel’s friends Peter and Joyce Irwin. They live at Stough (pronounced stuff) Farm, very aptly named, there is so much stuff here, quite unbelievable. There are barns full of stuff and a hangar housing two aeroplanes. We arrive at the farm a couple of hours later, a fairly easy route with instructions from our Tom Tom adviser – and Noel advising himself on a regular basis – “Keep right, Noel, keep right.” And he did, pleased about that, I was, and we arrived quite safely and parked. We find Joyce outside who very sadly suffers from Alzheimers – and shortly afterwards Peter is located, a nice reunion follows for Peter and Noel who haven’t seen one another for some 10 years or so.
Noel: Peter had been over at the neighbours on his 4WD ATV. We call them quad bikes. It was great reunion, about 11 years since last meeting. But it was as if it was yesterday. Pushed the Tripacer out and went for the standard 18 minute lap around Agassiz and Harrison and back over the peak. But the generator had gone on holidays after the recent 100 hourly!
4th August –
Noel: First thing next morning was to try and fix the problem, the generator and regulator wiring was all ok. So it was take the pair to a shop with the bench gear to be able to test them. Not an inconsiderable task on a little engine with the belt drive from the back of the starter gear. A trip into neighbouring Chilliwack to drop off the offending item at the auto electric repair centre was this morning’s agenda. We dropped in to see Dave and Cathy who live in a 40 foot converted coach complete with spa bath and mirror ceilings!! A quite amazing home with all mod cons and beautifully converted by Dave. He completed it about two years ago, he is 71, the finish is perfect. The boys (and girls) had a look around the small district airport which housed many aircraft and about 30 hangers housing extensive maintenance facilities. A lunch stop on way home. Back to the farm for a rest. We are still getting used to sleeping in a differing time zone. As well as having a social week here at the farm, it is an essential that Ronnie is checked over and making sure that everything is in good condition for the many kilometers she is going to do for us.
Sandy: A pleasant day was spent, a nice couple, Cathy and Dave (another pilot) arrived for dinner and spent a few hours with us and shared corn on the cob (seems to be the national Canadian cuisine), few beers and red wine for me. Corn is grown in abundance and there are many little corn huts where you drive in and buy a dozen cobs for around $6, freshly picked and very tasty eaten on lump of bread and butter.
5th August
An early start for drive to New Westminster Quay where we are to spend the day on an historic paddle steamer trip up the Fraser River. It is a beautiful summer’s day, temperatures in the high 20’s, blue skies and pleasantly warm. There are several celebratory routes taking place this week retracing the gold rush route from New West to Port Douglas and back. Part of the 150 year BC celebrations. Peter manages to book us on today’s trip which will take us to Mission via Fort Langley. We board the steamer and install ourselves on what turns out to be a good spot, cool with good views all around. There is plenty of room to walk around, folks on board are very convivial and happy to chat; although there was room for 80 passengers, only 50 tickets were sold which allowed plenty of space and quite a relaxed atmosphere was evident. The crew were very accommodating and chatty. The paddles started to rotate very shortly after 9 a.m. and we were off. Such absolutely stunning scenery, the fantastic continuous mountainous horizon of sleeping dinosaurs ever present, lush green forests beneath and thousands of logs floating down river.
There was commentary about the history of the era and a re-enactment ably performed by a cast dressed in the period costume of the day. Mr Yale talked about the fur trade and gold rush days and also starred in the little play. .
http://www.vancouverpaddlewheeler.com/index.html
Noel: The above link was our excursion today. Peter, Joyce, Sandy and I. It was a very special trip; or should I say the first leg of a momentous reenactment. In 1858 the first paddle wheeler made it through to Harrison Lake. The paddlers were the only way to the goldfields for about half a century!! The trip from Vancouver to Mission was halfway to Harrison and took all day. The last 20 km today had not seen a paddle steamer on the shallow Fraser river since the 1920's!!! Tomorrow’s trip to Harrison will be truely an adventure, but we have been only able to get tickets for today. We will buzz them in the Piper tomorrow arvo!! Weather was tops of 32 deg. Entertainment on board was sensational also celebrating the Creation of the province of British Columbia 150 years ago on the 2nd of Aug!! Actors everywhere in full costume and re-enactment of the actual famous person that they represented. A very entertaining day.
6th August
The Tri Pacer has a problem. It’s electrical system was not charging. Peter and Noel spent a couple of hours extensively dismantling the aircraft to remove the generator and its associated regulator. A trip into neighbouring Chilliwack to drop off the offending item at the auto electric repair centre was this morning’s agenda, he made NO promises!! We dropped in to see Dave and Cathy who live in a 40 foot converted coach complete with spa bath and mirror ceilings!! A quite amazing home with all mod cons and beautifully renovated by Dave. He completed it about two years ago, he is 71, the finish is perfect. The boys (and girls) had a look around the small district airport which housed many aircraft and about 30 hangers housing extensive maintenance facilities. A lunch stop on way home. Back to the farm for a rest. We are still getting used to sleeping in a differing time zone. As well as having a social week here at the farm, it is an essential that Ronnie is checked over and making sure that everything is in good condition for the many kilometers she is going to do for us.
7th August. We go into town to hopefully pick up the fixed generator. However, the repairer had not had time to fix so he directed us to an old fellow down a back street (who was wearing a Triumph t-shirt). Noel immediately identified with him and spent the next 20 minutes talking about old motor bikes while he fixed the equipment we were prepared to beg for him to look at. He obliged and a big smile appeared on Peter’s face when he arrived at the car clutching his fixed generator.
Our next stop is Costco – Ronnie needs new house batteries. Costco is the best priced place in town to purchase these items, an absolutely huge warehouse type facility that sells just about everything from groceries to anything else one can think of. Batteries are purchased and we go home. One has to be a member to shop at Costco. Luckily Peter is and he produced his card and we were able to shop here at a huge discount. We decided we should join up as Costco is also a service station that are present throughout Canada. We paid 50 bucks and received our card which will enable us to buy fuel at a much reduced price. As fuel is going to be one of our major purchases on trip to Alaska, we thought it would be $50 well spent. A special join up fee is on presently so we got a 10 bucks discount, so in fact only cost us 40. One fuel up will just about recover our money. The RV does approximately 4 kilometers to the meter so we will have a rather large fuel bill. We have lunch in Costco, go home, I have a relaxed afternoon, napping while the boys refit the generator. It works. Peter and Joyce’s son, wife and children arrive for a bbq dinner. Jamie is also a pilot, he and Noel are in the Tri Pacer before much time passes having some fun in the air. A nice social evening, bbq, drinkies. A good day.
8th August
We take a drive into Harrison this afternoon, beautiful little seaside town. Another lovely summer’s day. As we park, Peter’s mate John, and previous owner of the farm saw us drive in. He owns and operates a parasailing operation and was going down river for a look see at the paddle steamer on today’s excursion. He invited us to join him on his boat. We parked ourselves where his boat was moored and waited for him to arrive some short time later. We clamber on board and whizz down river on his powerful twin diesel mercruiser legged speedster passing yet again the lush forests and seen from a much closer viewpoint and at 32 knots. Eventually we find the paddle steamer, it has had trouble passing under the Harrison Bridges and so is a bit behind time. We wave to today’s passengers and are immediately recognised by the Crew! and follow it up river a little. It appeared a bit “Lopsided” and the cause was a broken shear pin in the starboard side paddle wheel. The vessel is a twin rear paddler. It was making 6 knots over the bottom against a 3 knot current. We followed its slow progress for a short while and then John gave his vessel full throttle and we arrive back at Harrison in 15 minutes. We thank John and his offsider profusely and decide to walk along and find a bar – an excellent idea – spent a pleasant hour and a half watching the world go by while we wait for the paddle steamer to arrive. The bar just happened to be on the 1 acre site that used to be Peter and Joyce’s Motel. A very pleasant way to spend an afternoon overlooking the beach and lake. En route home we have dinner and drinkies at the local pub in Agassiz. What a nice day!!!
8th August
Today Peter takes Noel and I for a short trip (30 mins or so) in the Tri Pacer. Should mention here that the farm has a 700M runway and Peter’s passion is aeroplanes. He is a retired Air Canada captain who flew 727s. He has two private aeroplanes; a 1951 Tri Pacer and a 1946 Piper Cub. I clamber into the back seat, just enough room for the three of us, Peter and Noel in front and me in the back. We all wear head sets so we can talk to one another. I feel like Amelia Earhardt but do not possess any of her competency; that goes without saying. It is quite noisy once airborne. We are airborne for around 30 minutes flying above the Fraser River and sighting our paddle steamer. Peter flew in low and we waved once again to the crew and passengers. They returned our waves. But it was quickly back to the farm and put the Tripacer away and go airshowing!
The Abbotsford International Airshow is held appropriately enough at Abbotsford about 45 km from the Farm and we arrived about 11am in time to catch the antiques and historics flying. C17, KC9 and KC10 were the big Yankee statics. They had bought up all the support for the famous Thunderbirds.
http://thunderbirds.airforce.com/home.html
9th August
Today is departure day from Agassiz. I start the day with morning exercise, a bike ride, down the runway on the farm, out onto the road and a little way into Agassazi, very quiet, large properties, you hardly see a soul. I was very cautious though about riding on the right-hand side of the road. We spend the morning preparing for departure. Noel has a few last minute jobs to do on Ronnie, assembles bike rack on her back and clips on the bikes plus few other maintenance things are carried out. We have lunch, after a short trip into Harrison with Peter and Joyce, we get off on the road. Peter is sorry to see us go, we have relieved the situation somewhat for him with Joyce. He has enjoyed having time with his mate Noel and we think we have helped out as much as is possible with the situation for him a little. We hope so anyway. We thank Peter and Joyce for their hospitality. We will return after our travels.
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