Bicycling.

KWe biked all over today and had the best time.  The area is quite flat and full of small farms and specialty markets.  We had a map from the visitor center and went out to see if we could find a few.  We rode past small dairies, an artisan cheese farm (stopped for samples,) an organic and free range turkey farm, a blueberry farm that was for sale, and several hazelnut orchards.  That is a first for us--don't know why there are so many clustered in this one area.  We had some Canadian money to use up--how's that for an excuse to buy something--so we treated ourselves to roasted and flavored hazelnuts. And then we stopped to pick a container of Blackberries.  The country roads are just full of blackberry brambles loaded with ripe fruit.  That was tonights desert over icecream.

I am embarraced to say I didn't know hazel nuts grew on trees.  Thought it was a bush. But here is an orchard.  Must be the misty, costal climate right here because there sure are a lot of them.

After a short afternoon nap we were refreshed and ready to go again.  Drove to the town of Chilliwack and visited the Minter Gardens.  A lovely 32 acre formal garden. Nice couple of hours just walking around.

From Harrison Hot Springs, BC

We finished our route along the Frasier River enjoying the mountain scenery all along the way, stopping at various points of interest.  We have returned to greener, lush landscape as we get closer to coastal climate.

Stayed one night at another Provincial Park with deep woods and another lovely lake.  Got the inflatable out to explore the lake until the wind drove us back to shore.  We waited until early morning and tried it again.  This time the lake was much calmer.

We weren't that far off the beaten path but some of these areas feel so remote and isolated.  This particular park's entrance road was so rough and awful that we truly felt we were in the wilderness, but we were committed so continued on.  No services at all but today we are back to a campground with all the amenities.

The town of Hope is famed for all the wood carvings around town.  They are scattered various places along the streets.  In fact the city is hosting a chain-saw carving contest this weekend which would have been fun to see.

  We are spending my birthday in the town of Harrison Hot Springs on Harrison Lake.  Amazing view from downtown lakefront.  I think that might be Whistler Mountain off in the distance with the snow

 capped peaks.

 We actually got all dressed up and went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant.  Can't remember the last time we really got "cleaned up" for dinner on this trip.  Sushi and Tempura.  Enjoyed calls and email messages from my kids and many friends.  Such a nice gift to be remembered, made it a really nice day.

Circle Tour

We packed a lunch and did a road trip, a circular route covering maybe 150 miles.  Started with breakfast in town--love those breakfast's out!!  First major stop was Hat Creek Ranch, a living museum     with buildings standing as they did in 1901.  Earliest history of the ranch is from 1860 when it was a Road House on the Cariboo Trail serving the needs of the freight wagons and passengers of the B.X. Express Line heading for the gold fields.  It had several owners over the years, several upgrades as the trail became a hiway and then up until the later part of 20th century was headquarters for a huge cattle operation. 

Now Will could explain this old horse drawn hay-bailer.  He was pretty fascinated by it. I liked the tour of the house.

Next stop Lillooet and a drive along the Frasier River with outstanding views far above the canyon of trains creeping along down below, the swirling silt-ladden river, and the coastal mountain ranges to the east and north.  

Had our lunch at a little road side park.  There is still snow up on those peaks--I thought we left that behind in Yoho.

The Frasier River is deep down in that gully behind the abandon cabin.

Cache Creek, BC

So surprising to us how dry this part of BC is.  This new valley is mostly grassland and sagebrush.  We could be in Arizona.  Guess this area is just past the coastal mountains which pulls all the moisture out of the clouds as they pass over.  This is BC's desert.  Still seems to have ample water as many lakes and big rivers and lots of irrigated farming going on.  

This is Kamloops Lake--really huge.  We stopped at a rest stop and watched a forest fire burning in a canyon across the lake.  The scope of the fire was bigger than it looks as we watched airplanes dropping fire retardant on it and they looked like little toys in the sky.  They disappeared into the smoke and then come flying out the other side. Smoke could be seen for miles.  This is first fire we have seen this summer and that is certainly a good thing!

  We are staying a couple of nights in Cache Creek.  Got its name from being a supply depot for the fur  traders back in the days of the Hudson Bay Company but it prospered when gold was discovered in the interior of BC in the 1860's.  It is located on the Caribou Trail (or Gold Rush Trail) and hundreds of gold seekers, tons of supplies passed through here on the way to seek a fortune at Barkersville, 500 kilometers north.  Now its just a small town with a reputation of being one of the hottest ( on the thermometer) places in Canada.

I'm not exactly sure--this might be Ashcroft--a similar small town close by on the Thompson River.

   We were out exploring Cache Creek and came upon a Truck Show and had to stop.  Haven't seen anything quite like it before--think Car Show with souped up, shined up and restored cars--only these were semi trucks of all sorts.  My trucker-brother would have loved to see this--Larry, you're ears were surly burning because I was thinking of you.  Everything from restored vintage Mack trucks, to logging trucks, semi's modified for RVs, aged from the 50's to the 90's.  Will could appreciate them more than me, but the shear size of them was fun to see.  

Another day in the Okanogan

Totally "dinged around" today.  Visited Elysium Gardens this morning, a perfectly manicured 4 acre formal garden with herb garden, perennial displays, lily beds, and a Japanese inspired garden.  Was a delight.

Stopped at a community farmers market this afternoon and bought some fresh peaches among other things, and made a peach crisp for tonights desert. Pretty tasty.  Had to get out the instructions for the convection oven as I had never used it before in this RV.  Worked well.

We're moving again in the morning going east, to the Frasier Valley heading in a southerly direction.  We aren't cutting any corners but Will is watching our miles closely as gas in Canada is down right expensive.  Its $1.36 per liter which is roughly $5 a gallon US.  We are thinking we will stop in Kamloops at the Costco because word is that it is $1.30 per liter.  Highest we have seen was $1.42 ($5.15 US). We think groceries are more expensive than we are use to also.  Even McDonalds is more expensive in Canada.  

   Speaking of McDonalds, they have the best iced coffee--even better than Tim Horton, and we always thought they were the best!

Kettle Valley Railway

One of the reasons we wanted to come to this area is to bike the Kettle Valley Railroad rails-to-trails bicycle route.  One of the popular sections runs through this area--the whole route is hundreds of miles long across southern BC.  We're finding out that a lot of the trail is best suited for mountain bikes but the small section we did today was just fine with our road bicycles.  We knew it was going to be hot today so we got up early to get started before it really heated up.  Was nice because we were the only ones out on the trail and we felt like we had it all to ourselves.  We did a 12 mile section that runs through Myra Canyon and has 18 trestles and 2 tunnels in that short distance.

There was a major forest fire in Myra Canyon in 2003 and most of these original trestles were burned or damaged but they rebuilt them all and reopened the trail in 2008 for hiking and biking.  The evidence of the fire is still there but its still a nice canyon.

 

We couldn't go the last two miles because the number 3 trestle was being repaired.  There was a rock slide that took out a portion and was not safe to go across.  We were intending to return anyway.  

We finished the ride at Myra Canyon as the parking lot was beginning to get busy.  We did some more riding along the lake front park in downtown Kelowna.  All the beaches were crowded with families trying to stay cool. It got up to 97.  

Around Kelowna

Lake Okanogan is about 164 miles long from top to bottom and fills up the middle of this valley with Kelowna as the largest city.  Otherwise it is just small towns, agriculture, orchards (did I say lots of orchards) along the shore and up the sweeping side hills.  Oh and Wineries--countless wineries add to the scenic beauty. We moved a little farther south to a small RV park, this time with full hookups for a change.  It has only 10 spots and is next to an apple orchard.  There seems to be a lot of small "orchard RV parks."   Part of promoting the area thru "agri-tourism" and they are quite nice. 

   Toured the Grey Monk Estate Winery this afternoon.  Took us on an informative tour of the whole process and ended up in the wine-tasting room for some samples.  Grounds were so pretty.  Fun thing to do.

Drove into Kelowna for the rest of the afternoon and found the downtown area and waterfront park.  We happened by a movie theater and decided on the spur of the moment to take in a movie.  I am a big Johnny Depp fan and the "Lone Ranger" was playing.  We liked it. It was fun.  The bad guys were really bad and of course the Lone Ranger was. . .well, very good.  A couple of really good train wrecks, too.  The beginning scenes were suppose to be Texas but sure looked like Monument Valley to me.  Oh well, had to set the stage for a true western!

 

Kakuli Bay

We turned our backs on the amazing Canadian Rockies and found ourselves in the Okanagan Valley.  BC seems to be one mountain range after another with these lovely valleys in between.  The mountains get smaller, less dramatic, no more snow and high peaks in the interior but gently rolling, forested and very nice.  All kinds of lakes in the valleys.  And orchards.  Oh, the orchards!! Cherries are in season right now.  We stopped and spent an hour or so at a "U-pick" orchard and came out with a nice bucket full and some stained faces from stuffing ourselves as we picked.

We camped at a Provincial Park on Lake Kalamalka.  Got our float kayak in the water here.  Good day for it as it was considerably warmer here than up in the Rockies.  Not a lot of shade in this campground either.  We did it again and got up for an early morning ride on the lake before the sun warmed everything up again.  So beautiful and peaceful.  

This campground has so many Marmots running around all over.  They seem to be very curious and totally use to people.  Although you really can't get that close to them--but they are out in the open munching away at the nice watered grass.  When they stand on their hind feet to get a better look, they look like little teddy bears.

Revelstoke and Glacier

We turned a bit of a corner and started moving West.  Two relatively small parks on our route today were Glacier National Park and Revelstone.  We spent the most time exploring Revelstone on the 26 kilometer road to the summit called "Meadows in the Sky Parkway."  Once you get to the top there are all kinds of trails--long and short--in all directions and they are all through flower fields--meadows of wild flowers that are close to peak bloom right now.

Little snow still lingers.

There is a really neat fire tower up there that is now an interpretive center.

Mountain rhodedendriums beginning to bloom.

  Glacier boasts an area with a rain forest climate that is  very unusual this far from the coast.  Consequently some huge red cedars and dense old growth forests.

We caught up with the Columbia River again.  

We are still in the mountains but will soon be coming out of them and heading to the Okanogan Valley.

Yoho National Park

We have spent two interesting days in the Canadian Rockies in Yoho National Park.  We keep moving farther north up the western side of the Rockies on the British Columbia side of the Continental Divide. We had a great campsite--dry camping again.  No internet to be had anywhere in the park, even at the visitor center.

This is our view of Cathedral Mountain from our camp.  Actually, its a sunset view.  Its growing dim down here but the last light of the setting sun is glowing up on the mountain.  Quite a sight.

This park is  noted for its many glaciers and high peaks.  Its a dramatic view at every turn.

Trans-Canada Hiway 1 runs the east-west length of the park.  Famed Lake Louise is just over the Divide so we took an evening drive up there to see it again. Remains a idyllic spot.

I remember the gorgeous poppies from the last time we were there in 2008.  It is lovely.

This morning we hiked up to Emerald Basin for a closer look at a glacier.

There is a stop on the highway at Kicking Horse Pass where you can watch the Canadian Pacific Railway come through an series of tunnels to get up over the pass.  We remember being here once before but it is so fascinating that we stopped and actually spent a lot of time watching them.  The grade is so steep here that they tunneled into the mountain over a half a mile to give themselves room to come up the grade.  In the picture a train is entering the tunnel on the lower right and then coming out again at a higher level on the upper left--crossing over itself as it heads up the pass.  Now it will enter one more tunnel to do the same thing a bit farther on.  These tunnels were built 100 years ago--amazing engineering that is still being used today.  Something like 25 trains a day go thru here!  We both like trains a lot.  We even took an evening hike up to the tracks (you can't get close to the tunnels)

Emerald Lake