To Dawson Creek, BC - #52-07

June 16, 2005 (Thu)
Emory Creek Park Campground #17A dry $16.00(canadian) C-

Edmonds, WA to Emory, BC (175 miles today/3600 total) Q015915

60.3° and cloudy at 8:00am when we cautiously eased our way down the steep road at the end of Gail and Phil's driveway. The snow covered Olympic Mountains were clearly visible and beautiful to the southwest. Our great adventure had resumed.

Mount Baker loomed ahead much of the way up I-5 and at one point Mount Rainier was visible to the rear. Along the way we passed; a children's church built to look like a big dark wooden ark, a sign proclaiming "Chocolate Necessities" (a store advertisement?), a sign for the "Pigout" restaurant, an alpaca farm, a billboard stating "Behind every successful man is a surprised mother-in-law", and lots of beautiful scenery. At the crossing into Canada, the grumpy immigration officer told us to pull over and report our cargo of apples and a half bottle of scotch to the inspector. We were allowed to keep the scotch but no apples are allowed to cross the border either way (although we know of some in another motor home that did!)

Gail can't pass a garden like Joy can't pass a quilt shop so we had to stop at Minter Gardens in Rosedale, British Columbia. They were lovely and well worth the stop. Most of the display, if you can call it that, was natural (as opposed to formal) and laid out along a winding hilly path. The few formal gardens were quite nice too.

Emory Creek Park Campground is listed in the campground guide as a provincial park (state park) but the care taker said it is a private campground. When questioned about the discrepancy, he said it is the same thing. (???) At any rate it is very woodsy with back-in sites - some big enough for a big class A unit and a toad. The Fraser River is rushing behind us, a nice sound, but a train (a very long train) rumbles by on the other river bank every 10 to 15 minutes. And every so often one goes by between us and the highway on this side of the river.
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June 17, 2005 (Fri)
Kokanee Bay Campground #26 w/e/s $21.00c C+

Emory, BC to Lac La Hache, BC (201/3802 miles) Q016116

There was a trail head near our campsite. Our intent was to take a nice long brisk walk this morning so we got up at 5:30 and headed out. The trail ended at the shore of Emory Creek 1/8th mile into the woods. We walked the campground loop and walked it again later with Phil and Gail - a total of 3 miles.

The Fraser Gorge and Valley filled our senses for the first part of our trip. Spectacular!! Called "The Gold Rush Trail" Provincial Highway (PH) 1 follows the route taken by the gold prospectors in the 1800s. And we thought of them trudging along leading heavily laden pack mules as we sped along in our comfortable little motor home. There was no way to capture the breathtaking beauty of the scenery. The sheer rock walls and the high close mountains were far too immense to get any kind of decent picture. At times we were at river level twisting and turning through the gorge beside the river and the long freight trains. At other times we were high on the canyon wall looking down on the river where the trains looked like tiny scale models. And there were long, sometimes curved, tunnels every few miles. PH-97 above Cache Creek wasn't as spectacular but scenic all the same. We passed by small towns with such interesting names as Horsefly, Likely, 70 Mile House, 108 Mile Ranch, and Ashcroft. In 100 Mile House we bought gas for the U.S equivalent of $2.97/gal.

Kokanee Bay Campground is very small and packed in parking lot style. We are lucky to have gotten in as this is the weekend of the 5th annual Father's Day Fishing Derby. The winner is expected to pull in a trout well in access of 25 pounds. We'll never know the outcome. A majestic bald eagle flew by with a fish in its talons as we ate supper. What a thrill!
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June 18, 2005 (Sat)
Crooked River Provincial Park #3 dry $14.00c C-

Lac La Hache, BC to Bear Lake, BC (236/4038 miles) Q016352

We went to sleep last night to the sound of rain on the roof (it was still light at 10:00) and woke this morning (light again at 4:30) to the call of loons on the lake. After on-board showers and breakfast we hit the road (PH-97) north again at about 9:00 (56.5°). Do you know how you sometimes see dogs in the back of pick-up trucks? A pick-up passed us today with a goat in back. He seemed to be just standing there not even leashed. Strange! We stopped for lunch in the Quesnel Walmart parking lot. Mark and Phil went shopping (a new water pressure regulator and a Canadian Flag for Mark) while Joy and Gail fixed lunch.

In Prince George we left the motor homes in the visitor's center parking lot and took Gail and Phil's toad into the city. A youth popular coffee shop (the Second Cup) had free WiFi so Mark was able to "do" email and download our banking data. Then we hunted up the local arts and crafts guild where they were having an open house.

Too late. The artists had closed up shop a half hour before we got there! The building was open though so we wandered around. At one point we stopped a man, obviously connected with the place, to ask some questions. Phil jokingly told him that we'd come all the way up here from the states especially for the show and had gotten lost on the way so had missed it. He turned out to be one of the artists. We ran into him later and he gave Joy and Gail each one of his ceramic sculptures - cute but garishly colored dragons. They didn't sell (understandably), he told us, and wanted us to have them for coming all that way and getting lost. We, of course, told him the truth and turned down his offer as politely as possible. But he insisted. So we have strange and interesting souvenirs.

The further north we go, the warmer it gets! The temperature got up to 77° this afternoon.
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June 19, 2005 (Sun)
Mile 0 Campground #14A w/e $17.50c B

Bear Lake, BC to Dawson Creek, BC (206/4244 miles) Q016558

It was fully light at 4:00 am so we were awake at 4:00 am. But fortunately we were able to doze off and on until 6:30. After breakfast we had a nice walk with Gail and Phil along the lake shore (Bear Lake) - until the mosquitoes discovered we were there! We had to cut the walk short but we did manage 1 1/4 miles.

PH-97 follows the Crooked River north and so did we. A long construction delay (15 - 20 minutes) preceded a long stint 10 1/4 miles) behind a pilot car. We couldn't figure out the reason for it as there was no work being done and the road was passable (albeit gravel) in both directions the whole way. If fact a pilot car leading a southbound convoy passed us on the way. Strange! Perhaps it was to keep the speed down. Gail and Phil's toad had some stone damage and a cracked windshield when we got here. The large moose warning signs yielded no sightings but we saw an eagle fly up into a nearby tree as we drove by and Gail and Phil saw a black bear foraging in the gutter beside the road.

It was so warm yesterday that we put on shorts this morning. Big mistake! It was 51° (down from 60° when we left Bear Lake) in Chetwynd when we stopped beside the road to eat our lunch. So much for "the further north we go, the warmer it gets"!

Mile 0 Campground is crowded but more interestingly laid out than the one at Lac La Hache. There is more space between the sites, though not much, and there are trees. When we pulled up to the office to register we could see Ed and Kathy's rig in a campsite straight ahead. It was like coming home, well sort of!