Venturing Into The Great Unknown

This morning we awoke to a beautiful, yet cool, day. After having breakfast at the hotel, I moved the car closer to our room and started packing everything back into the car. We grabbed some gas and a coffee and were on our way. The drive between Salmon Arm and Kamloops was fairly uneventful, and before we knew it, we were through Kamloops (without getting lost) and heading towards Cache Creek.This was the first time that I have driven this direction along the Thompson River since we came out in 1982. The only other time I have driven this road was when K and I went to Edmonton almost a decade ago. I will have to admit that I was quite glad that I wasn’t taking the Coq again.

The traffic was remarkedly light, which allowed us to have a leisurely drive – something I enjoyed after traveling the Trans-Canada east of Kamloops. We stopped a couple of times to stretch our legs and take some pictures (that weren’t through the windshield).

In Cache Creek, the road turns south and heads down the Thompson Canyon. There has been a major fire near Ashcroft, just south of Cache Creek, that has been burning since July 6th and has burned almost 193,000 hectares (475,000 acres). Although we could see some areas that were burned, the full extent of the Elephant Hill fire can’t easily be seen from the highway. There was also very little smoke in the area, which surprised us.

We pulled over about ten minutes outside of Lytton and took a couple of pictures of the Thompson River which is narrower and has whitewater rapids by this point. We ended up talking to a couple from Calgary who were heading to the Island to visit family on Denman Island. They had stopped to get a picture of kayakers that were about to shoot a set of rapids and we decided to stay and watch. After about ten minutes, we determined that they weren’t going to ride the rapids for a while so we continued on our way. We found a pull-off close to Lytton and pulled over to have a picnic lunch in the car. By this time, the temperature was in the mid-20’s and I was glad that I had worn my shorts.

After lunch, we continued down the highway into the Fraser Canyon. I had hoped to get a picture of the confluence of the Thompson and Fraser Rivers but it wasn’t easily visible from the highway and I had missed the turn-off into the village of Lytton. Oh well, there’s always next time.

The Fraser Canyon is much hillier and the road is curvier that it is in the Thompson Canyon, and I found myself wondering why the speed limit was still 100 km/h. I kept my speed between 80 and 90 km/h, pulling over to let people pass when needed. This was also about the time that we started to notice some smoke hanging in the area. There were no fires that we could see, other than a small wisp of smoke on the other side of the Fraser River. It turns out that it was a new fire that started today but is not considered to be a fire of any significance. The only thing that we were able to deduce is that the smoke was from the other fires that are burning in BC and the smoke has gotten trapped in the canyon. We have had a couple of weeks of smoky weather on the Island caused by the fires, so it was our best, educated guess.

We continued down the highway through Boston Bar, Spuzzum and Yale until we reached the outskirts of Hope. Since we had planned an early morning departure from Hope, we decided to visit Farm House Cheeses in Agassiz today. Mum and I both grabbed some more cheese, petted the goats, and headed back to Hope just in time for check-in.

While Mum rested in the room, I set out to explore downtown Hope. I love Hope as it has a beautiful park filled with Sitka Spruce and also wood carvings scattered throughout the downtown core. There were also signs all over town commemorating the 35th anniversary of Rambo First Blood – I didn’t get the reasoning behind it, until I found out that the movie had been filmed in and around Hope. I also stopped into a souvenir shop to pick up a couple of last-minute gifts. After talking to the person working in the store, I was given a recommendation for dinner. We had planned on going to Home Restaurant, but after losing our good parking spot last night, I was leery of driving anywhere and it was just a bit too far to walk. She recommended 293 Wallace, which was kitty-corner from her store.

When I got back to the motel, we pulled up the menu to see if there was anything that tickled our fancy. We were quite shocked at the prices but were able to find something small for each of us on their lunch menu that they supposedly served all day.

Mum and I decided to have a short walk around the park before going to eat so we could work up an appetite. It was a beautiful evening and the temperature was still quite warm which made for a wonderful stroll. We arrived at the restaurant and were able to get a table, even though we didn’t have reservations. When we took a look at the menu, we noticed that neither of the things we had wanted was on the list. We queried the waitress about the difference between the online menu and the one we were given and were told that lunch was no longer available all day and regardless, the item that Mum wanted was no longer available. After much hemming and hawing, I decided on the chicken bites and Mum chose the pork loin. When I ordered my chicken, I was told the sauce that I wanted was also no longer available – needless to say, I was getting frustrated at this point. We had already ordered our drinks so it was too late to get up and leave. I changed the sauce that I wanted and chalked it up to experience.

When our meal eventually came, we quite enjoyed it, although Mum found her vegetables to be very under-cooked. We decided to save the veggies for a snack tomorrow, and put them in a Ziploc bag. There just wasn’t enough for us to ask for a doggie bag. Due to our disappointment about the difference in menus and lack of sauce that I wanted, the manager gave us a free dessert. We chose a deconstructed lemon cheesecake with raspberry sauce. It also, was quite good, but still way overpriced for a small town.

We walked back to the motel and Mum did her cryptics while I spent almost an hour talking to hubby on the phone. Today was our 17th anniversary and for the second year in a row, we were separated by a body of water. I am definitely looking forward to seeing him tomorrow when I get home.

I want to thank you for sharing our adventure and I will talk to you tomorrow.

I am leaving you with a collage of the pictures I took along the way today.

L

We awoke to the sound of rain but after the near freezing temperatures last night, we were happy it wasn’t snow. We had a quick bite to eat at the hotel while we waited for rush hour to settle down. We left the hotel just before 10 and our first stop was an oil change. Luckily there was a Jiffy Lube on our way and we were able to get it done quickly and were on our way before we knew it.

For most of the drive to Banff we experienced rain, drizzle and the occasional clear patch. It was definitely not conducive to stopping and taking pictures of the mountains. We were both slightly bummed that we weren’t able to see how impressive the mountains are, rising up from the prairies. We have driven this route before so we had to settle for living vicariously through our memories.

By the time we arrived in Banff, the rain had stopped but it was still quite overcast and the mountains were shrouded in low-lying clouds. We drove around for a few minutes looking for parking and I was able to snag a great spot not too far from our intended destination. I was quite impressed with my ability to parallel park as it definitely isn’t one of my strong suits.

Lunch for today was The Bear Street Tavern, which was featured on You Gotta Eat Here. Although it was right at lunch time, we were able to be seated right away. Mum had the Turkey, Bacon & Brie sandwich with Mexican Vegetable Soup and I had a half Caesar Salad with a cup of the same soup. The Caesar was topped with smoked bison instead of bacon bits and, although I am a staunch believer in bacon bits on a Caesar, I was pleasantly surprised.

After lunch, we walked around downtown briefly and stopped in a couple souvenir shops before getting back on the road. Since the weather was still quite dreary, we opted against taking the Bow Valley Parkway and just stayed on the Trans Canada. I also had to make do with getting my pictures through the windshield as we weren’t able to stop along the highway.

We arrived in Golden just in time to check in and decided to relax in the room for a while before we headed downtown to explore. We visited a couple of souvenir shops and also took a walk across the Kicking Horse River on a pedestrian walkway. I, of course, decided that I had to put my feet in the water to see if it was as cold as Sunwapta Lake. I made my way down to the water, rolled up my jeans and walked in enough to have the water up to my ankles. The glacial silt was quite slippery, as it had been at the Athabasca Glacier, but there was much more of it here and my feet got coated in mud. I carried my shoes in my hand as I carefully walked along the gravel path back to the bridge and back across the river to the car. Luckily Mum had some kleenex and I was able to get most of the mud off my feet before getting into my somewhat clean car.

We had hoped to grab a coffee in one of the coffee shops but they were all closed by that time so we headed back to the hotel for a dinner of leftovers. Mum decided to have a bath while I called hubby. By just after 9, Mum was ready for bed and I started doing my blog.

I decided to group all of my scenery pictures together at the bottom of my blog tonight for ease of viewing. Tomorrow we are heading to Salmon Arm and will finally be back in Pacific Time. Thank you for sharing our adventure and I will talk to you tomorrow.

L

Today was our longest drive of the trip – almost 500 km. We left Three Valley Gap at 7:45 PDT and arrived in Jasper at 7:00 MDT. We started out by driving the 20 minutes to Revelstoke for breakfast at Timmies. When we arrived the lineup for the drive thru was almost out to the street and there were about a dozen people in line in the store. It turns out that the town had been without power for a couple of hours and it had only just come back on – perfect timing for our arrival. We had a quick bite and were back on the road heading east in no time flat.

It was a beautiful sunny morning with the mist from yesterday’s rain hanging low around the mountains. We continued along, stopping in Golden for a rest stop and Timmies refill before getting back on the road. One neat thing I learned about my car is that it displayed a tunnel on my Nav Screen when we drove through the snow sheds – it totally messed with head.

Our next stop was in Field at the Yoho National Park Info Centre where we were able to get a map and information about the Icefields Parkway. We walked around the attached park for a while, taking pictures of the Kicking Horse River, surrounding mountains and local magpies before jumping back in the car. Before long we reached the turnoff and headed north towards Jasper.

Our first stop on the Parkway was Hector Lake – it was an unplanned stop, but when I saw all the cars by the side of the road, I just had to stop. It was the beautiful blue that I remembered from my trip out in ’82 and my iPhone captured it perfectly. Mum, however, stayed in the car as she didn’t feel like being as suicidal as I did crossing the highway. (Yes, that’s my car in the picture below).

Next stop was Peyto Lake. This is the lake that I have etched in my memory from my first trip over the Rockies and it was a must-see for me on this trip. We had been told it was an easy 1K walk along a paved path. Yes, it was paved (sort of) and yes, it was 1K. Easy? Not so much. It was a half-decent hike up the side of a mountain that would have been easier to do in runners than flip flops, but we still survived and we were rewarded by a beautiful vista. Mum had memories of very tame ground squirrels so we had brought bread with us – the two squirrels we saw were picky and ignored our offering of leftover focaccia, so I was unable to get any pictures.

Back in the car we went – next stop Saskatchewan River Crossing for gas and a much needed pit stop. We wandered the gift shop but didn’t find anything that spoke to us so we went back out and saw that we were kinda blocked in by an ambulance so I took the opportunity to take some more pictures.

By by this time we were checking the clock and realized that it was going to take us longer to reach Jasper than we had thought so we decided that we would have to limit our (my) stops or we wouldn’t make Jasper before nightfall. That didn’t quite work as planned as I stopped again at Bridal Veil Falls.

I was almost going to forego the Athabasca Glacier until I saw it and then I knew i wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t get some pictures. I am so glad we stopped, even though it was a chilly 9°C before accounting for the windchill. I grabbed some pics and then we headed down the road to see the “toe” of the glacier.

The picture below shows the marker of where the glacier was in 1942. It’s amazing how far the glacier has receded in 75 years.

The view wasn’t as spectacular but I was able to dip my feet into Sunwapta Lake which is fed by the runoff from the glacier. The shoreline was a muddy consistency that was very slippery but felt like liquid silk. The water itself was very close to freezing but I went in up to my ankles anyway – I would have gone in further but was afraid that I would slip and fall on my butt in the frigid water. As I was walking back to the car, the wind on my wet feet felt like daggers piercing my skin, but the bottoms of my feet felt so soft from the mud. Now I understand why people take mud baths.

We jumped back in the car – I turned on my seat warmer – and away we went. 104 km to go to Jasper. Our next and last stop on the Parkway was Sunwapta Falls. As we were pressed for time we only got pictures of the Upper Falls, but it was still impressive for the lack of rainfall this summer. It is a Category 6 waterfall and the word Sunwapta means turbulent water in the Stoney language.

We we finally made it to Jasper around 7 pm – tired and hungry. We checked into the hotel and then I drove around downtown looking for a parking spot which I finally found a few blocks from the hotel. It turns out that most hotels in Jasper don’t have parking lots and you just have to find a spot somewhere on the street or in one of the lots.

After a quick Google search we found out that there were two Food Network restaurants in town. The first one was a bit pricy and chi-chi for our liking but the second one was a pub and the first item on the menu was a pretzel. For those of you who have followed our previous trips, you will remember that Mum loves pretzels so it was an easy choice. The Jasper Brewing Company was three blocks from the hotel so we were also able to walk. We shared a flight of six beers – I had 4, Mum had 2. They have an ISA (India Session Ale) that they brewed for Canada’s 150th – it was coincidentally the 150th Canadian craft beer that I have have tried since I started tracking my beer in the Untappd app. We also shared the pretzel as an appy. Mum had a bowl of their daily soup which was Cream of Chipotle Chicken and I had the Turkey Club with a mixed greens salad. Everything was delicious and beyond our expectations.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Mum went upstairs to the room and I went looking for my car so I could move it closer to the hotel. Luckily I found a spot in the lot across the street. As I was crossing back to the hotel I noticed that I could have parked on the street directly in front of the hotel – oh well.

It is now after midnight, local time, so I will bid you all adieu.  Thank you for reading and I will talk to you tomorrow.

L

Today was a very early start with me picking up Mum at 6:45 so we could catch the 8:30 ferry to Horseshoe Bay. It was also a very dreary and rainy day – bad for our trip but much needed after weeks and weeks of no rain. We had an uneventful crossing which we spent in the car chatting and doing crosswords. I admit that my preference is the Departure Bay ferry as it seems much shorter than the Duke Point to Tsawwassen ferry and this time it was the logical choice.

We got off the ferry and headed to our lunch location which was Fraser Park Restaurant in Burnaby. It was located in an industrial park and at first, we drove right past it and had to turn around. It wasn’t packed but it was busy enough that Mum quickly grabbed a table as I went to the counter to order. Mum had the Kimchi Hash with eggs and Tex-Mex sausages and I had a sausage sampler with eggs, potato pancakes and a homemade horseradish mayo. It was quite delicious and also very economical.

After our lunch, we traveled east on the Lougheed Highway to Agassiz and then north to Harrison Hot Springs. We arrived with almost an hour to spare before check-in and decided to stop and look at our list of places in the area. It turns out that Lynn Crawford visited a local goat farm on her show Pitchin’ In, so we turned the car around and headed back to Agassiz to visit The FarmHouse Natural Cheeses. We grabbed some honey and decided to visit again to pick up cheese on our way home next weekend.

By this time we were able to check into our motel so we headed back to Harrison Hot Springs. We took a short walk along the waterfront as Mum was searching for a gelato shop that she had heard of. As we were walking we also noticed that there are several references to sasquatches around town. The gelato shop was closed so we turned around, stopping at the hot springs pool to check it out. We were both happy to see that it was not busy at all so we went back to the motel, grabbed our suits, and went back to the pool. We spent an hour or so soaking in the hot spring pool before realizing that we were not only getting tired but also hungry. The picture below is of a Bigfoot footprint, as well as one of the local street signs.

We finally settled on the Old Settler Pub which was a short walk away. Mum had the French Onion Soup and I had the same but also had a small side salad. It was a very well made soup which we both enjoyed. On the way back to the motel, Mum picked up an Irish Cream gelato at another ice cream store along the waterfront for dessert.

We are now at the motel, tired and ready for bed. Tomorrow we are heading for Three Valley Gap just west of Revelstoke with a possible lunch stop in Kamloops. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed sharing our adventure today.

Talk to you soon.

L