Tag: canada

25 August 2018. Power Driving home.

We now started driving in earnest.  Our plan was for between 400-500 miles/day.  The views were mostly Smokey from the fires, until it started raining.  Good for the fires, still bad for views and photographs.

We spent the night in another Provincial Park, Juniper Beach, near Cache Creek.

Be warned, if the campground you are heading for advertises “Great for Train watching”, that could mean there are trains coming and going on both sides of the campground!

26 August 2018 – back to the US. – Washington and Idaho

We aimed for a little bit bigger border crossing this time, in Osoyoos, BC. The Osoyoos area itself was pretty amazing – fruit growing everywhere- wine and fruit stands at every corner. Big metropolitan area. Looked like it was set up for Canadian “snowbirding” (where Canadians go in the winter to stay warm).  The smoke wasn’t quite as bad today, but it was raining again.

We spent the night at one of our favorite places, the Domy driveway!   Got to have dinner with Pat.  Also got to pick up our broken rims to take home and get resolved.

27 August 2018. Montana

We were still power driving.  Smoke was better, but still rain.  We even saw a moose!

Montana is a big state.  Not a lot of people here, but you don’t get the same feeling of alone-ness that you do in the Yukon.  You can look out and see a train track in the distance.  You can see fence lines, evidence of grazing.  Even a billboard or two…

28 August 2018. Wyoming and Colorado.

We made it home, safe and sound.  We had a lot of cleaning ahead of us, both of the camper and of a neglected house! What a wonderful trip it was!

 

 

24 August 2018. Nass Road, BC

We had been told about a little side trip to Nass Valley near the south end of the Cassier.  We decided to try it out as our last “touristing” before we seriously started the drive home. The side trip starts on Nass Forest Service Road – narrow, winding, dirt, 40 miles.  Lots of trees just starting to turn fall colors.  We actually startled a mountain lion on the road (as well as a small black bear).  It was a fairly peaceful drive.  There were plenty of side roads that were probably used for hunting, but we did not have time to explore them.

 At the end of the dirt road was a First Nation area (Nisga’s). There were also lava beds from volcanic action (Canada’s most recent eruption in 1750). We stopped at the town of Gitwinksihlkw and saw a modern (i.e., metal and not wooden) fish wheel at work and played a bit on their suspension bridge.

The road south was still windy, but paved and with views of wooded lakes as we headed down to find how the fires were burning along the highways home.

19, 20 August 2018 – Boya Lake Provincial Park, BC

The dirt field RV park at Watson Lake wasn’t the type of place that was going to keep us in town.  We had seen the sights of Watson Lake and done our laundry, so we were back on the road.  We had modest expectations as there was a BC Provincial Park about 65 miles down the road.

We’ve found ourselves avoiding RV parks more and more and intentionally picking out Provincial Parks as places to spend the night.  We got to Boya Lake about lunch time.  It was a Yukon three day holiday weekend, Discovery Day,  so we did have some anxiety about site availability.   There were still a bunch of sites left, but we got the last one with direct lake access.  The campground did fill up about dinnertime and we watched several RVs pull in, look for a site, and head back down the road.

What a beautiful lake.  Apparently the fishing is poor, but the lake is shallow with a deep blue and turquoise color, has a lot of channels and islands, and is popular for canoes and kayaks.  The skies were clear despite several near by fires, so we made lunch and inflated the kayak.

Following the recommendation of the occupants of the adjacent site, we set off across the lake and down between several islands.  We spotted movement on the shore and paddled over to check it out.  We ended up sitting there for about 30 minutes watching a black bear go back and forth between the trees and the water.  Even a small black bear starts to look massive as your kayak drifts close to shore!!!

Back at camp, we chatted with our “neighbors”.  We had much in common.  They had attended the Overland Expo in Flagstaff AZ this year (as had we), and had also attended Busses By The Bridge (a VW event in Lake Havasu City AZ) several times.  But they were headed north the next morning, and we were staying a day and then continuing south towards Colorado.

The lake and campground had quite a few bugs.  The spray kept the mosquitos away, and you just put up with the rest.  

We had hoped to kayak some more the next day, but the weather wasn’t our friend.  We awoke to cooler temps, wind, and quite a bit of smoke haze from several BC forest fires.  It just wasn’t kayaking weather.  While the day before had 10 to 15 boats on the water, we didn’t see anyone venture out until mid afternoon, and it was just a canoe or two.  The sun started to peek out about that time, but it never really got nice until about dinner time.  We had made the decision to pack up the kayak by then and had decided to do some hiking instead. 

There were two short hikes that went out in opposite directions.  Each was about 2 miles long.  The first one went along the shore line and gave different views of the lake.  The second hike went around to a really interesting beaver dam.  The beavers had built a dam across a channel and basically divided the lake in two.  The side the beavers had dammed up sat about 5 feet higher than the one we had kayaked on.  It was really pretty weird looking.

Our camper proved popular today.  Several people walked over to ask about it, and we spent about an hour “giving tours”.  

We also made a decision about the next day’s travel.  Yep, there was another Provincial Park on a lake about 170 miles down the road.  That would be our plan…

20 June 2018 Prudhomme Lake

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise at Fraser Lake. 

Sorry, I had to take the photo through the screen – look at the mosquitos just waiting for us! 

We did see our first moose of the trip, just sitting on the side of the road.  (sorry, no pic).  Headed to the coast near Prince Rupert early enough that we got to spend the night in a Provincial Park – Prudhomme Lake Provincial Park.  Very small campground, but the beauty here did not disappoint us. Here are some photos of the area.

21 June 2018 Prince Rupert, BC.

Look how far we have come in the first week!  Now we get to slow the pace down and enjoy the vacation. Today we got to do laundry, grocery shopping, and general housekeeping. Even hit a few tourist shops.  We call it our “restock day”.  Tomorrow we will get on our first Ferry to take us to Ketchikan (Alaska) for the weekend.