A long travel day — but really amazing. Left Courtenay early for the Nanaimo ferry. Missed the first one, but ran into two of Irina’s friends we had hung out with on Hornby. They were going shopping in Vancouver and heading home to northern Alberta. As a result, the ferry back to the mainland was a little more fun — took some funky pictures and had a quiet moment above deck to say goodbye to the island. Will surely return.
Got caught in a huge traffic jam in Vancouver for about 2 hours, and was despairing of the long trek across country already, but it finally cleared up and there was smooth sailing after that. Drove out of the Vancouver area up the river valley to Hope, and then over the Cascade Mountains along the Coquihalla Pass. These were big rises up big mountains, and Betty was definitely running hot. But she made it. After the summit you descend into the BC interior. Merritt, a decent sized town famous for its mountain music festival, is like another planet — dry, open valley, and scrub bush everywhere. Like out of an old western, but in full colour. Nicola Lake and the mountains beyond was a breathtaking view, but we were moving and didn’t even stop for a picture…
Area around Kamloops is also curious — craggy dry hillsides flowing down to a wide river floodplain. Really rich soil and lovely farmland. Shuswap Lake area also cute and somewhat resorty. The feeling that you’re getting out into the mountains starts to overtake you here. After Shuswap the Rockies begin, marked in no more interesting human way than passing the town where the last spike on the CPR line was laid. Entering the Monashee Mountains we passed a unique little hotel and reconstructed ghost town in Three Valley Gap. Yet another story of human habitation stubbornly clinging to this rugged land of mountains…
Finally arrived in Revelstoke after a momentous day-long trek. So much so that there is little visual record of the amazing swath of country we saw today. Tomorrow Irina will surely take some wonderful pictures of those mountains…
August 22, 2006 at 2:53 pm |
Such a special trip…And it had only just begun. E