 |
|
 |
|
August 22: Victoria to
Lac-le-Jeune
Window
Seat on the ferry
We were lucky enough to get a ferry spot right beside one of the
portholes so we did not bother to head up to the main passenger deck to
enjoy our trip on BC ferries, despite the lure of unlimited Baron of
Beef.
Nearing
Active Pass
The starbord window, overlooking the seas of Active Pass...
Weird
Railway building
We were not in a rush to get anywhere, so we opted for a meandering
route through the lower mainland. We passed this weird old
abandoned building with a mannequin staring out of one of the top
windows. For reference, it is located at the corner of Old
Yale
Road and Old Yale Road as you can see from the signs.
Campsite in Lac Le Jeune
Provincial Park
Our first
night's stop was
in this provincial park. Many trees had died due to the
Mountain
Pine Beetle problem, but it was still a very nice park.
Sunset
at Lac Le Jeune
Sunset walk along the lakeshore road. There were cottages
right
along the lake, just outside the park, but the lakefront was still able
to be accessed by the public. Well done!
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
August 23 at Adams Lake
We have always enjoyed Kamploops and the surrounding area.
The
terrain is very interesting. We spent several hours at a
small
park called Adams
Lake Proncial park.
The terrain in the South Thompson is interesting - greener than the
Okanagan, but drier than Vancouver Island.
Me on the beach
The water was
plenty warm
for swimming...which we did. The campsites at this park are
right
along this beach, just behind me.
Rain hideout
The weather was
kind of
weird - very hot and sunny one minute, then a brief shower.
No
problem, we just took shelter in the van!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
August 24: Glacier National
Park
Waterfall
We took a tour
up through
Glacier National Park. Very impressive park! This
stunning
view of the glaciers, waterfall and firn was pretty representative of
several viewpoints along the drive.
Riding through the Park
For fun, I
decided to ride
through the Park and up Roger's Pass. Cheryl drove the van up
and
met me at the top of the pass. It was not too bad of a climb
compared to many of the other passes around BC. There were 3
cool
tunnels to pass through!
Me at the top of Roger's pass
I am looking forward to riding this pass again, faster next time since
I am familiar with it. It never got as steep as I was
expecting
it to.
Cheryl
at Roger's Pass
There was a cairn at the top of the pass commemorating the completion
of the Trans-Canada highway. A good portion of our route last
summer was shown on this tile mosaic.
Cheryl
with Glaciers
You could not swing a dead cat up there without taking a photo of 5 or
6 glaciers. Let's hope it stays that way...
Steller's Jay
There were
plenty of these
Steller's Jays in the park. They are the provincial bird of
BC.
I have a bird book which states that "it raises or lowers its
crest to reflect its relative state of agitation."
 Get in the van, hair-do
I was
relatively agitated when this was taken.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
August 25: South through the
Okanagan
Kalamalka
lake
We stopped along the way south to view this beautiful lake.
The photo does not do justice to its turquoise colour.
Soaring
Hawk
While we were admiring the view, a hawk soared up, starting from lake
level and eventually rising above us on thermal winds, and ended up
cresting the hills behind us - all without flapping his wings once!
Food
break
We stopped at a few wineries just south of Kelowna. The
traffic
getting through Kelowna, across the bridge, was truly awful!
Nearly half an hour of stop and go just to get through the
town.
Fortunately it looks like work was being done to improve
things
around the bridge. Stopping at some wineries after getting
through felt pretty justified. This was at Mt. Boucherie
Winery...and it's carrot time.
Us at
Mission Hill Winery
The most impressive winery we stopped at in terms of the facility was
Mission Hill. It was well done, I thought, even if it is all
new.
Cheryl
inside Mission Hill
Someone told me the huge money making hit product that generated the
money for all this was Mike's Hard Lemonade. They built a
large
plaza inside the main walls, and an amphitheatre where they hold
outdoor concerts.
Lakefront
camping at Nk'Mip
We pulled in
around dinner time to our reserved campsite. This is one of
the best campgrounds
I have stayed at for summer lake fun! Most of the 220+ sites
are
right on the water. Most of the sites were full the whole
time we
were there. It was pretty quiet at night although there were
a
few party sites during the daytime. Not too bad though
considering the size of the campground, and I have had much worse
neighbours at Provincial Parks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
August 26-28: Osoyoos, then
home
Air
mattress time!
We did quite a bit of this. The air mattress was a bit leaky,
but
it was so hot out that you just didn't care. We had low- to
mid-thirties and sun the whole time we were there.
Bike
maintenance
I got a flat riding up Anarchist pass, but fortunately it did not loose
much air til I went to get it the next day for a ride up Richter pass.
I rank Anarchist pass as one of the toughest climbs I have
encountered on the roads of BC. The main part rises about 800m in around 15km,
which is an average of over 5%, but it is quite a bit more than that in
many long stretches, and once you start climbing there are no flat
sections. Richter pass, going west from Osoyoos, is the big
hill
in the middle of the bike ride portion of the Ironman. I rode
that hill and some of the route beyond the day after the Ironman was
on. In addition to lots of words of encouragement scrawled on
the
pavement in chalk, I saw several dropped Power Bars and bags of trail
mix. The riders' curses could still be heard echoing in the
hills...
Pink
Hue
Due to a forest fire south of the border, we had some pink skies which
cast a really cool light on everything.
Afternoon
sun
Being on the east
side of the lake like this meant that you could just sit at the
campsite and watch the sun all afternoon. It remained very
hot throughout
the day and well into the evening, so we would alternate between
dunking in the lake and sitting
in the chairs watching the sun.
Bromley
Rock Provincial Park
We have passed by this little park several times but never stopped to
spend much time...until this trip. It is just east of
Princeton.
Cheryl
contemplating going in the water
The Similkameen is quite a bit colder than Lake Osoyoos...
Contemplation
Over
...but the river is so pretty that it is hard to resist
Smoothed
rock
The river has carved this rock into quite an intersting shape, almost
like a face from some angles. I am glad that we finally
stopped
to spend a little bit of time at this park, it was a nice diversion
that took the edge of coming home from a great vacation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
