Woke up on Wednesday morning in Vancouver to POURING RAIN !! But once underway, everything got progressively better as the day progressed, and ended up with a NEW BEST ROAD for the trip !!! Or maybe it just seemed really good because I had not been on the road for a while and had forgotten how good it could be !! Who cares ? In the end it was a GREAT ROAD and it left me grinnng from ear to ear, as all good Elise drives should ! And at the end of the drive I found a fantastic campsite on the banks of the Fraser River in Lillooet. (Enlarge the map in the Picassa photo section if you want to find out where Lillooet is).
After a very comfortable night in Roger's house in Vancouver, SOD behaved himself for a change and the rain stopped for just long enough to allow me to load the car and get going. But it soon started to rain again as I drove down the road. Tom Tom as usual performed perfectly and got me out onto Hwy 99 to Whistler with no problems. Also known as the Sea to Sky Highway up to Whistler, it is said to be very scenic, and it lived up to its hype even though most of the time it was raining.
Just before Squamish I had been warned by Roger to look out for the Shannon Falls, and I am so glad he did - With the recent rains in the area they were really spectacular.
After that I got my first Canadian fuel in Squamish, and thought it justified that I buy it from Petro-Canada - Partly because I had some good friends with Petro-Canada when we drilled some wells for them in Papua New Guinea. Only seen 91 Octane (AKI) in Canada, compared to common 92 AKI in USA. After Squamish I carried on up the hill towards Whistler, and when the sun came out, the roof came off !
Whistler was all looking a bit sad as the snow retreats and most people have left except a few diehards, plus the hoards of people packing up chairlifts and mothballing snow making machines for the summer. I pulled up in the car park and was just taking a photo when a young lass came up and asked if I was really from Queensland as it said on my car, becuase she was too !! And then of course I found out that nearly everyone else there was from Australia as well - Some snowboarders going past, and a guy working on a snow machine was from Coolangatta, and all enjoyed seeing the Queensland number plates so far from home !!
Not much point hanging around though as a lot of things were closed, and it was trying to rain a bit as well. So after driving all around the area to see what it looked like (Skiing may be good, but give me Europe for atmosphere any day !), I headed on up Hwy 99. And that was when the road started to get really good !
Up a fantastic winding road towards Pemberton, and then I saw a sign to Nairn Falls which looked interesting, so stopped there. It was a 3 km round trip hike to the Falls, but I needed the exercise so set off along the very pretty trail beside the very full and rushing river, full of snow melt - I think it might be the Squamish River, not sure. Anyway, the Nairn Falls are in some ways even more spectacular than the Shannon Falls - No altitude to them, but the shere volume rushing through a VERY small break in the rocks was awesome. Well worth the walk.
Back in the car park I was just taking the shower cap off Elsie when a blue Golf / Rabbit pulls up and a young guy asks if I am off to Alaska. When I said yes, he said "So am I !" and jumped out to introduce himself - Jesse, from San Diego. And he had put 4 WD into his car for the trip !! After a quick chat and a couple of photos, he took off up the road - I am sure I will see him somewhere en route and maybe we can sit down for a beer and a proper chat.
I still wasn't sure either where I was going to stay for the night, or whether I would camp or motel it, but as both the road and the weather got better and better, the decision really made itself - As is often the case. First we came across a frozen lake - Duffy Lake, I think. I have seen quite a number of lakes still frozen over the past few weeks - Probably not thick enough to walk on any more, but certainly very scenic. In this case the river feeding the lake was melted, and had carried down lots of dead tree trunk driftwood, which then backed up when it hit the still frozen lake, creating a real log jam where the two met.
After that the great road continued, and suddenly, dropping down into Lillooet, a very blue Seton Lake suddenly appeared on the left - A total contrast to Duffy Lake, but really spectacular at the end of the day. I then dropped the last couple of kms into Lillooet and both State camping sites I saw were closed, so I was actually looking for a motel, but none really grabbed me so as it was only about 5 pm I decided to go on another 80 kms to Cache Creek. Tom Tom made his first mistake when he tried to take me over the old wooden bridge (now closed to all but pedestrians) acoss the river, but eventually I found the new one. And then, not 200 yards the other side of the bridge a sign sayng "Camping - Open", So I shot down there and it was right beside the raging Fraser river, almost empty and just perfect. Even wifi in my tent and a nice hot shower ! Mick the caretaker soon arrived and we sorted out a spot not 6 feet from the river, and I started pitching my tent. Suddeny I heard a truck pull up beside Elsie, so went to investigate, and it was a guy called Phil and his (soon to be) son-in-law Kelvin. They wanted to know all about the car and the trip, and then invited me over to their on-site cabin in the campsite for a beer. I needed to pitch the tent first, and then went for quick walk over to the old bridge and back to stretch my legs after a day in the car, and then went to join Phil and Kelvin for a beer. They were just bbqing their supper - They are welders and doing a lengthy job on petrol tank instalations (I think) in Lillooet. Phil had worked on the rigs in the past so we had a good chat about the oilfield, and he also gave me some hints on the Yukon and Alaska. Very pleasant hour or so with them, and then I went to cook my own supper and turn in, too tired to do my blog (or maybe that was the beer !) Thanks for the beers, Phil - I owe you couple !!
Then met Alison who was also in a tent by the river. Turns out she had spent some time in Australia out near Kalgorlie (I think) and elsewhere working on core drilling rigs. She is currently looking for similar work around the Lillooet area, but loves staying there because it is a very arid area in the lee of the mountains, so is ideal for camping as it rarely rains there. Hope you find what you are looking for, Alison, and maybe even manage to get back to Australia again !!
Slept like a log beside the river, despite all the water noise - It must have lulled me to sleep. And my new sleeping bag liner which I bought in Seattle after a number of cold nights previously worked like a charm - Was so much warmer than previously !! But in all these little bags one does feel a little bit like a caterpillar, especially when trying to get out to go for a pee in the morning !!!
Photos of the day here :-
https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/VancouverToLillooet?authkey=Gv1sRgCL6Ez8HSy7vbdg#
