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It Begins

July - October 2022
A 98-day adventure by Vicki Read more
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  • TravelerIt Begins
    1
    Day 7

    First day, First mountain

    August 1, 2022 in Canada ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    First full day off our new life, and it started with a mountain to climb - just a small one - Grouse Mountain. Most people take a cable car up, however there is a track called the Grouse Grind - 2.5km long, 800m elevation gain, 2830 stairs. So just a wee warm up for the months ahead of us. Took us 1 hr 8 mins to get up, and we will try and do this again when we are back in Vancouver to gage our fitness gain. At the top there was so much to see and do, apart from the view which was a bit hazy, there was a lumberjack show, a bird raptor show, a bear talk and awesome wood carvings. And the great thing was it was all free, even a free shuttle from downtown to get there. So an excellent day. Off to pick up camper tomorrow - wonder how it will be after 3 years storage🤔Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    2
    Day 10

    Preparing for the Road

    August 4, 2022 in Canada ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

    Evening of Thursday 4th Aug. Not much happening the past few days, left Vancouver Tuesday morning to head to Langley to pick up the camper, about an hour on the train, and then another hour or so on bus then a 5 min walk for Doug while I waited on the side of the road with the bags. A short drive to Abbotsford to sort out changing of the registration which took a hr or 2. Wednesday was spent getting tyres, sim card for some WiFi, and seeing what we needed to get a bike rack on. A quote of $1700 for a tow hitch and bike rack sent Doug looking for other options. Firstly to Fraser RV, to see if they had other suggestion, but got sidetracked looking at new vans and trailers - certaintly nice but decided our oldie van would do us. They did suggest we try "Capt'n Crunch" who had a lot RVs getting crush and may have a tow hitch that would be suitable. We did find one still attached to a van so with only 10 minutes before closing made arrangements to come back the next morning. So another night spent in Abbotsford, this time ignored the NO overnight parking signs at Walmart because the trailer layby area behind it where we stayed the previous was pretty dodgy as a homeless camp and noisy right nxt to the highway. Had to purchase spanner, drills etc but DIY Doug got the tow hitch off, payed $100 and we were on our way heading north towards Kamloops. Stopped at Bridal Veil Falls on the way for a small walk and viewing before carrying on highway 1. Certainly exciting to be driving through mountains finally. Stopped at Stump lake about 30 minutes south of Kamloops for the nights. Battery was now charged for the drill so Doug fitted the tow hitch - I'm hoping he got those bolts done up tight 🤔, and I cooked dinner. A pleasant dip in the lake afterwards was a great way to finish the day. Tomorrow onwards to Kamloops to buy some bikes.Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    Day 11

    Kamloops and Bikes

    August 5, 2022 in Canada ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    woke up, must admit late around 8.45 (oh the joys of no work and no alarm clock) with a sound outside. Doug out up and peered out to discover somehow someone had managed to backed down the small gap by the side of the van to the lake and unloaded his boat and was getting ready for some fishing. Doug went to say hi and apologise for blocking the boat ramp. Ended up having a long chat to the retired guy and found out the history of the lake - farmers made it a 100 or so yrs ago. Anyway after breakfast and a nice long swim headed into Kamloops. Came across a wonderful 2nd hand shop (thought of you sis) and spent longer than we planned in there and found more than what we needed to buy. It was then back to bike shopping. Ended up finding a 2nd hand sports shop - they had no suitable used bikes but did have reasonable new ones. So we got matching bikes, and a great 2nd hand bike rack for a cash deal of $1100 which we reckon was a good deal. The fulla's were really friendly and esp. Joel gave us a lot of places to visit etc. So then refuelling, re- gasing and more groceries headed north out of the city. It was getting late so about 8.30pm found a side road and a nice pullover spot to park up for the night, probably about 30 mins out of Kamloops.Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    Day 12

    Wells Gray Provincial Park

    August 6, 2022 in Canada ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    yay our first park, now the trip is starting. Left our overnight stop on Orchard Lake rd - actually had quite a good view, and drove to Clearwater. After a little wander around the small farmers market, and a look at Dutch lake there was a panic about not finding the pipe for emptying the vans waste, thankfully a drive back to Kamloops was avoid by finding it in a different compartment an hour later . After a stop at the parks info centre and use of their free wifi, it was a 42 km drive into the park to nab us a site at the Pyramid campground. After a quick lunch (yum bread brought at farmers market), it was shoes on ready to explore. 16.5 km and 3.45 hrs later we returned to the camp after ticking off Dawson Falls, The Mushbowl and the south rim trail for viewing of Helmcken Falls. At 141 meter drop, Heimcken falls is the 4th largest in Canada, and it was certaintly an impressive site and very scary as this wasn't the main viewing side so there are no guard rails only a sheer drop to the river below, the stomach was definitely churning standing close to the edge. Also discovered why everyone complains about the mossies, they are bad😣Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    Day 13

    Wells Gray Day 2

    August 7, 2022 in Canada ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    I'm exhausted. There was about 25 km to the end of the park road from our campground, so we decided to bike it, exploring the places of interested on the way. We left around 9.30am and returned at 6.30pm. Covering about 50 km up and down unsealed road on the bike and about 20km on foot, all in 30+ heat. Stop at Ray's Farm (pioneer farm site) and continued on the trail to Mineral Spring and around Alice lake. Bailey's Chute, the final obstacle which they can't overcome in the Salmon's 600km migration back up river, so they float back to horseshoe bend (which we then stopped and looked at on the way back), spawn and die - we didn't see any. Then nearly at the end went up to Osprey Lookout, which wasn't much, but had lunch then made the mistake of carrying on to try and get to Easter Bluff (unusually shaped basalt columns) but after an hours walking decided to turn back, knowing we still had a long bike home. They are not very good on information such as time or distant on their signage, apart from the very popular walks. A short bike ride took us to Clearwater Lake, the end of the road. Water looked inviting so of came the shoes but a check of the temperature was enough not to bother getting the togs on - very cold. Then it was the long hot bike back. Doug's seat came loose making it more ardous for him, but we made it. And after nachos for dinner, its time for an earlyist (9pm) night.Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    Day 14

    Day 3 in Wells Gray

    August 8, 2022 in Canada ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    Another busy day for our final day in Wells Gray Park. Started with a 6km bike to the North side of Helmcken Falls for a slightly different view. Then back to van, which was in Pyramid Mtn carpark next to campground, so I couldn't leave the park without climbing at least one mountain, so up we went. Actually it was a relatively easy one, starting with just over 2km flat through the bush before climbing and then only 300m altitude gain, and lots of gentle switchbacks to get there. Took us 1 hr 50 mins for the round trip. So then it was head back to the park entrance stopping at Moul Falls and Spahats Falls on the way. Moul Falls was a 6 km round walk, but the best thing about these falls is you could go around the back of them which was so refreshing because it was another well over 30°C day. Spahats Falls was another impressive falls with amazing canyon walls. They have quite good information panels on how they are formed from the volcano age 400,000 yrs ago, then glacier age I think 20,000 yrs ago. Keep thinking how interesting a geologist would find all this. Anyway back in Clearwater, a bit more restocking of fridge and cupboards, emptying van tanks and then headed north about 10mins, found a rest area to spend the night.Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    Day 15

    Valemount

    August 9, 2022 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Drove from our overnight stop to Valemount, getting here about 12.30 - did see our first black bear and 2 cubs crossing the highway right in front of us, however they were too fast for us to get out cameras out. First stop in Valemoumt, the information centre. WiFi didn't work, but got some maps for walks. Decided the Swift Creek Loop looked doable for the afternoon. The 9km loop took us 3hrs and 12.6 km to do, we did add on the Zen Garden Track (probably another 1.8 km) but also lost our walking track about 2 km from the end and walked an extra 2 ks weaving around a mountain bike track. We did have a dip in the stream at the bridge which was cold but doable, and very refreshing. Then it was time to go and find a spot for the night. Headed towards Kinbasket lake and found a gravel parking area just of the road. Hopefully quieter than last nights which was right next to the highway and just had a constant stream of trucks etc.Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    1
    Day 16

    Mt McKirdy, Valemount

    August 10, 2022 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Today we decided to see if we could climb Mt McKirdy (2586m). A careful 5.5km drive up a forestry road brought us high above the town of Valemount, also the start of three - must be very long mtn bike downhill trails, and the trailhead for McKirdy Meadows and summit, and also an ideal parking spot to spend the night. So we started walking around 10.30am. Another hot sunny day. It was a fairly steady climb up to the meadows which was at about 2000m altitude (500m gain). After that it was alot of bouldering and some quite steep climbing and route finding. Never quite got to the summit due to time and energy, but stopped at the locally known sub peak called Carson's peak (2449m). I've certaintly not got my normal mtn legs or lungs and found it quite an effort. But was it worth it? The photos really don't capture the views, due to the sun and haze, but the feeling of being surround by mountains is just so beautiful, and when walking down and through the meadow part, I felt like Maria Van Trapp in Sound of Music, "the hills were alive". Also spotted a chipmunk, who posed for Doug and skiied and slided down some snow . Just before the meadows on the way up there was a track and sign for a cabin and stream, on the way down we saw that it was only 450m, so decided to check out an canadian hut. Met a friendly local guy and a french girl staying there so had a pleasant 15 mins or so chatting to them before carrying on. Got back to van about 7 pm and had a well deserved can of pepsi. Stats for the walk are: 15.60 km, 5hr55 active time, 1275 elevation gain, and 2 tired bodies.Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    Day 18

    Little Lost lake, Mt Robson and more

    August 12, 2022 in Canada ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    Thursday 11th and Friday 12th. I am going to have to start putting the days because not finding reliable wifi to download the footprints very often. Thursday morning after driving down from our high park up spot and finding the supermarket in Valemount doesn't open until midday we left town heading north. Stopped at Rearguard Falls, again an almighty powerful falls that defeats the salmon on their 1200km migration up river, from the pacific ocean Then we thought we would do an easy 1,7 km one way walk to Little Lost Lake, just to have an easy day after yesterday's big climb to Carson's Peak. It was fairly easy and a pleasant lake, so we carried on and walked around it also. On the way back to the van there was a track signposted as waterfall going of it. BUT When I'm I going to learn - it was only 1 km walk but a steep 230 m elevation gain (tough for me on yesterday's tired legs) and then not a very exciting waterfall after all that. We then carry on to Mt Robson Provincial Park (at 3954m this is the highest mountain in the Canadian Rockies). We decided to stay at the campground there so we could do the Overlander lookout trail in the morning (plus we finally had time and energy for Doug to get his haircut). So today (Friday) we headed up to the lookout 3.3 km, 335 m elevation gain. It was a steady climb, but not really a better view of the mountain than what you got at the visitors center. It was then onwards towards Jasper. Stopped at Moose lake for some lunch. There was a park ranger there with a monocular trained over the other side of the lake. A grizzly had taken down a moose 3 days ago and took it down to the lake's edge to bury in the sand to hide the scent from other bears, and had stayed guard since, so that was pretty cool to watch him. Then the water tempted us in for a swim, initially cold but soon became refreshing. A lovely young Toronto couple Victoria and Robert who are bikepacking from Calgary to Vancouver stopped for a swim, and we ended up spending quite a while talking to them and exchanging addresses. We eventually got lunch, then carried on to Jasper - crossing into Alberta for the first time. Had a quick look around the town, and since all the campsites around Jasper - 1376 sites were full drove north 17 km to the overflow campground.Read more

  • TravelerIt Begins
    Day 20

    Jasper and Maligne Valley

    August 14, 2022 in Canada ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    Sat 13th and Sun 14th.
    Saturday was a quiet day, we were both tired and getting irritable so it was get laundry done - yay clean clothes, however major panic when getting back to van to realized no wallet and must have left it at the Laundromat, rushed back to find it had been handed in - whew!!! Then decided to use some of our mobile data, as we had barely used any yet, so got bills from home payed, and booked our flight for leg 2 - Vancouver to Santiago Chile on 31st October. Then a drive out to Pyramid lake, for lunch, snoozing, reading and an easy stroll around Pyramid Island. It was then back to the overflow campground for the night. Bit cooler temperature overnight so woke up this morning rearing to go. Today was exploring the Maligne Valley. Firstly the Canyon. This was pretty spectacular, watching the effect the water has as it goes down the Canyon. I also bought Bryce a tour here when he came over 4 or 5 years ago, so was great to see where he went, although his was in the middle of winter so I would imagine look quite different to what we saw today. We then drove further into the valley, stopping at Medicine Lake, the karst geology out here was impressive (actually Rob I've got no idea what karst is but the cliffs, hills, mountains or whatever they were, were impressive looking and the book said it was karst geology so I'm presuming it's them. Then it was onto Maligne Lake, and a hike up Bald Hills. I really enjoyed this walk, finding it a bit easier up the hill today. The views were amazing, and also very excitingly we saw our first marmot up the top, and more chipmunks and another rodent creature - not sure what it is yet. On the way back near the bottom we took the track for the Moose Lake loop. And at the lake, came across a Moose swimming from one side of the lake to the other. It was quite a distance away, but could see with full camera zoom. Stats for the hike including Moose Lake loop are: 15.34km, 3:20 active time, 727 m elevation gain. We managed to get a site at Whistlers campground, just outside Jasper, for tonight and tomorrow, so proper shower yayRead more

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