16th & 17th July 2008 HOPE & THE OTHELLO-QUINTETTE TUNNELS
A little aside…The China Bar Tunnel is named after the gold bearing sand bar in the Fraser River. “Here the hardworking Chinese gleaned a fortune by reworking a supposedly exhausted area after others moved on to new and more promising creeks.”
We spent 2 nights and 1 day in Hope. We had visited it briefly 4 summers ago when we traveled with Alan and Matt and cousin Dave to Waterton National Park. Then we did a short excursion to the Othello-Quintette tunnels. This time we walked quite a bit further.
The historic Othello-Quintette tunnels are abandoned railway tunnels and have been used as settings in a couple of movies. They are within walking distance of where we were staying. These tunnels, designed by an Andrew McCulloch were built between 1911 and 1916 to complete the Kettle Valley Railway. This involved cutting through solid granite in order for the railway to span the 300ft deep Coquihalla Canyon, rather than having to go around the canyon.
It seems as though there are 3 tunnels, however Tunnel #3 is actually 2 tunnels with an opening out in the rock in the middle, hence the name Quintette. Between the tunnels are 2 bridges with spectacular views down into the gorge. Of course this stretch is all perfectly aligned so a train could travel along it. We tried to imagine what it must have been like to be one of those poor guys working in that canyon. Apparantly, they had to hang ropes ladders from the top down into the gorge for access. Then when they needed to blow out the rock they would lay and light the dynamite and then climb up the ladders as fast as they could to escape the blast. I can only imagine that lives were lost. It must have been incredibly hazardous work.
Once it had been completed there were constant washouts and rockslides. Evidently the passenger trains would only travel this section at night so as not to terrify the passengers. In the end it was closed in 1957.
This Andrew McCulloch loved Shakespeare’s plays it seems, and the stations along the Coquihalla Pass line have names such as Iago, Portia, Romeo, Juliet and Lear.
Today it is part of a much longer walking and biking trail, a lot of it along the old rail bed.
Early on Thursday morning, exactly 5 weeks from the day we left London, we drove the final stretch to Vancouver and Tsawassen, to catch our 11am ferry to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island.
Oceanside RV Park, our home for 6 weeks, is very new and well cared for with attractive gardens. It is on the Saanich Peninsula about 15 minutes from the little town of Sydney and about 40 minutes from Victoria. With a sigh of relief Eric unhitched the trusty trailer knowing that it wasn’t going anywhere for a while.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
THE GOLD RUSH & THE FRASER CANYON
15th and 16th July THE GOLD RUSH TRAIL & THE FRASER CANYON
Taking the advice that we received at the visitor centre in Kamloops, we decided not to take the double highway, the Yellowhead, known on this section as the Coquihalla highway, south to Hope, but instead travelled west on highway #1, about 80 km to the little town of Cache Creek.
The sun was scorching hot and dry as we drove and I covered myself in sun screen and even draped myself in the sheet when the sun screen didn’t seem adequate.
Cache Creek lies at the junction of 2 highways and got its name because of its historical role as a cache for fur traders on their way from Kamloops to the Fraser River to trade. Later, during the gold rush (1858-1865) and the construction of the Cariboo Road (known as The Gold Rush Trail) in 1863, it became an important transportation hub.
From here we went south following the Thompson River, and The Gold Rush Trail. The history all along this section is very tied to the river and the lure of gold. Today it’s known for its excellent fishing and the thrill of river rafting.
85 km from Cache Creek, Lytton is located where the “jade-coloured water of the swift Thompson merges with the silt laden Fraser River”. Simon Fraser was the first European to come upon the meeting of these 2 rivers in 1808 and later settlers were “drawn to the banks of the Fraser River by the prospect of gold”.
All the way from Cache Creek we had been travelling down hill along winding mountainous roads, marveling at the engineering of the railway line that wound its way through the valley, sometimes out of sight and then reappearing again, sometimes with an extraordinarily long freight train on it, chugging purposefully along. This train line accompanied us all the way down through the gorge, a remarkable feat, I’d say.
But from Lytton we descended very steeply into the Fraser Canyon. There was frequent evidence on both sides of the canyon of rock falls, and dire warnings too. Trees were scarce on the rocky cliffs and I did notice some that had been uprooted during a slide, in the wrong place at the wrong time On several occasions I noticed rock “roofs” over the railway line, sloping at the same angle as the rock above, which would serve to propel falling rock out and over the line into the canyon below. Periodically we caught glimpses of the Fraser River plunging along far down in the valley.
There seemed to me to be quite a number of not particularly slow trucks on the road, taking the opportunity to pass us when they could. I guess they’d done it before many times. It took Eric a lot of focus and concentration to manage the steep grade and tight curves with the trailer in tow, but with gentle and masterful handling, the van kept its cool and made its way down, down, down. The views were incredible and exciting. I was on the edge of my seat.
We went through 3 rock tunnels. The 1st one, called the China Bar Tunnel (I wonder why?) is almost 700m long, curves in an arc and “should be driven with caution” and with headlights on. It is one of the longest in North America. The other 2 were shorter and straight so we were able to see the “light at the end of ….”
Hell’s Gate is the narrowest point in the gorge and the Fraser River “rampages through at approximately 28 km an hour”. Some gold miners lost their lives trying to navigate their rafts through this tight spot, hence its name. There is now a foot bridge one can walk across this gap. There are also 2 aerial trams. Unfortunately it was after 5 when we got there and the tourist attraction was closed for the day. I would love to have had a really good view of the canyon and “terrifying waters below”.
Not much further along we crossed the Alexandra Bridge, built in 1962. It is 500m long and the 2nd largest fixed arch span in the world (where is the largest one I wonder?). It replaced the old bridge built in 1926, which replaced the original suspension bridge built in 1863.
As we got closer to the bottom and the landscape began to open out, I noticed that the hillsides became more stable and green with trees again. The late afternoon had arrived and it was cooler.
Our final destination for the day was Hope, which is on a huge bend in the Fraser River as it turns towards Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean.
It had been an absolutely spectacular drive, one of the highlights of the trip so far, that’s for sure.
Taking the advice that we received at the visitor centre in Kamloops, we decided not to take the double highway, the Yellowhead, known on this section as the Coquihalla highway, south to Hope, but instead travelled west on highway #1, about 80 km to the little town of Cache Creek.
The sun was scorching hot and dry as we drove and I covered myself in sun screen and even draped myself in the sheet when the sun screen didn’t seem adequate.
Cache Creek lies at the junction of 2 highways and got its name because of its historical role as a cache for fur traders on their way from Kamloops to the Fraser River to trade. Later, during the gold rush (1858-1865) and the construction of the Cariboo Road (known as The Gold Rush Trail) in 1863, it became an important transportation hub.
From here we went south following the Thompson River, and The Gold Rush Trail. The history all along this section is very tied to the river and the lure of gold. Today it’s known for its excellent fishing and the thrill of river rafting.
85 km from Cache Creek, Lytton is located where the “jade-coloured water of the swift Thompson merges with the silt laden Fraser River”. Simon Fraser was the first European to come upon the meeting of these 2 rivers in 1808 and later settlers were “drawn to the banks of the Fraser River by the prospect of gold”.
All the way from Cache Creek we had been travelling down hill along winding mountainous roads, marveling at the engineering of the railway line that wound its way through the valley, sometimes out of sight and then reappearing again, sometimes with an extraordinarily long freight train on it, chugging purposefully along. This train line accompanied us all the way down through the gorge, a remarkable feat, I’d say.
But from Lytton we descended very steeply into the Fraser Canyon. There was frequent evidence on both sides of the canyon of rock falls, and dire warnings too. Trees were scarce on the rocky cliffs and I did notice some that had been uprooted during a slide, in the wrong place at the wrong time On several occasions I noticed rock “roofs” over the railway line, sloping at the same angle as the rock above, which would serve to propel falling rock out and over the line into the canyon below. Periodically we caught glimpses of the Fraser River plunging along far down in the valley.
There seemed to me to be quite a number of not particularly slow trucks on the road, taking the opportunity to pass us when they could. I guess they’d done it before many times. It took Eric a lot of focus and concentration to manage the steep grade and tight curves with the trailer in tow, but with gentle and masterful handling, the van kept its cool and made its way down, down, down. The views were incredible and exciting. I was on the edge of my seat.
We went through 3 rock tunnels. The 1st one, called the China Bar Tunnel (I wonder why?) is almost 700m long, curves in an arc and “should be driven with caution” and with headlights on. It is one of the longest in North America. The other 2 were shorter and straight so we were able to see the “light at the end of ….”
Hell’s Gate is the narrowest point in the gorge and the Fraser River “rampages through at approximately 28 km an hour”. Some gold miners lost their lives trying to navigate their rafts through this tight spot, hence its name. There is now a foot bridge one can walk across this gap. There are also 2 aerial trams. Unfortunately it was after 5 when we got there and the tourist attraction was closed for the day. I would love to have had a really good view of the canyon and “terrifying waters below”.
Not much further along we crossed the Alexandra Bridge, built in 1962. It is 500m long and the 2nd largest fixed arch span in the world (where is the largest one I wonder?). It replaced the old bridge built in 1926, which replaced the original suspension bridge built in 1863.
As we got closer to the bottom and the landscape began to open out, I noticed that the hillsides became more stable and green with trees again. The late afternoon had arrived and it was cooler.
Our final destination for the day was Hope, which is on a huge bend in the Fraser River as it turns towards Vancouver and the Pacific Ocean.
It had been an absolutely spectacular drive, one of the highlights of the trip so far, that’s for sure.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
KAMLOOPS
14th July 2008 KAMLOOPS
We really needed a day of rest after that hike!!
The day after that we left Valemount and continued along highway #5. It was a warm day and following the Thompson River we drove the 350km to Kamloops. At about lunchtime we got to Clearwater and considered taking an excursion into the Wells Gray Provincial Park, which is apparently another beautiful part of BC, but in the end we decided to leave that for another time. Instead we sat under the shade of a big tree and ate Hagen-Darz ice cream before getting underway again. We did need to find a tire place in Kamloops in order to get the improved spacers (which had been couriered from London) put on the trailer wheels.
As we approached Kamloops I was struck once again by its strange terrain.
It is “situated in the Thompson Valley, at the meeting of the North and South Thompson Rivers” and has a semi-arid climate, in such contrast to the lush green of the day before.
The windswept hillsides are gravelly and rounded, sort of like overlapping scoops of dusty brown ice cream. These lumps and bumps (hoodoos) are the results of erosion and vary considerably in size. Desert species, prickly pear cactus and sandy-coloured sagebrush are dotted all over the hills and the gaps are filled in with wheatgrass.
Wild fires are a big concern here. It’s very dry and hot in the summer and it’s a hard environment for the pine forests, which also grow on the hills, to thrive in. Between the wild fires and the pine beetle, which is causing havoc in the area, the poor trees are very stressed. Some are burned with nothing left but blackened bare limbs, others have been drained of their nourishing sap and their needles have turned to brown, a few seemed to have managed to escape the scourges and hold their own among their bedraggled fellow pines. Interestingly enough, all the efforts to control the fires have aided and abetted the flourishing pine beetles, which have always been around and fed on small or dying trees. Now they are feasting on the healthy trees and multiplying horrifyingly.
The overall effect for me was of round semi-bald heads with small tufts of hair interspersed with sparse wispy hairs standing straight up.
It’s is a haven for dirt bike riding. Trails are clearly visible weaving about on the dry dusty slopes. Kamloops is also well known around the world for its mountain biking.
With over 100 lakes within one hour of the city, the area is evidently renowned for excellent rainbow trout fishing, as well as canoeing and kayaking. For golfers too this is a “dream destination” with its diverse landscape. Kamloops has ten 18-hole courses and three 9-hole courses!
It was here, at Cariboo College that Alan spent 2 years studying Adventure Tourism.
We spent one night in Kamloops at an adequate if exposed and noisy campground, close to the highway, the train tracks and the South Thompson River. It was a brief and utilitarian kind of stop: I woke early and did the laundry before we attended to such matters as TLC for vehicles and grocery shopping.
We really needed a day of rest after that hike!!
The day after that we left Valemount and continued along highway #5. It was a warm day and following the Thompson River we drove the 350km to Kamloops. At about lunchtime we got to Clearwater and considered taking an excursion into the Wells Gray Provincial Park, which is apparently another beautiful part of BC, but in the end we decided to leave that for another time. Instead we sat under the shade of a big tree and ate Hagen-Darz ice cream before getting underway again. We did need to find a tire place in Kamloops in order to get the improved spacers (which had been couriered from London) put on the trailer wheels.
As we approached Kamloops I was struck once again by its strange terrain.
It is “situated in the Thompson Valley, at the meeting of the North and South Thompson Rivers” and has a semi-arid climate, in such contrast to the lush green of the day before.
The windswept hillsides are gravelly and rounded, sort of like overlapping scoops of dusty brown ice cream. These lumps and bumps (hoodoos) are the results of erosion and vary considerably in size. Desert species, prickly pear cactus and sandy-coloured sagebrush are dotted all over the hills and the gaps are filled in with wheatgrass.
Wild fires are a big concern here. It’s very dry and hot in the summer and it’s a hard environment for the pine forests, which also grow on the hills, to thrive in. Between the wild fires and the pine beetle, which is causing havoc in the area, the poor trees are very stressed. Some are burned with nothing left but blackened bare limbs, others have been drained of their nourishing sap and their needles have turned to brown, a few seemed to have managed to escape the scourges and hold their own among their bedraggled fellow pines. Interestingly enough, all the efforts to control the fires have aided and abetted the flourishing pine beetles, which have always been around and fed on small or dying trees. Now they are feasting on the healthy trees and multiplying horrifyingly.
The overall effect for me was of round semi-bald heads with small tufts of hair interspersed with sparse wispy hairs standing straight up.
It’s is a haven for dirt bike riding. Trails are clearly visible weaving about on the dry dusty slopes. Kamloops is also well known around the world for its mountain biking.
With over 100 lakes within one hour of the city, the area is evidently renowned for excellent rainbow trout fishing, as well as canoeing and kayaking. For golfers too this is a “dream destination” with its diverse landscape. Kamloops has ten 18-hole courses and three 9-hole courses!
It was here, at Cariboo College that Alan spent 2 years studying Adventure Tourism.
We spent one night in Kamloops at an adequate if exposed and noisy campground, close to the highway, the train tracks and the South Thompson River. It was a brief and utilitarian kind of stop: I woke early and did the laundry before we attended to such matters as TLC for vehicles and grocery shopping.
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