I was happy that I find the benchmark at Hearst, and the comparison was very close. We drove for 679 km. The road was mostly straight and the traffic was very little, but there was more trucks than yesterday.
Sunday, 9-10-2011
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| The small white church in Longlac |
Yesterday, it was getting late, and we were busy trying to find an accommodation and missed checking the benchmark pillar 963011 at Longlac. Fortunately, it was not far away, and we found it easily on the road side this morning to test the GPS receiver. The bare rock surface was covered with beautiful lichens. As we left the village, we saw a few other lodgings on the water front which we didn't look for last night. The view of the lake and the surrounding shore was very pretty in the early sunshine. Even the dried and brown cat tails in the marsh along the water front looked bright attractive. There was a small church with pointy spire in a small patch of land surround by water. Its architecture and white colour made it so distinguishingly beautiful among the colourful background of the woods and water in its surrounding.
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| I was taking photo of this lake when the trucks passed |
Before MacLeod Provincial Park, we stopped on the shoulder of a causeway wanting to take some photos. The shoulder was not very wide, and the left wheels of the car were on the road. The causeway was long, and it would be too much walking to park the car on the end of the causeway. There was no sign prohibiting car to stop on the causeway, and there was no other cars on the road. We were happily enjoying the beautiful scenery of the lake and taking photos. I saw a large trailer truck came from the same direction as mine, and another one coming from the opposite direction. I hoped that the truck on my side of the road would slow down, and let the other truck passed my parking car. However, it didn't, and went passed my car in full speed as the truck from the other direction passed. Since the road was not wide, I had the feeling that some bad thing was going to happen. I then heard a large cracking broken sound. After both trucks had passed, I saw pieces of large side view mirrors scattered on the road. Fortunately, nothing serious happened and both trucks didn't stop. I thought that both of them might be on speed cruise, and the drivers were too lazy to slow down the car. This kind of large side view mirror of the trailer truck stuck out too much from the car.
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| A fisherman with his early morning catch |
A little further down the road, we stopped at a boat lunching area on the shore of the same lake. A man passed by as we park our car, and he told me that his son had already caught a fish. As I approached the water, I saw a man of about 30 fishing from a boat. We exchanged a few greetings; he powered his boat to shore, and showed me the big pickerel that he had caught. He said that every day, they would get 4 or 5 fish for dinner. They also like to hunt moose as it was in season now. After fishing, he would go to play golf. He enjoyed the live here and didn't like living in the city. We talked about it in the car, and both felt that it was nice to fish and hunt only as a hobby, and not having to do it every day for the dinner table.
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| A tower probably used in mining |
At the corner of HW#11 and Hardrock Road in Macleod, we passed a white wooden tower half taller than the road side cement power pole. The structure was re-enforced by steel frame structure. There seemed to be a room with window on its top, and there was a steel I-beam sticking out of the road facing wall of the room. A pulley was hanging on a rope at the end of the beam. This tower was very unique and I had not seen it before, and I could not figure out its purpose or function. I later saw it on Google satellite map, and the area was surrounded by mines, and therefore, it might be the remnant of an old mine facility.
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| A tundra like feature on the ground |
We were driving in the heavily wooded area, and didn’t see anything interesting. At the southern end of the lake where Blackwater Bay was located, we found a clearing on the side of the road, and the poplar trees at the front of the remaining woods were very attractive under the bright sunshine. We decided to stop there to have a short break and took some photos. We parked the car in the cleared land, and walked over the small hill to explore the surrounding. It was an area which had been partially cleared of trees. In one small corner, there was a dense and low birch grove, the white colour of the barks and the very colourful undergrowth of red, green, and yellow plus the abandon of the white and light gray lichen made it looked like a master piece of painting.
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| We were like driving through a thick carpet |
The scenery became more beautiful under the bright sunshine after we passed the wooded area south of Beardmore. We were getting close to Lake Nipigon. We started to see the bedrocks that the road had cut through. The road wound through the undulating low hills liked we were driving in a thick colourful carpet. The poplars were like ornamental trees decorated with golden leaves on top of the bare exposed bedrock.
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| Beautiful miscanthus under the bright sunshine |
We were travelling at the foot of a steep cliff along the eastern shore of a narrow inlet of the lake south of the Orient Bay. Even the flowers of miscanthus on the road side look astonishingly attractive. I passed it, and decided to stop and walked back to take its beautiful photo. Most of the hills that we had passed were smooth and light in colour probably due to the granite rocks in its composition. But in this area, the hills on the side on the road were jagged like made of limestone.
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| WE had lunch on a bedrock on this shore |
We were on the shadow of this cliff and high hills until we reached the opening slightly south of Wanogu Lake. We soon were travelling south on the eastern shore of a long lake north of Nipigon. It was actually the northern half of lake like Nipigon River. The scenery was very beautiful, and we decided to have lunch sitting on the bedrock on the shore.
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| The beautiful clouds |
At the junction before Nipigon, we turned west, and the same road was shared by #11 and #17. It was not only beautiful to see all the fall colour on the ground, but was also interesting to watch the attractive cloud formations. Its edge was like the smearing in wet-to-wet watercolour.
We were very happy after we found easily and checked benchmark 963001 at Thunder Bay which was located beside HW #17. Since it was only 14:30, it was too early to find lodgings in the area. According to my previous search on the Internet, the next large town would be a few hours driving away, and we decided to drive on. At the beginning, the highway was newly expanded and was divided. After passing a few traffic lights, the new construction finished and it was back to the condition of the old highway.
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| Moose Hill on HW#61 |
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| HW #61 near Pigeon River Provincial Park |
We continued to drive straight on the same road and passed a large pulp mill. The scenery along this road had the best colour and was more beautiful. We stopped on the roadside south of Moose Hill to take photos of the beautiful colours on the hill. And we did it again near Crooks. Ching mentioned that she saw a sign indicating 35 km to the US border. I either didn't pay any attention or thought that there was another road further down for going to US, and continued driving. Soon, it was too late to do anything when we passed the Canadian border, and stopped queuing for US custom. I explained to the US custom officer of our mistake, and demanded that we would be allowed to take a U-turn and return to Canada. He friendly said that I was not the first one making that mistake, but by regulation, we had to get inside the office because they had to check our passports. The other officer took over, and I thought that it should be done rather quickly. I started to have the resentment when he started to ask where I was going to, for what purpose and to see whom etc. I thought that I only wanted to take a U-turn, why you wanted to ask me all those irrelevant questions. It took him some time (it was long for me) playing in front of the computer, and finally gave us back our passport and let us go. I was not happy and took the passport and left without saying thank you. And I explained it again when we crossed the Canadian border, again the officer said that I was not the first one, and commented that there was a lack of road sign. Later I was told of the same story by the gas station attendant. And finally, the hotel owner where we stayed told me that once a drug trafficker made the same mistake and the US custom found drugs in his car.
The same road that we had travelled after checking the benchmark pillar was shared by #11, #17 and #61. At one intersection, we should have turned west on a traffic light to continue driving on HW #11 and #17, and without turning, it would remain to be #61 to the US border. We wasted over one hour for this, and fortunately, we were close to the time zone border, and the day light was still very bright at 18:00 Eastern Daylight Saving Time (Ottawa time), and we decided to continue driving. We made a few stop checking the motels along the road. Two were opened but we didn't like it, a few were closed. We were probably in the reservation area, many motels in this area were own and run by the native. We started to get worry if we could not find anything before dark. Fortunately, the last one we check was Parkview Motel before Upsala town. The owner looked like a Scotch. The room was simple but was very clean, we liked it and stayed. It had Wi-fi but no phone.
We drove 582 km today.
Monday, 10-10-2011
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| Picnic ground west of Upsala |
After leaving Upsala, the road shoulders were mostly covered by lichens. Its white and light gray colour provided a strong contrast to the brown grasses and other colour of leaves in the woods We stopped at a beautiful lake side picnic ground after driving only for only half an hour. It had beautiful pine trees and was very photogenic. We were driving through the lake area of western Ontario. One could see on the map that the whole area was covered by large and small of lakes. However, the road was mostly away from any lakes and we seldom saw any of them. Ahead of me was a new pickup truck towing a large speed boat. When I passed it, I noticed a large moose horn was standing upside from the cargo box of the truck. The owner must just come back from a successful hunting trip.
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| Bee Lake |
The landscape became more interesting after we passed Winnage Lake Provincial park as the road cut through the bedrocks. We stopped at Bee Lake for a break. It had granite rocky shore separating the dark blue of the lake water and the colours of the trees on land. It was beautiful. Some people were returning to their cars by boat after spending the weekend in their cottages which were visible from the road. The road cut deeper into the bedrocks, and the scenery became more spectacular as we approached Kenora and beyond.
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| The flat landscape as we entered Manitoba |
There was a tourist office at the Ontario border, but it was close, on the Manitoba side of the border, the office was open, and we had our lunch there. The cloud started to move in, and light rain started when we left. It continued for the rest of the day.
The land started to become flat as we approached Winnipeg. We could see the horizon on all around us with nothing blocking our view. The sky was really like an upside down bowl. We took HW#100 which was a bypass around the city, and saw a garbage dump site beside the highway like a small hill. Although earth had been used to cover the garbage, but plastic bags hang on the fences, the trees and everything in the area.
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| Land erosion in Beaudry Provincial Park |
We went to check benchmark 89R001at Beaudry Provincial Park. We took Robin Blvd (Road #241) west, but didn’t see any sign of the park along the road, and started to wonder if we had made a mistake. It was farming area and we saw no people on the road. Finally we passed an area with some new houses and se stopped and asked for direction. The park was further west down the road. It was a small natural park to demonstrate the interaction of Assiniboine River with the land, and the vegetation and the animals in the prairie. I only saw people came to walk their dogs. The benchmark pillar was behind the high dike protecting the farmland. We had to climb up the dike to see it.
We stop at Portage la Prairie and stayed in Super 8 motel for the night.
Tuesday, 11-10-2011
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| A flock of Canadian geese |
The prairie is not really all flat. It is mostly slightly undulating. We saw many large metallic cylinders in the farm. They were probably for storing grain or others. Suddenly we saw a very large flock of birds in the sky. We were used to see large flocks of sterling in the sky but this one was different. As we got closer, we heard the large noises, and saw a large mass of thousands of Canadian geese flying en masses like starling. They had lost their tidy and simple flying formations that we were familiar with. They were like marching soldiers suddenly was given order to push into enemy line. It was really very impressive.
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| Train on the prairie |
We saw small grove of trees, and there were many deer crossing signs along the highway. We were doubtful if there were really any deer due to the lack of any large size wood area. We turned into a side road to check benchmark 95R500 at Brandon, and suddenly a family of 5 deer crossed the road in front of us from the low bushes on the side of the road.
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| Beautiful farm in the prairie |
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| Dirt road |
In Ontario, we were not allow to cross any divided highway even though the crossing roads exist. They were there for the police and work crews. But there was no such a restriction in the prairie probably due to the needs of the farmers.In many occasions, we saw long cargo trains running beside us.
Two fairly new pickup trucks were in a gas station. There were hand operated pump and tank in the cargo box of each truck. A man was transferring the contents of tank from one truck to the other. I wondered why he wanted to do that. We were driving on Trans Canada HW #1 and searched for signs of Road #619 and could not find it. We finally turned into a gravel road near Indian Head east of Regina where the map indicated that it should be. We drove for about 30 km to look for benchmark 90V113 near Kendal.
The scene of the valley was really outstanding. It was much more beautiful than the scenery we saw in Bufalo Jump Park in Alberta with Fong. Probably the fall colour had made the scenery much more beautiful. I especially like the setting of a farmhouse complex in the middle of nowhere, and was surround by undulating hills. We found the benchmark, and then continued to drive on the same road. I saw a larger rock in the middle of the road; I was hesitated, and ended up driving over the rock. I heard a loud bang, but was not sure of what I had hit it. I stopped but it was not convenient to check under the car due to the soft and wet road surface and deep ruts. Fortunately, we soon reach the junction of this dirt road with HW #48. The road surface was harder and level. I got out checking under the car and finding no sign of leaking. At this junction, I saw the road sign #619. For some reason, the sign for this class of road was not posted along HW #1. We turned west on HW#48 toward Regina. The exhaust system might be damaged and produced large noise.
Originally we plan to check another benchmark 90V107 near Lajord further down the road toward Regina. But it was on another gravel road, and we decided to cancel it and drove straight to Regina. We plan to continue driving tomorrow, and will fix the car after we get to Calgary.
We stayed in Comfort Inn near the corner of Prince of Wales Drive and Victoria Avenue.
Wednesday, 12-10-2011
I woke up early, and checked the Internet for the location of Toyata dealer and Canadian Tire. There were two reviews of the later store, one was bad and one was good. But I decided to go to the Canadian Tire because it was very close to the Comfort Inn where we stayed. We checked out after breakfast and went to check the car. We arrived there at slightly pass eight, and there were already 5 people in the waiting room. The staff was very friendly, and promised me that he would check my car as soon as possible. The mechanic invited me to take a look under the car to show me the source of the large rattling noise. In front of the muffler, there was a piece of steel bar under the exhaust pipe, it was to prevent the pipe from falling when it was broken. When I ran over the rock yesterday, the top of the rock hit this bar and bent it to make it touched the pipe. He just bent it back using a large pliers. I was surprised that the underside of the car was now clean even after going through that dirty and wet gravel road. Since the car was up on the lift, I asked the staff to rotate its tires. He took a look at it and told me not to waste my money. I would need new tires for the rear wheels by next summer. I expected the bill would be at least $50, but it turned out only $11. The staff confirmed of what I already knew that if the noise persisted when the car was idle, then the problem was mostly the exhaust system, but if the noise appeared only when the car was moving, then the car was having a serious and big mechanical problems. We were happily to be on the road again at 9 am.
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| Sodium sulphate factory in Chaplain |
It was foggy soon after we left Regina. In the prairie, they have installed gates at the major intersection of HW #1. I thought it was for closing the highway when the weather was really bad. We drove for about an hour and the frog had cleared. Half an hour later, we stopped at an observation tower beside lake in Chaplain. The shore of the lake was covered with a thick layer of white sodium sulphate, and nearby was a factory to refine it.
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| Trans Canada Highway in the prairie |
We found easily benchmarks 94V051at Swift Current and later 94V050 at Maple Creek, and the last one before Calgary was A481655 at Brooks. The instruction indicated that it was on the south side of HW #1, 17 km west of Brooks, or 9.5 km west of a junction with HW #36. Since the distant away from the junction was close to ten and was easier to remember, I decided to check the distant on the odometer after we pass the junction, but I couldn't find it. I asked Ching to help me to look for the benchmark pillar on the side of the road. I kept on driving, and somehow I felt that I must have missed the junction. I was not too happy when Ching was distracted by something else instead of concentrating to look for the pillar. I tried to remember the distant from Brooks but was not certain of it. I finally gave up and decided to take a U-turn on the next crossing. In the prairie, it was allowed to do this, and in fact, there was almost no bridge for road overpass at junction. They only used stop sign. I was a little scary when I saw a big trailer truck or a farm tractor crossing HW #1 not far from me. They also harvest the hay on the roadside of the divided highway. When I stopped at the median I saw the pillar was waiting for me at the corner on the other side of the road. We were very happy. If I made the U-turn too early, I would be returning to Brooks empty hand.
We arrived in Calgary at nearly 9 pm.
The price of gas in dollars per litre on the road varies:
Ottawa = 1.270
Rouyn Noranda = 1.264
Hearst = 1.349
Nipigon = 1.237
Thunder Bay = 1.314
Kenora = 1.259
Brandom = 1.109
Indian Head = 1.239
Herbert = 1.199
Brooks = 1.109
The chain motels like Comfort Inn, Super 8 was about $100/night, and a simple independent motel was about $50 to $70. Some of them were good and some we didn't want to stay after inspection. Many of them were closed for the season and one had to plan properly because some stretches of the road had no service for many hours.
The road was good, and it becomes divided in the prairie. Many trucks were seen only when we were near Thunder Bay. There was not really anything special to see along the road. The scenery was about the same as what we would see on the road to Toronto. However, the spectacular golden colour of the poplar trees could only be seen in the fall in northern and colder part of the country. We bought foods and ate lunch at the picnic ground on the road side. It saved money and time, and felt good. We made frequent stops in beautiful spots to take photos and did a little exploration. The checking of benchmark was also interesting to break the monotony of driving. We drove about 600 km/day.
Sunday, 23-10-2011
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| Seen from HW#22 |
We left home at about 9 am this morning after having the delicious French toast with avocado prepared by Fong. On Jeremy suggestion, we decided to take HW #22 south, and then joint HW#3 going west. There was benchmark 946011 on the road outside of Calgary that I liked to check, and we were supposed to exit MacLeod Trail at 242 Avenue, but we missed the exit and decided not to turn back. We took HW#7 and joined HW#22 at Black Diamond. The road was more hilly and scenic, and had a good view of the Rocky.
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| Crownest camping ground |
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| Turtle Mountain |
We turned west into HW#3 at Lundbreck. The view along the road was gorgeous. The poplar and the larch leaves had turned into bright golden colour, and the whole road and mountain were covered with this colour. It was certainly more interesting driving at this time than in the summer. We stop at a community camp ground in Crownest wanting to go to washroom, but it was close. We ended up going to a small Texaco gas station next to it. I asked the attendant to fill up the tank and then went to the washroom. The attendant was over 60 with a long white bear and wore a rather dirty cloth. The cashier was a young man over 30, and he told me as I passed him that the bill for my gas was $42. I felt that it was more than what I had expected, and thought that the gas in this small town was very expensive. I paid using my visa card, and he gave me a receipt. I noticed that the receipt didn't show the amount of gas and the price per litre, but I didn't suspect of any wrong doing. I got the habit of writing down the odometer reading when I filled up the gas tank, and so I went to the gas pump intending to copy down the information missing from the receipt. But I could not find any display of $42 on the pump, and went inside to ask how much gas had been filled in the tank. The older attendant went out to show me on the pump the amount of gas, but the price on that pump was $22 not $42. He then said he made a mistake and went inside to tell the cashier. I followed him, and the cashier gave me back $20 in cash with no hesitation. So next time be careful of what you pay.
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| Railway passing the slides lying on the valley floor |
After joining HW#3, we were practically driving through the mountain passes one after the other. We passed the Frank Slide which was the largest slide in Canada and happened in 1903. A big chunk of the Turtle Mountain had been severed from its top like a molar was losing a piece of its edge after biting something hard. A wave of large rocks were flushed up to the high slope of the other mountain across and remained there till now. An observation centre had been built on the site to let people see the devastation of the slides. After that we saw some more sight of landslides but nothing was close to it.
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| Fishermen casting their rods |
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| Beautiful valley |
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| Eroded peak of a mountain |
We passed many ski slopes and the town of Femie, and we stopped on the bank of the Elk River when we saw fishermen were wading the water casing their fishing rods. The river had gravel bed and was well known for its cutthroat trout. The scenery was excellent with the golden colour of poplar extending from the river bank all the way to the slope of the high mountain across the river. It must be a great pleasure to fish here even if not being able to catch anything. We stopped at another beautiful spot further down the road. The river was meandering, and the river bed became much wider and had many small bars and islands. The river was brushing at the foot of hills and valleys arranged like a pile of bowls after washing the dishes. It was the paradise for photographers. We were driving along a narrow Elk River valley surrounded by high mountain ranges, and we saw the snow covered Mount Broadwood like a thousand layers cake sprinkled with icing sugar. An old land slide had produced a steep cliff on the face of the mountain, and exposed a huge hole near its top. The debris from the landslide helped to encourage the deforestation of the mountain slope, and it was now covered with green coniferous forest interspersed with the bright golden larch. One peak was particularly spectacular. A large and tall rod of rock remained standing upright at its top while the remaining slope had erode away. We got out of it at Elka and entered a broad and hilly Kootenay River valley. After crossing the river north of Wardner, we were surprised to see the spectacular view of a chain of snow covered mountain peaks at Bull River.
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| West of Stagleap Provincial Park |
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| Mist near Nelson |
We were driving on a highland densely covered by green and golden colour forests. We passed Moyie Lake, and continued to drive along the narrow Moyie River valley. We soon got out of the valley and crossed the famous Kootenay River valley near Creston. We passed the town, and continued on HW#3. I followed the road sign indicating that I should turn left (south), but soon I saw another sign indicating that I was on HW #21 going to the US border. I had a bad experience before in Thunder Bay, and decided not to proceed and turned back to the first road sign. It was a correct turn, and we continued. Soon we saw road #21 branched out from HW#3. After crossing the big valley, we entered a narrow valley of one small tributary of the Kootenay River, and started to climb again. We were surrounded by densely forested high mountains. The road continued on a high mountain pass, and we climbed up high on the mountain slope. West of Stagleap Provincial Park, the road cut deep through the bedrocks at an elevation of 1,600 m. Near the end, the road made a broad turn around Lost Mountain and turned north-west from south-east near the border. At the next junction, we turned north into the road shared by #3 and #6 along Salmo River valley. We continued on HW#6 after Salmo, and we were started to be surrounded by heavy mists and cloud as we got closer to Nelson.
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| Nelson |
Min and Keith had Swiss friends when they lived in Bern. They move to Nelson to run a Bed and Breakfast business. Everyone suggested to us that we should visit Nelson and stay in this BB. We drove through the city centre at 6 pm and could not find any gas station or motel. I kept on driving and passed behind a large complex. I suspected that it could be the rear of a mall. We drove to the end and turn around, and it was a mall with a Save on Food supermarket. I call Keith friend using the public phone. She was on vacation in Salt Spring Island, and the BB was run by their assistant during this low season. She offered to call her assistant to arrange for our stay in their BB, but I told her that the main purpose for us wanting to stay in their BB was to meet them, and would not want to bother their assistant for any help. They told us that the closest hotel to where we were was Prestige Inn. It was practically next to the mall. The hotel receptionist gave me $30 discount for senior, and it was a good deal.
There was not much traffic on #22 when we left Calgary, and on #3 when we cross the Rocky, and there was almost no trucks. They were two lanes highway but the normal speed limit was 100 km/hr. In Ontario, the speed limit for this class of highway was only 80.
Monday, 24-10-2011
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| Nelson |
Nelson is located at the western end of an arm of the Kootenay Lake. We had a balcony outside of our hotel room, and when we opened the drapery of the sliding door in the morning, the colourful hill across the lake came into view. We walked along the lake to another newly built sister hotel to have breakfast. We got a $10 coupon a person for having breakfast in a restaurant in the hotel. We enjoyed the view and took many pictures along the way. The city was built on a hill in the bank of the lake, and for the first time on this trip, we saw many maples, oaks and other trees that made the colour more spectacular. Many of the houses on the hill gave me an impression that they might be BB. We had a big breakfast, and the total bill was $45 minus $20 coupons. We walked to the city centre a few blocks away. But there was nothing interesting and walked back to the hotel to check out. We left Nelson at 10:30.
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| Columbia River joining Kootenay River |
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| Blueberry Creek seen from the lookout |
We continued to drive westward on HW#6 along the narrow Kootenay River valley. We passed the Bonnington Falls where there was an old hydro power station. and then turned south into #3A at Plamor Junction. After passing the West Kootenay Regional Airport, HW#3A ended at a big elevated intersection with #3. We turned into #3, and stopped on a lookout to view the meet of the Kootenay River and the Columbia River. It was cloudy and we didn't see it clearly. After driving a while, I suspected that I took a wrong turn at that intersection, but there was no road sign to confirm my suspicion. By the time we found out, we already drove a long way east on HW#3 which was also called Crownest Highway, and I didn't want to turn back. We continued on until we met the junction with HW#3B. We turned into #3B passing Trail and Rossland and re-joined #3 going west near Nancy Green Provincial Park. The detour costed us three times more in distance, but we saw snow on the ground as we went through the high mountain pass of over 1,000 metres. There were many gates on this road to allow the closure of the road in bad weather.
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| Columbia River seen from a lookout near Waneta |
The scenery started to change as we came out of the pass and turned west on HW#3. We were in a wide valley extended all the way east to Salmo where #3 joined #6 and west to Columbia River at Montrose. The road made a sharp turn toward north on the high cliff. We stopped at a lookout to view the beautiful Columbia River valley, and descended down to Waneta Junction. We crossed the river and passed Trail, and the road was shared by #3B and #22. We had to continue on #3B going north at Rossland. We followed the road sign and soon got loss in the middle of a residential area. Eventually we turned into a highway, but was not sure if we were on the right road. We lost the sense of direction due to heavy cloud and dense forest. We continued to climb up the mountain pass. Half an hour later, we were glad that we saw the sign of Nancy Green Provincial Park and met #3.
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| Forest fire in Nancy Green Provincial Park |
While we were driving through the park, first we smelled the heavy smoke and then saw it came from several burning grounds deep in the forest. The forests on the slope of the mountains had many bold areas after the trees had been cut. We were travelling on highland and we stopped after we passed a long bridge spanning a narrow and deep canyon near Paulson. We saw a narrow trail on the slop of the canyon. At one spot, the trail was cut by a small landslide. The road descended into the bottom of the canyon and continued on. We were not aware that the road was at the bottom of a steep 800 metre high cliff.
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| Reflection of clouds on Christine Lake |
The view of the Christine Lake was the most beautiful that we had seen on this trip. We rested and had lunch enjoying the view. I was particularly like to see the reflection of the clouds radiated on the lake. I was short of words to be able to give it a fair description, but I knew that I could simply just sit on the bench and spend a long idle time just staring at it.
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| Sedi-desert landscape in Kettle River valley |
We followed the Kettle River valley going west. The valley gradually broaden as we went west and became very wide as we reach the base of the kettle near Grand Forks. The river started to meander and produced a vast orchard lands. Once we were in the valley, the scenery on the south side was fertile land covered with orchards, and on the north side the valley changed into semi-desert land. The hills were mostly bared and the grassed were brown. New vineyards were started on the north side on the low hills.
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| New vineyards |
HW#3 continued its south-west-west direction, and it suddenly turned north before it touched on the US border following the contour of the hill. It was a long and climbing drive as we continually gaining altitude driving through a high mountain pass. We left the pass and entered another wide and fertile river valley at Midway. This was probably an extension or a branch of the Kettle Valley. The scenery was very much like what we had seen along the Kettle Valley east of Grand Forks: densely cultivated orchards on the south side of the road, and newly cultivated vineyards on the low slope on the north side of the road. The hills on the north side were bare and gradually trees started to growth as we went west.
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| Osoyuu seen from a lookout |
After passing Rock Creek, we left Kettle River and started climbing again and made a sharp turn around the peak of a small hill and continued on the high plateau. Half an hour later, we started descending to Osoyuu. From the top of a look-out on a high hill, we could see the town below on the shore of a lake bearing the same name. The view was gorgeous, and there were many beautiful houses on the hill overlooking the lake. We descended the steep hill with many zigzag hairpin turns. The lake had been divided into two by a causeway. The weather was sunny and dry, and the landscape was like that in a desert. Orchards especially vineyards were extensive along the shore of the lake.
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| New vineyards |
We left Osoyuu after a short break, and entered again into a semi-desert area until we were in Similameen River Valley. We saw the most newly cultivated vineyards on the bare small hills along the eastern and the northern side of the valley. The valley was much wider than the Kettle River Valley, and there were many large fruit stores along the road. We liked to stop and bought some fruits, but the time was getting late and we wanted to push on to find lodgings in Princeton. I kept thinking that if the hills along these valleys were all developed into vineyards, we would become a major wine producing country.
The scenery was getting better as the valley became narrower and we could see better of the golden colour poplars along the river. Soon we arrived in Princeton and was surprised that that was not much choice of motels in town. We settled on Pineview Motel among the large pine trees. It had Wi-fi but no telephone in room and no public phone in the lobby.
Tuesday, 25-10-2011
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| Similkameen River near Princeton |
Yesterday we were driving along Similkameen River valley. The bright golden colour of the poplar trees on the bank of the river was really very beautiful. We didn't stop to take photos because it was getting dark, and we were in a rush to Princeton. This morning, we made a special trip tracing back to outside the town, and took some photos of the river. We were glad that we did. West of Princeton, as we started climbing again, we didn't see the scene any more. The mountains were densely covered by green carnivorous. The golden colour larch appeared only occasionally and in small number on the road side. We started to see the snow capped mountain peaks again.
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| Manning Park |
We passed Manning Park, and were surprised that it had more snow on the ground and on the
trees than any other places along our route. We changed our plan and took HW#7 from Hope to stop in Harrison Hot Springs. There was no one in the public pool, and Ching didn't feel comfortable being watched closely by the two life guards, and decided to skip it. We only walked along the lake shore enjoying the beautiful scenery. The traffic on #7 started getting heavy when we were close to Mission, and we decided to take HW#11 going west to join the Trans Canada Highway. We arrived home at 2 pm.
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| Fraser River at Hope |
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| Trees in Vancouver |
There were more colours along the road as we got closer to Vancouver, but it was rather dull as many of them was the brown colour from oak trees and others. I preferred the bright and shiny golden colour of the poplars and larches. The maple and many other trees in Vancouver were just starting to change colour, therefore, we had an extended season to enjoy the fall colour.
We enjoyed the whole trip very much and a lot of the time we even forgot to turn the CD or radio on. The timing was also right, and we saw the fall colour from east to west.
More photos can be seen by searching "lku99999, photo" in Google.
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