Day 2 – Monday, July 2, 2018
Cache Creek, 100 Mile House, Lac La Hache
Today was another day of travel, our destination the provincial park campsite at Lac La Hache, north of 100 Mile House.
We left the frigid climate of Kamloops just past 10 a.m. after a yummy breakfast of eggs and toast. Yes, I have this every single day. It’s still yummy.
The weather continued to be unsettled, with cloudy skies and temperatures struggling to reach into the double digits.
We stopped to rest at the Big Bar REST AREA at the Bonaparte Plateau.
We did indeed help keep it clean.
Our next major destination was Cache Creek, where we stopped for gas. Since that’s all we did and one PetroCan station doesn’t look dramatically different than any other, I have no pictures. But here it is on Google Maps:
After that we arrived at 70 Mile House (about 262 km north of Vancouver if you could ignore all roads) and got propane. Here’s a shot of both the 70 Mile General Store (we bought a barbecue starter for $2.49) and Jeff getting propane.
And some flowers next to the highway with a handsome red 18-wheeler roaring by.
After this the weather took a turn for the wet, with the rain coming down hard enough at times that Jeff kind of regretted not putting on the new windshield wipers he bought in Kamloops.
We arrived at Lac La Hache around 2:30 p.m. and the campsite was virtually deserted, as most people were heading back from the holiday weekend while we were crazily doing the opposite. With the camper and trailer parked in stall 46, we settled in for evening, eschewing fires and barbecues because we’d be skipping out early in the a.m.
Here is Jeff going his best, “What , me worry?” look regarding the rain.
It let up shortly after we got to the camp, so we went for walking through what turned out to be a semi-abandoned trail adjacent to the campsite. This is when the mosquitoes descended to feast upon me and lo, they had a rich harvest. Keep in mind that due to the weather, I was wearing jeans, a hoodie, had the hood up and my hands shoved into the pockets. The only exposed flesh was my face and neck. Surely I would notice a parasite sucking the blood from my peripheral vision.
I did not.
I got four bites: one on my forehead, one on my cheek, one on my upper lip and one on my neck. The Calamine lotion in the trailer became my new best friend. Jeff claimed he escaped getting bitten because he “tastes bitter” to which I say, “Pfft!” and yet I admit it is a mystery. Maybe they can sense fear or something and home in on it.
I killed one in the trailer tonight using a box of Alleve, and it did in fact make me feel better. Thanks, Alleve.
With the weather no longer seeming so much like December, we ventured over to the lake itself for one of those “take in nature (and pray you don’t get devoured by mosquitoes)” walks.
This is the scary-looking culvert you go through to pass under the highway to get to the lake. I resisted the urge to start honking like a car horn—but only just barely.
The lake is very nice and filled with lots of water, just as you’d expect. Across the way was a strange and very tall tree which turned out to be a cell tower and is probably the reason we can check Facebook tonight instead of living like complete savages. I call this picture Our Lord and Savior.
Pretty pink flowers at the lake:
The day picnic and boat launch area discourages several varieties of fun. I’m guessing this sign is so big after a couple of boats collided, sending Kokanee everywhere.
In the parking lot was, of course, a van painted in homage to Woody Guthrie (available for rent).
We returned to the campsite, had a traditional home style dinner of chicken and veggies, then walked back to the lake because the sun came out, reminding us that is was actually summer. The Woody Guthrie van was gone. But in its place we saw frolicking marmots.
Finally, we settled in for the evening, with the temperature now 12ºC, downright balmy compared to earlier.
A shot of the campsite:
And later that night it rained again.
